The Science of Selecting a Jury

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Updated: 7:40 PM Feb 7, 2012 The Science of Selecting a Jury The fate of George huguely and justice for Yeardley Love will lie in the hands of 12 Charlottesville residents. And the process of selecting those jurors is a science that more and more attorneys are leaving to the experts. Posted: 5:25 PM Feb 7, 2012 Reporter: Rachel Ryan Email Address: rachel.ryan@newsplex.com

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February 7, 2012

The most important person in the courtroom Tuesday for the second day of jury selection in the George Huguely murder trial may have been the one sitting next to the attorney. Not the defendant, but the jury researcher.

The jury researcher is hired by defense attorneys to help read potential jurors by analyzing their body language and how they answer pre-drafted questions.

"It's becoming more common. It's expensive, so it's not an everyday usage, but in a lot of significant trials you can pretty much expect to see one," said Jeffrey Frederick, a jury research services director.

Potential jurors in the Huguely trial have been asked plenty of questions about college drinking and domestic violence. Frederick says that's no coincidence.

"It's obvious that domestic violence is going to be a key issue in this case. They would want to make sure there is nothing there - as the result of a past experience or their views on domestic violence - to keep jurors from being fair and impartial," he explained.

Jury researchers charge tens of thousands of dollars per case. They are typically used only by the defense in criminal cases but are commonly used by both sides in civil cases.

But do jury researchers guarantee a fair trial, or a manipulated jury like in John Grisham's best-selling novel The Runaway Jury, which was turned into a movie.

Frederick says the main goal of a jury researcher is to get inside the heads of potential jurors and determine the opinions and beliefs that will shape how they process information during a trial.

"We'll pay attention to how they answer the question, their demeanor and to the phrasing of the answer. We're paying attention to a lot and trying to distill it down to 'what does this person believe and how might that affect how they view the evidence,'" he said.

Proving that in a hazy world of guilt and innocence, perception defines reality.

Latest Comments

Posted by: citizen on Feb 8, 2012 at 02:06 AM

Rachel, as for the idea of justice take a look at the jury that was cherry picked for OJ and then ask yourself if the system actually works.

Posted by: David Location: Keswick on Feb 8, 2012 at 12:44 AM

Poetic and inaccurate. The role of the jury is not to determine whether the defendant is guilty or innocent. Instead, it is to determine whether the prosecution has met its burden of proving the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If this burden has not been met, the defendant is found "not guilty" - and "not guilty" and "innocent" are different concepts. The prosecution has the burden of proving the defendant guilty. The defense only needs to show that the prosecution has not met its burden - it does not have to prove that the defendant is innocent.

Posted by: Cville on Feb 7, 2012 at 09:19 PM

"Proving that in a hazy world of guilt and innocence, perception defines reality." So poetic. :-|

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