"The Private Lives of Jurors"

In the most recent Los Angeles Lawyer is an article exploring the legal and ethical issues of having a private investigator, investigate jurors.  (It's here.)  It's written by two associates from the best investigative firm in California, Batza & Associates.  This ancedote was especially interesting:

As part of the effort to profile jurors, some litigators hire investigators to perform what is sometimes called a drive-by. This involves a visit to, and careful observation of, a juror’s residence and neighborhood. While an investigator cannot directly contact a juror or a juror’s family members or interview a juror’s neighbors or acquaintances, a drive-by is permissible and can sometimes yield valuable information regarding the juror’s economic, cultural, and social environment. 

One investigator, for example, performed a drive-by of a juror in a high-profile tobacco industry case and observed a vehicle parked in the driveway of the juror’s home bearing a bumper sticker that read, “Cigarettes Kill!”

I'm betting the juror, during voir dire, said, "Of course I can be fair and impartial!"  Read the whole thing here.

Comments

[Aaron]

I recently had a car in my driveway that proudly declared its association with "Pizza House". But it wasn't mine. Conspicuously absent from the article is the declaration that the "Cigarettes Kills" vehicle actually belonged to a juror.