Jury Trial facts
While investigating facts about Jury Trial, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Keanu Reeves was sued for assault by a paparazzo who slipped while taking Reeves picture. It took 18 months for the case to go to trial and 1 hour for the jury to dismiss it.
The Chewbacca Defense, a legal tactic that confuses the jury rather than factually refuting the opponent's case. The term originated in an episode of "South Park" that satirized the closing argument of the O.J Simpson trial, and is now widely used.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about Jury Trial I managed to collect.
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Trial attorney Mark Lanier offered to settle an asbestos lawsuit against Carborundum for $10,000. They declined and it went to trial. The jury awarded $118,000,000.
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In 2004 Microsoft sued a law student for violating the Microsoft Office EULA by reselling an unopened package. When the student requested a trial by jury, Microsoft quickly dropped their suit.
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There is a 50 sq. mile area of the U.S. within Yellowstone National Park dubbed the "Zone of Death." Legal scholars assert that due to certain technicalities involving finding a suitable jury, a person could potentially murder someone and not have to stand trial.
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The world's first supermodel, Evelyn Nesbit, inspired her coal baron husband to shoot another man at a performance at Madison Square Garden. The trial was so full of shocking details about her relationships that a church group lobbied for a publication ban, and the jury had to be sequestered.
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Former judge Donald Thompson who was convicted of indecent exposure after he exposed himself several times during jury trials. His was witnessed using a penis pump "almost daily" during a murder trial and a "whooshing" sound could be heard on audio recordings of the proceedings.
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In criminal trials under Scots Law, they have a verdict that is either "guilty" or "not proven" (compared to "guilty" or "not guilty" in the US system). This shift in wording is monumental when a jury is involved.
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If every suspect refused to plea bargain, the judicial system would crash due to the sheer number of jury trials.
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In 1944 a 14-year-old was executed by electric chair. George Stinney Jr, a black boy, was accused of murdering 2 white girls. The trial was flimsy, and the jury decided in 10 minutes to execute the teen. In 2014, his conviction was vacated.
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Emmett Till, a 14 year old black teenager that was killed in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white female. The murderers were acquitted in trial by an all-white jury.
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At trial most of the soldiers at the Boston Massacre were found not guilty. Hugh Montgomery, the man who killed Crispus Attucks, was found guilty of manslaughter. Matthew Killroy was also found guilty of manslaughter. The rest were found not guilty because the jury decided the soldiers were provoked.
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The sixth amendment ensures people have a right to: a speedy and public trial, to legal counsel, trial by an impartial jury, and to confront their accusers.
David Bain, a man accused and convicted of murdering his mother, father, and three younger siblings when he was 22. He was acquitted after a second trial in 2009 after having spent 13 years in prison. The retrial jury took less than a day to render Bain not guilty on all five counts. - source
The trial was held in Sumner in September 1955. It lasted 5 days and the murderers were acquitted. The jury had been made up of white males only. No women or blacks had been allowed).
Abraham Lincoln used an almanac to defend his client in an 1857 murder trial. He twisted the data in the almanac to make the moon's light seem insufficient for the eye witness to have seen the crime. In some accounts, the jury laughs. In others, the witness cries and confesses to making it up.
The three laws of Magna Carta still in effect include 1) the law defending the English church's freedom and rights; 2) the law confirming customs and liberties of London and other towns in England; 3) the foundation of the concept of the right to fair trial and trial by jury.
In Winona Ryder's shoplifting trial, former Sony Studio boss Peter Guber was a potential juror. He said, "I have about as much chance of getting on this jury as the man in the moon. I only made three pictures with the lady." He was selected.
The jury trials in the State of Louisiana does not require a unanimous decision. Guilty verdicts can be reached with just 10 / 12 jurors.
On June 20th, the jury acquitted Lizzie Borden. The publicity surrounding the trial is similar to that which occurred in Bruno Hauptmann, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and OJ Simpson's trials.
The Seventh Amendment gives the right to a jury trial for any civil case over $20
If you participate in the Starbucks Rewards program you waive your right to bring any dispute against them in a class or consolidated proceeding, you also waive your right to a trial by jury.
Ancient Greece had trial by jury. However they had as many as 500 jurors as opposed to the 12 used today.
