Tip the Scales

Attorneys to Video Record Jury Selection

Video depositions aren’t even standard operating procedure for litigation (they should be) and a few progressive attorneys are taking advantage of other legal video possibility.

From the Tuscon Citizen:  http://tucsoncitizen.com/blog/view/1118

Christopher Payne had been set to go on trial beginning this week, but the judge moved it to Feb. 17 to give defense attorneys a little more time to prepare.

Usually, the pretrial hearings have been attended by Payne’s parents, a couple of reporters and the remaining few people being court staff or people helping the defense or state.

Today, there were four spectators. One man said he knew Tyler and Ariana Payne and wanted to see jury selection. Three other men also thought jury selection began today.

This case was one of several that led to an investigation into Child Protective Services practices.

If Payne is convicted, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The spectators left today before the hearing was over, one saying it wasn’t interesting enough to stay (and I wondered, “How interesting do you think jury selection is?”).

Assistant Public Defender John O’Brien, who represents Payne, argued strenuously today that he wanted Judge Richard Fields to allow the defense to videotape jurors being questioned.

O’Brien said that he and his co-counsel, Rebecca McLean, wouldn’t be able to take in all the nuances of prospective jurors’ answers in “voir dire” questioning and the videotape would help them with inflections and gestures they might miss. O’Brien said the technology was “appropriately necessary” to protect Payne’s constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury.

READ MORE: http://tucsoncitizen.com/blog/view/1118