The Volokh Conspiracy
[Orin Kerr, July 3, 2007 at 5:51pm] Trackbacks
Weird Behavior by the Padilla Jury:
Over at the Southern District of Florida blog, David Markus reports on some strange behavior being exhibited by the jury in the Jose Padilla trial: "[the] jurors showed up today all dressed up. Row one in red. Row two in white. And row three in blue. I'm not kidding. And this isn't the first time the jury has dressed up. A week back, all of the jurors (save one) wore black."
Bill Dyer (mail) (www):
It's not really that weird or uncommon, actually. Jurors are instructed that they can't talk about the case until the evidence is concluded. But they begin to bond, and they begin to talk, and they begin to demonstrate "us (jurors) versus them (everyone else)" behavior, long before the evidence is done. It would be a mistake to infer just from this that there's some jury misconduct or tampering going on now, or likely to go on later.
7.3.2007 5:57pm
Anderson (mail) (www):
However, when they all wear T-shirts with a single letter on each, and sit so they spell out "PADILLAS DEAD", I will begin to worry they have forsaken their charge.
7.3.2007 6:03pm
Dave N (mail):
Anderson,

I loved that 12 letters, 12 jurors. And yes, I would be worried too.

I wonder what would happen if they all showed up wearing buttons with Tom Studer's picture on them.
7.3.2007 6:18pm
Bill Dyer (mail) (www):
That's merely an anagram for "A salad piddle" — clearly a comment on the quality of jury-room lunches.

Or "Alas added lip," referring to that new lawyer on the case.

"Dad -- ladies' pal" also works. "Dialed sad lap," a reference to a wrong number whilst trying to visit a telephonic stress relaxation boutique.

"Plead aid lads" -- a suggestion of a defensive strategy.

It's all in how they're arranged in the box.
7.3.2007 6:21pm
Anderson (mail) (www):
Bill Dyer now makes me worry that the jurors are al-Qaeda agents sending secret messages to Osama.
7.3.2007 6:47pm
Dave N (mail):
Anderson:

Will the tipoff be a "not guilty" verdict?
7.3.2007 6:53pm
Just an Observer:
Somebody on the panel read John Grisham's Runaway Jury, or saw the movie, and has a sense of humor.
7.3.2007 8:23pm
Randy R. (mail):
Dave: "Will the tipoff be a "not guilty" verdict?"

Not quite. The tipoff would be any verdict at all, because any verdict is prima facie evidence that it was just politically motivated and that the jurors never once even considered the evidence.
7.3.2007 8:27pm
SenatorX (mail):
"Row one in red. Row two in white. And row three in blue. I'm not kidding. And this isn't the first time the jury has dressed up. A week back, all of the jurors (save one) wore black."

I can't help but wonder about the one who wouldn't(didn't)wear black. Unless she/he happened to randomly wear a color that agreed with the red/white/blue day what was it about "black day" that produced non-compliance. Or maybe it was just random lazyness? "Oh crap, Black day!?"
7.3.2007 8:45pm
Matt Tievsky (mail):
Can someone describe how this incident is similar to events in "Runaway Jury" (the book or the movie)?
7.3.2007 10:58pm
Malvolio:
In the book, one juror was convincing other jurors to perform various trivial acts (recite the Pledge of Allegiance, look at a particular spectator, carry a magazine) to demonstrate that he could control them and thereby deliver a particular verdict.

Because it is such a crappy book (and a crappy movie I assume) I'll spoil the ending: the supposedly genius lead defense counsel pays this juror (without knowing which one he is) $10 million to deliver a acquittal, the juror uses the money to go short on the defendant corporation, and then convinced everyone else to award the plaintiff a huge settlement.
7.3.2007 11:20pm
Thomas_Holsinger:
All the jurors in the Three Stooges copyright case were wearing "I Love LA" t-shirts A few days into the trial. The jury pool broke into cheers during voir dire when counsel for one of the plaintiffs (the widow of Moe Howard) introduced himself as Bela Lugosi, Jr.
7.3.2007 11:56pm
Ryan Waxx (mail):
Well, its smart behavior by the jurors if they don't want be the ones to decide the case: otherwise it's just easy justification for a retrial (or at least, a lot easier than it otherwise might be)
7.4.2007 12:01am
R Gould-Saltman (mail):
"The jury pool broke into cheers during voir dire when counsel for one of the plaintiffs (the widow of Moe Howard) introduced himself as Bela Lugosi, Jr."

What was he SUPPOSED to call himself?
7.4.2007 1:30am
Joe Hiegel:
One might recall that the Libby jury behaved similarly (although without the rather disconcerting expression of support for an entity that happens to be a titular party); thirteen of fourteen jurors sported red shirts with large white hearts impressed on the occasion of Valentine's Day. Funnily enough, the single juror who was not so attired (a former Metropolitan Museum of Art curator for whom the display was perhaps too low-brow) was ultimately dismissed in view of her having media coverage of the case/her being a bad sport.
7.5.2007 3:19pm

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