Charles S. Clark
The Washington Lawyer
January 2001
Savvy Jury Selection: Lessons from the Experts

EXCERPTS

"Attorneys think they can just go in and try to get you the best jury, but you go in with only three to six strikes," says Gillian Drake, founder of the Bethesda, Maryland consulting firm On Trial Associates. "What is important is not selectoin but deselection."

LESSON 2: POSE IMPARTIAL QUESTIONS THAT PROVOKE A MEATY RESPONSE

The risk of alienating judge and jurors is enough for many attorneys to turn to jury consultants, says Gillian Drake. "I've not found a lawyer who can sculpt a question that is impartial both semantically and substantively and that will blindside a juror" into opening up, she says. "It's a gift."

LESSON 3: EXPLOIT NONVERBAL CLUES BUT ONLY IN PROPER CONTEXT

Gillian Drake recently recommended striking a female juror in a criminal trial in Virginia who, because she wore a tidy matching pink skirt, headband, and sweater, was thought unlikely to tolerate the seamy side of life that would come out in the trial. "You only get a glimpse for a second, so you look fo warning signals, for clues," she says. "If the defense needs someone who is detail-oriented, you look at dress or speech for clues on whether jurors think conceptually or in detail. You look for behavior that affirms or downplays the themes you are trying to unearth."

LESSON 4: STRIKE JURORS IN ACCORDANE WITH THE NEEDS OF YOUR CASE

"The ones you want to root out," says Gillian Drake, "are those who want to stay on the jury not for good reasons, such as someone in a medical case who has an ax to grind against doctors. Then there are the guys who hate corporations. The sometimes lie and say they can be fair, so they are hard to keep off the jury."

Most important, Drake says, if you are the prosecution in a criminal case, "You don't want someone who is not part of a community. But if you are the defense, you might want a maverick. And you've got to know whether your jurors are leaders or followers. If they are talkative leaders, you want to make sure they are demographically positive for you."