By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: As the potential juror sits with the others in the courtroom, the thoughts running through his head might go something like this: “I am being tested on whether I qualify for jury duty…so if that’s what I want, it means giving the right answers…and ‘right’ in this situation means the answers […]
Voir Dire: Create Your Own ‘Candor Script’ Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Juneteenth is now a federal holiday, and even as many would prefer action on voting rights protection, equal access to education and healthcare, and police reform, the symbol is still important. It highlights both the progress and the work to be done on race in this country. In our courtrooms,
Voir Dire: Select on Attitudes, not Race Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Now that the coronavirus vaccinations are moving toward the point of critical mass, it might be safe to think back on the early weeks of the vaccines’ roll-out. At that stage, many health officials were emphasizing the limits of the vaccine. The message went sort of like this: “It’s no
Don’t Oversell Your Limits Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: It’s an implicit mistake that lawyers can sometimes make. They’ll tacitly believe and behave as though, “Reasonable people think like I do.” The trouble is, that isn’t true. Other lawyers think like you do, but lawyers have been selected and trained to favor high-analytical ability. We simply can’t project that on society.
Don’t Take Analytical Thinking for Granted Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We know that perceptions of facts can be filtered by a strong partisan lens. Differing narratives regarding the recent election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have brought that into sharp relief. While a majority of Americans consider the issue settled, a surprisingly large minority does not. Based on a
Guard Against “Expressive Response” in Voir Dire Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Many Republicans believe that President Trump lost the election only due to widespread and systemic voter fraud. When Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, a Trump voter and donor, says that Democrat Joe Biden won on a legitimate count (and recount) of the votes, he is part of the
Watch Out for Self-Sealing Belief Systems Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: These are stressful times, and there are many reasons to expect that your jury pool in the near future is going to be a little stressed out. In the article, “The Pandemic Juror,” (Wilson 2020) a University of Tennessee law professor noted what many of us have observed: Jurors who
Understand Juror Anxiety Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: We tend to think of “bias” as it applies to juries, but courts can have their own deep-seated practices. For example, judges will often prefer voir dire questions that focus on the juror’s own assessment of the influence of a given attitude or experience, not on the actual attitude or
Voir Dire on Content, Not Effect: Lessons from the Tsarnaev Appeal Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In courtrooms making tentative steps toward reopening to in-person jury trials, some of the parties have called for increased use of juror questionnaires, ideally filled out ahead of time either by mail or online. This makes a great deal of sense in, at least, reducing the time spent during voir dire,
Juror Questionnaires: Expect Some Deception Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: What do your potential jurors think about the necessity to follow the law at all times? While it won’t apply in all cases, it will apply to many. Recent protests against police brutality across the country have led to scores of non-violent protestors being arrested for crimes such as “failure
Voir Dire on Civil Disobedience Read More »