By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The case of The United States versus John Edwards has everything: politics, sex, life, and death. The former vice-presidential and presidential candidate acquired a mistress and fathered a child during the campaign, behind the back of his cancer-stricken wife, then called upon a couple of key supporters to pay vast sums of […]
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: While researching for a previous post, I was reading Professor Dru Stevenson’s (2012) article in the George Mason Law Review, and I came across a jarring sentence asserting that “modern approaches to jury selection” focus on biases relating to factors “such as race and gender.” The author then followed up
Don’t Select Your Jury Based on Demographics: A Skeptical Look at JuryQuest Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Last Friday, Dharun Ravi was found guilty on all fifteen charges of invading privacy and committing a hate crime against his Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi. Ravi had used his webcam to spy on Clementi having an intimate encounter with another man, and then advertising the event in Twitter promising
Try the Consequences, Not Just the Claims Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I’ve sometimes been asked, “what is the effect of the attorney’s gender to a jury?” It would sure be nice to be able to reply, “it doesn’t matter — a good attorney is a good attorney.” But what does the data say? Last week, the Forbes-affiliated “She Negotiates” blog reported on a survey
Female Attorneys: Expect (But Don’t Accept) a Subtle Bias in the Courtroom Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As we turn the page on a new year, it is a good time to look back on the trials of 2011. The year had its share of high profile cases from the ‘second times a charm’ prosecution of Rod Blagojevich, to the conviction of Dr. Conrad Murray, and even the grand jury phases
Apply “Social Listening” To Your Case Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Sometimes you come across a document that challenges your view of basic human goodness. The stomach-churning Grand Jury Report relating to the Pennsylvania State football scandal is one such document. What stands out, based on the allegations, is just how many times former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was caught. In locker rooms, workout
Define “Reasonable Person” As Your Jurors’ Idealized Version of Themselves Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Here is some practical advice for capital defense jury selection that carries important implications for civil cases as well. It is well established that the process of “death qualifying” a capital jury, by weeding out those have a moral or other objection to the death penalty, ends up biasing the panel
“Life Qualify” Your Capital Jury (And Balance Out Your Civil Panel Too) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As we enter the 20th day of protesters’ continued occupation of Wall Street, and sit-ins spread to similar sites across the country, what stands out the most is the sheer variety of their causes. The first declaration to emerge from the Wall Street encampment highlights concerns ranging from home foreclosures, to government bailouts, faulty products, medical
Bad Company: Investigate the Sources of Anti-Corporate Attitudes Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Judges, arbitrators, mediators: legally trained and neutral minds, without the juror’s baggage of selective perception, predisposition, and bias, right? Not really. In the previous two posts on motivated thinking and instrumental argument, I wrote that an audience’s reasoning and advocacy is driven by emotions and not just by logic. While a jury’s decision making
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm – Lucy, for the umpteenth time, holds the football and invites Charlie Brown to kick it with the promise that this time, she won’t pull the ball at the last moment and send him flying. His response: “I don’t mind your dishonesty, half as much as I mind your opinion
Avoid Condescension and Other Sins of Legal Argument: Know Your ‘Second Persona’ Read More »