Evaluating the Jury Questionnaire for the George Floyd Case

In a recent interview with WCCO News, I was asked to provide insight into the jury questionnaire recently distributed to potential jurors for the George Floyd case.

In a high profile, media-saturated case involving racial issues, the jury questionnaire may be more helpful for the defense rather than the prosecution.

First, it encourages people who favor the side of prosecution to speak too freely about their preconceived opinions on the case, which can serve to document why the person should be struck in a cause challenge. For instance, in this questionnaire, there are many questions about how one feels about the case, the protests, the police, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Second, it provides backup for potential Batson Challenges in which one side may be accused of striking potential jurors for racial reasons. In this case, one might think that Black jurors would be more on the side of the prosecution and White jurors on the side of the defense. If one side is accused of making racially motivated strikes, the jury questionnaire may be used to show that – “No, really, we struck this juror due to her answers to these specific questions, not due to race.”

In the George Floyd case, the use of a jury questionnaire, even a well-balanced one, may be more favorable to the defense side.


Subscribe to Receive
our Latest News

Loading

Recent Content

DOAR

DOAR’s Natalie Gordon helps lawyers uncover juror attitudes on high-stakes matters

DOAR Consultant Natalie Gordon, Ph.D., is a well-regarded jury consultant with experience working on complex civil and white collar criminal cases. She has contributed to many high-stakes matters, including U.S. v. Tom Barrack, Ambac v. Countrywide, US v. Jayson Penn, Monster Energy Co. v. Vital Pharmaceuticals, and SEC v. AT&T et. al., to name a […]
DOAR

Rising Talent Leslie O’Neill Uses her Creative Instincts and Social Sciences Background to Help Trial Teams Achieve Success

DOAR’s Leslie O’Neill is no stranger to hard work. Driven by her passion for the law and psychology, she thrives on working with seasoned trial attorneys and fellow DOAR consultants on complex, high-stakes litigation. “I take pride in working with clients face-to-face to develop impactful, persuasive trial presentations,” O’Neill said. “There is no better feeling […]
DOAR

DOAR’s Kristy Park Takes on the Mantle with a Dedication to Delivering Excellence

DOAR’s Kristy Park is a rising star in trial consulting and has worked on a wide range of complex cases with top trial teams across the nation. On every case, she utilizes her background in anthropology and blends it with the depth of knowledge she’s gained working on high-stake matters to help attorneys on cases […]

The trial consultants trusted by the nation’s leading trial lawyers.