Report on Seven Experiments Conducted by District Court Judges in the Second Circuit

• NCJ Number: 109666
• Journal: New York University Law Review Volume: 60 Issue: 3 Dated: (June 1985) Pages: 423-497
• Author(s): L B Sand; S A Reiss
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 75 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program Description (Demonstrative)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: The content of this article was issued previously in substantially similar form as the Report of the Committee on Juries of the Judicial Council of the Second Circuit.

Annotation

This article reports the unique experiments of the Second Circuit Committee on Juries, under whose direction judges adopted seven innovative procedures to see whether they would improve the functioning of the jury.

Abstract

The report describes the procedures, summarizes the reactions of the judges and attorneys involved, and provides the instructions and questionnaires used to elicit participants' assessments of the procedures' feasibility and utility. The seven procedures tested were: (1) permitting a 10-minute voir dire by counsel, (2) individual voir dire questioning of jury panelists conducted out of the presence of the other panelists, (3) preinstructing the jury, (4) permitting jurors to submit questions for witnesses, (5) permitting juror note taking, (6) furnishing jurors with a postdelivery copy of the charge, and (7) furnishing jurors with a tape recording of the charge. Although the experiments offer some empirical support for implementation, their primary purpose was to allay judges' concerns and encourage further experimentation. Tables and 118 footnotes. (Author abstract modified)