Supreme Court Upholds Importance of Peremptory Strikes
The Supreme Court of Florida properly reversed a jury verdict in a case where counsel was forced to use a peremptory strike during jury selection on a juror who should have been stricken for cause. The...
View ArticleBloomberg Passed Up In P.I. Case
New York Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg returned to court for a second day of jury duty Tuesday, but was dismissed after attorneys passed him up while choosing a panel to hear a personal injury...
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“Prudent Probing” During Jury Selection
A $900,000 plaintiff’s verdict in a rear-end collision case was reinstated last Friday by the Fifth District Court of Appeal even though two jurors had failed to disclose in voir dire that they had...
View ArticleWhitby Walks
Edgar Sylvester Whitby was prosecuted for permanently disfiguring his victim by throwing hot water on her. He was convicted of aggravated battery “by a clearly impartial jury” in an “otherwise error...
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SCOTUS Upholds Verdict of Improper Foreperson
Late last month the United States Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction of a man, Michael Rivera, who was convicted by a jury whose foreperson, Deloris Gomez, was improperly allowed to sit on the...
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Don’t Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
Potential juror Sanders may have been sleeping during jury selection. Florida law is clear that “sleeping” during voir dire is a valid race-neutral reason for striking a juror — not to wake him up,...
View ArticleTrial Judge Reversed Due to Arbitrary Time Limits on Jury Selection
A first-degree murder conviction was reversed last month due to the trial court imposing arbitrary time limits during jury selection. In Hopkins v. State, 2017 WL 2983284 (Fla. 4th DCA, July 12, 2017),...
View Article“Not Particularly Engaged” Juror Should Have Been Stricken
A trial court’s decision was reversed early in June for failing to strike a juror based on her nonverbal behavior. The Fifth District Court of Appeal held that a juror being “not particularly engaged”...
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Reversible Error to Impose Time Limits on Voir Dire
Last week the Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed an aggravated battery conviction based on a trial court improperly limiting the amount of time an attorney could ask questions to a prospective...
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Boston Marathon Bomber’s Death Sentence Vacated due to Possible Juror Bias
Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhorkar Tsarnaev’s death sentence due to a trial judge not properly vetting a juror for possible...
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