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Articles 1 - 30 of 37
Full-Text Articles in Law
As Muddy As The Mississippi River: An Examination Of Louisiana Jury Venire Creation Procedures, Kristen M. Vicknair
As Muddy As The Mississippi River: An Examination Of Louisiana Jury Venire Creation Procedures, Kristen M. Vicknair
William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice
Americans expect their constitutional rights to be respected by the federal, state, and local governments, but a lack of transparency on a government’s behalf prevents Americans from being able to trust their governments fully. This Note demonstrates the astounding lack of transparency in Louisiana parishes’ jury venire creation procedures, which prevent Louisianans from trusting that their communities are represented by a fair cross-section on jury venires. The same lack of transparency restricts any constitutional challenges of the representation on appeal, as the major test for the fair cross-section, the Duren test, requires a showing of systematic exclusion on the government’s …
Following Oregon’S Trail: Implementing Automatic Voter Registration To Provide For Improved Jury Representation In The United States, Julie A. Cascino
Following Oregon’S Trail: Implementing Automatic Voter Registration To Provide For Improved Jury Representation In The United States, Julie A. Cascino
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Silence Penalty, Jeffrey Bellin
The Silence Penalty, Jeffrey Bellin
Faculty Publications
In every criminal trial, the defendant possesses the right to testify. Deciding whether to exercise that right, however, is rarely easy. Declining to testify shields defendants from questioning by the prosecutor and normally precludes the introduction of a defendant’s prior crimes. But silence comes at a price. Jurors penalize defendants who fail to testify by inferring guilt from silence.
This Article explores this complex dynamic, focusing on empirical evidence from mock juror experiments—including the results of a new 400-person mock juror simulation conducted for this Article—and data from real trials. It concludes that the penalty defendants suffer when they refuse …
It's Still Too Easy To Push Blacks, Minorities Off Of Juries, Jeffrey Bellin
It's Still Too Easy To Push Blacks, Minorities Off Of Juries, Jeffrey Bellin
Popular Media
No abstract provided.
Copyright Law’S Origin Stories, Laura A. Heymann
Group Agency And Legal Proof; Or, Why The Jury Is An “It”, Michael S. Pardo
Group Agency And Legal Proof; Or, Why The Jury Is An “It”, Michael S. Pardo
William & Mary Law Review
Jurors decide whether certain facts have been proven according to the applicable legal standards. What is the relationship between the jury, as a collective decision-making body, on one hand, and the views of individual jurors, on the other? Is the jury merely the sum total of the individual views of its members? Or do juries possess properties and characteristics of agency (for example, beliefs, knowledge, preferences, intentions, plans, and actions) that are in some sense distinct from those of its members? This Article explores these questions and defends a conception of the jury as a group agent with agency that …
Sentencing Roulette: How Virginia’S Criminal Sentencing System Is Imposing An Unconstitutional Trial Penalty That Suppresses The Rights Of Criminal Defendants To A Jury Trial, Caleb R. Stone
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Juries, Social Norms, And Civil Justice, Jason M. Solomon
Juries, Social Norms, And Civil Justice, Jason M. Solomon
Faculty Publications
At the root of many contemporary debates and landmark cases in the civil justice system are underlying questions about the role of the civil jury. In prior work, I examined the justifications for the civil jury as a political institution, and found them wanting in our contemporary legal system.
This Article looks closely and critically at the justification for the civil jury as an adjudicative institution and questions the conventional wisdom behind it. The focus is on tort law because the jury has more power to decide questions of law in tort than any other area of law. The Article …
The Jury And Participatory Democracy, Alexandra D. Lahav
The Jury And Participatory Democracy, Alexandra D. Lahav
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
Introduction: The Civil Jury As A Political Institution, Jason M. Solomon, Paula Hannaford-Agor
Introduction: The Civil Jury As A Political Institution, Jason M. Solomon, Paula Hannaford-Agor
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
Jury Ignorance And Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin
Jury Ignorance And Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
Opening Remarks, Akhil Reed Amar
Fiduciary Principles And The Jury, Ethan J. Leib, Michael Serota, David L. Ponet
Fiduciary Principles And The Jury, Ethan J. Leib, Michael Serota, David L. Ponet
William & Mary Law Review
This Essay argues that because jurors exercise state authority with wide discretion over the legal and practical interests of other citizens, and because citizens repose trust and remain vulnerable to jury and juror decisions, juries and jurors share important similarities with traditional fiduciary actors such as doctors, lawyers, and corporate directors and boards. The paradigmatic fiduciary duties—those of loyalty and care—therefore provide useful benchmarks for evaluating and guiding jurors in their decisionmaking role. A sui generis public fiduciary duty of deliberative engagement also has applications in considering the obligations of jurors. This framework confirms much of what we know about …
Diversity And The Civil Jury, Christina S. Carbone, Victoria C. Plaut
Diversity And The Civil Jury, Christina S. Carbone, Victoria C. Plaut
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
Embedded Experts On Real Juries: A Delicate Balance, Shari Seidman Diamond, Mary R. Rose, Beth Murphy
Embedded Experts On Real Juries: A Delicate Balance, Shari Seidman Diamond, Mary R. Rose, Beth Murphy
William & Mary Law Review
“Experts” appear in the modern American courtroom on the jury as well as in the witness box, posing a dilemma for the legal system by offering a potentially valuable resource and an uncontrolled source of influence. Courts give ambiguous guidance to jurors on how they should handle their expertise in the deliberation room. On the one hand, jurors are told that they should “decide what the facts are from the evidence presented here in court.” By direct implication, then, jurors should not use outside information to evaluate the evidence. Jurors are also told, however, that they should “consider all of …
Political Decision Making By Informed Juries, William E. Nelson
Political Decision Making By Informed Juries, William E. Nelson
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
An Exploration Of "Noneconomic" Damages In Civil Jury Awards, Herbert M. Kritzer, Guangya Liu, Neil Vidmar
An Exploration Of "Noneconomic" Damages In Civil Jury Awards, Herbert M. Kritzer, Guangya Liu, Neil Vidmar
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
Restoring The Civil Jury's Role In The Structure Of Our Government, Sheldon Whitehouse
Restoring The Civil Jury's Role In The Structure Of Our Government, Sheldon Whitehouse
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Jury As A Political Institution: An Internal Perspective, Robert P. Burns
The Jury As A Political Institution: An Internal Perspective, Robert P. Burns
William & Mary Law Review
In this Essay, I will briefly describe some of the more obvious ways in which the jury has been considered a political institution. I will then discuss the senses in which we can understand the term “political” in the context of the American jury trial. I will describe the senses in which Hannah Arendt, perhaps the most important political philosopher of the twentieth century, tried to distinguish between “the political” and the “the legal” and the limitations of any such distinction. I will then turn to the heart of this Essay, a description of the ways in which the American …
What's It Worth? Jury Damage Awards As Community Judgments, Valerie P. Hans
What's It Worth? Jury Damage Awards As Community Judgments, Valerie P. Hans
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
Juries As Regulators Of Last Resort, Stephan Landsman
Juries As Regulators Of Last Resort, Stephan Landsman
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
Blackstone's Curse: The Fall Of The Criminal, Civil, And Grand Juries And The Rise Of The Executive, The Legislature, The Judiciary, And The States, Suja A. Thomas
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Political Puzzle Of The Civil Jury, Jason M. Solomon
The Political Puzzle Of The Civil Jury, Jason M. Solomon
Faculty Publications
At the root of many contemporary debates over the civil justice or tort system—debates over punitive damages, preemption, and tort reform more broadly—are underlying questions about the justification for the civil jury. The United States is the only country that still uses a jury in civil cases, and most civil jury trials are tort trials. The jury has more power to decide questions of law in tort than in any other area of law, so any serious discussion of tort law must have the civil jury at its center.
The debate over the jury—in both the academic literature and the …
Bargaining Inside The Black Box, Allison Orr Larsen
Bargaining Inside The Black Box, Allison Orr Larsen
Faculty Publications
When jurors are presented with a menu of criminal verdict options and they cannot reach a consensus among them, what should they do? Available evidence suggests they are prone to compromise—that is, jurors will negotiate with each other and settle on a verdict in the middle, often on a lesser-included offense. The suggestion that jurors compromise is not new; it is supported by empirical evidence, well-accepted by courts and commentators, and unsurprising given the pressure jurors feel to reach agreement and the different individual views they likely hold. There are, however, some who say intrajury negotiation represents a failure of …
Is Punishment Relevant After All? A Prescription For Informing Juries Of The Consequence Of Conviction, Jeffrey Bellin
Is Punishment Relevant After All? A Prescription For Informing Juries Of The Consequence Of Conviction, Jeffrey Bellin
Faculty Publications
The American jury, once heralded as “the great corrective of law in its actual administration,” has suffered numerous setbacks in the modern era. As a result, jurors have largely become bystanders in a criminal justice system that relies on increasingly severe punishments to incarcerate tens of thousands of offenders each year. The overwhelming majority of cases are resolved short of trial and, even when trials occur, jurors are instructed to find only the facts necessary for legal guilt. Apart from this narrow task, jurors need not, in the eyes of the law, concern themselves with whether a conviction and subsequent …
Retroactivity Of New Rules Of Constitutional Law: Why The Supreme Court Should Have Overturned Warren Summerlin's Unconstitutional Death Sentence, Sarah R. Green
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
The Transformation Of The American Civil Trial: The Silent Judge, Renée Lettow Lerner
The Transformation Of The American Civil Trial: The Silent Judge, Renée Lettow Lerner
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.
Correcting Deadly Confusion: Responding To Jury Inquiries In Capital Cases, Stephen P. Garvey, Sheri Lynn Johnson, Paul Marcus
Correcting Deadly Confusion: Responding To Jury Inquiries In Capital Cases, Stephen P. Garvey, Sheri Lynn Johnson, Paul Marcus
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Rethinking The Jury, Phoebe A. Haddon
Rethinking The Jury, Phoebe A. Haddon
William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal
No abstract provided.
Religion-Plus-Speech: The Constitutionality Of Juror Oaths And Affirmations Under The First Amendment, Jonathan Belcher
Religion-Plus-Speech: The Constitutionality Of Juror Oaths And Affirmations Under The First Amendment, Jonathan Belcher
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.