Depending on the jurisdiction and the requests of the parties, alternate jurors may not know that they have been selected as alternates as opposed to actual jurors until the end of the trial when it is time to deliberate. >>Settling Cases With every hour, she felt more anxious. After a day and a half of deliberations, she saw a scrum of people camera operators and other reporters who had covered the trial rushing toward the elevators. At first they think, Hey, Im on the team! Anthony said. During her interview, Christensen who lives in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, the suburb where the police shooting of Daunte Wright happened was asked about the Wright case, which occurred while the Chauvin trial was underway, and whether it impacted her at all. When both parties have agreed upon a jury, the jurors are sworn in to try the case by the court clerk. You run out of reading material in the courthouse library, finishing three comic books, a romance novel, a copy of Bon Appetit and a book about Boss Tweed, so you start flipping through lawbooks. >>Cross-examination In civil cases, two or more parties disagree as to who owes whom damages. The judge and attorneys agree that these jurors are qualified to decide impartially and intelligently the factual issues in the case. Eric Nelson, Chauvins attorney, had moved for a change of venue based on this highly inflammatory and prejudicial pretrial publicity arguing that his client could not get a fair trial in Minneapolis as a result of it. Alternate jurors participate in the trial proceedings but do not take part in deliberations unless they have been called to replace members of the jury. Alternates often feel frustrated, ignored and unfulfilled, said Philip Anthony of DecisionQuest, a jury and trial consulting firm. Alternate COMSEC Custodian [National Security], Alternate Non-Emergency Services Provider, Alternate Payee to Qualified Domestic Relations Order. The courthouse bathrooms are super clean and well stocked. Judges know that not being a part of the verdict, for some, can be a bitter deal and often go out of their way to lavish praise on alternates. Almost every day for four months, Carolina Cabrera woke up early and rushed to the criminal courts building in downtown Los Angeles. In criminal cases, a prosecutor argues with the defense attorney over whether the accused is guilty. I could hear everything, Christensen said. Read more about our editorial standards. Make sure to take care of your "business" during the trial breaks. As an employee of Pasadenas water and power department, she knew her job would pay her during jury service, but she worried about falling behind at work. The judge or the lawyers then ask them questions as to whether they have any knowledge of the case or have had specific experiences that might cause them to be biased or unfair. During the criminal trial, alternate jurors will be indistinguishable from their peers. They are instructed by the judge not to discuss the case with outsiders or each other (until deliberations). Megyn Kelly has been at the forefront of blasting transgenderism, especially where it concerns women's sports, and this hat was a hit. You notice your court officer could easily be played by SteveBuscemi. Another L.A. County judge, William C. Ryan, sighed during an interview when asked about alternates: Theyre critically important, Ryan said, but he often thinks of it as the always the bridesmaid, never the bride phenomenon. Moriarty said she could not imagine a defense attorney agreeing to allow a jury to reach a verdict without the full 12 members. However, the Supreme Court has also ruled that no right to a unanimous verdict actually exists when a jury consists of more than six people. When I came home, I could hear the helicopters flying over my house If I stepped outside, I could see the smoke from the grenades. For example, a juror can be dismissed for cause if he or she is a close relative of one of the parties or one of the lawyers, or if he or she works for a company that is part of the lawsuit. >>Pre-trial Procedures in Criminal Cases An alternate juror is a spare, not unlike the spare tire for your car that rides along with you wherever you drive but is only used if one of your regular tires fails. Read our editorial standards. When the selection of the jury is completed, the jurors take . for cause. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times), Authorities believe Lonnie David Franklin Jr. is responsible for at least 25 deaths. Marisa Gerber is an enterprise reporter at the Los Angeles Times. Christensens remarks during her interview raise important questions about whether the jurors who did deliberate, and who arrived at a verdict convicting Chauvin on all counts, considered only the trial evidence and the law given to them by Judge Peter Cahill in making that determination, or whether it was improperly influenced by external pressures. Things start lookingup. (3) Retaining Alternate Jurors. Trial juries are composed of at least six people sworn to decide the facts based on the evidence presented. Pennsylvania Code: Rule 645 - Seating and Retention of Alternate Jurors. You may opt out at anytime. We write helpful content to answer your questions from our expert network. McKinsey Interview Questions For Gilmore Girls, Thanksgiving Spoon Side Dishes (Part Two Of Our Two-Part Spoon Thanksgiving Special, Feat. One of them keeps farting during the trial. Taylor Berman), Movies Should Be An Hour And Forty-Five Minutes. You realize you have more sympathy for old men than you do ineloquent teenageboys. How to Meet Jury Foreman Responsibilities, Superior Court of California, County of Riverside: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). She also shared some of her notes taken during the hearing. Not a bad offer since mileage is only $2.50 a day. Similar protests erupted across the globe, as well. In addition to challenges for cause, each lawyer has a specific number of We have reviewed our content for bias and company-wide, we routinely meet with national experts to educate ourselves on better ways to deliver accessible content. 13. It's time to renew your membership and keep access to free CLE, valuable publications and more. Cabrera, 43, can still hardly believe her role in the Grim Sleeper case. 6. >>Civil and Criminal Trials But a feeling that a criminal defendant is culpable on some level is hardly enough to support a conviction. Alternate jurors hear the evidence just as the other jurors do, but they dont participate in the deliberations unless they replace an original juror. Photo by Nancy Hochmuth, via Shutterstock, Ah Apparently-Kid! Without alternate jurors, the entire trial would have to begin again. said, is it possible to sneak in, say, 500 pills up the butt? Just six sentences are devoted to alternate jurors in Minnesotas Rules of Criminal Procedure, the rules that govern how criminal prosecutions work in the state. But when asked how she would have voted, she said that she would have found Chauvin guilty. That's so that the alternates don't yawn off during proceedings and are ready to step in if another juror is unable to continue. Nothing, she said. A jury is not, as Christensen implies, an arm of the prosecution its members are supposed to be fair and impartial arbiters of the facts. *Steps in a Trial* @PTNewsnetwork @zerosum24 @JackPosobiec Maxine Waters Inciting violence if Derek Chauvin isnt found guilty for murder. Copyright 2023 The Western Journal. The questions skirted several important topics. Editors note the answers provided in this column are general in nature, and should not be relied upon as legal advice or interpreted as creating an attorney-client relationship. WHAT ARE ALTERNATE JURORS? But Moriarty said the judge could also just instruct alternates to refrain from researching the trial on their own during deliberations, while stopping short of sequestering them with the rest of the jury. As well as contemporaneous notes she took while empaneled as a juror in the Derek Chauvin trial.https://t.co/907brj5Wws. And halfway through they realize, Hey, Im still on the bench.. The trial judge shall instruct the retained alternate jurors to continue to observe the admonitions to jurors until they are informed that a verdict has been returned or the jury has been discharged. Peremptory challenges are limited to a certain number determined by the kind of lawsuit being tried. Regardless of where you are employed, mileage can be taken or waived. Put more precisely, the Supreme Court has upheld convictions when the verdicts were not unanimous. Alternate jurors may also be selected. 1. Thats so that the alternates dont yawn off during proceedings and are ready to step in if another juror is unable to continue. Her jury summons came under her maiden name and went to her ex-husbands home, so she almost missed the first day in court. There will be times when the judge is handling court business outside the presence of the jury. I know it is late in the day, but did you get to keep your notes or did you have to leave them behind at court? As an alternate juror, Christensen did not participate in deliberating on the verdict. The lawyers took careful notes about each person and asked more detailed questions which related to the case. As an Assistant Attorney General in Juneau, she practiced before the Alaska Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court before opening a plaintiff's personal injury practice in San Francisco. Cabreras frustration mirrors that of many who serve as alternates: These understudies must be as attentive as any other juror during the trial, but they face crashing boredom once deliberations begin. In such circumstances, an alternate juror will be dismissed from court with thanks. The defense was weak, but the lawyer had to try his best to fight back through cross-examination of the witnesses. the case while the jury decides the facts. In any long trial, there are just things that come up in peoples personal lives, said Mary Moriarty, a former Hennepin County chief public defender. That's why the alternates will play important role, ready to sub in for other jurors who are unable to continue with the trial. You resist the urge to tell all the other jurors about the plaintiffs lawyers mistake, as the judge has forbidden you from talking about thetrial. Similarly, an alternate juror sits and listens to evidence just like the other jurors but only deliberates and votes if one of the sitting jury members is unable to serve. Even finding 14 people to serve on the jury has been a challenge for such a well-known case. 7. As youre leaving the courthouse for the last time, a guy calls you and says he found your wallet in a cab. not fluent in English). In any long trial, there are just things that come up in peoples personal lives, said Mary Moriarty, a former Hennepin County chief public defender. >>Mistrials In summary, however, this happens when either only six is required, such as when the type of trial is governed by statute, or because a party elected to only have six jurors. 11. One night she could hardly make it home after testimony ended because of protesters blocking intersections. Judge Kathleen A. Kennedy picks a number from a souvenir Dodger helmet to select a replacement juror in the Grim Sleeper murder trial last year. Here is the full Q and A with Juror 96. She couldnt help wondering what was happening inside the jury room which way were they leaning? I would have said guilty on some level I feel like Chauvin is responsible for Mr. Floyds death.. What are alternate jurors? The immigration history of the Mexican national police want to arrest for 5 Texas murders has been revealed. But there were also boring days, she said, when experts offered complex scientific explanations of DNA technology. She recognized a man the defense planned to call as a memory expert. The city had publicly announced the settlement in the middle of jury selection for Chauvins trial. The claim became part of the defenses request for a new trial and the judge eventually overturned the convictions based, in part, on an unrelated jury issue. The purpose of alternates is to ensure that the case can move forward if something occurs mid-trial that prevents one of the regular jurors from continuing to serve. You wonder if one of the other lawyers you see around would bring on an ageism suit for you, because youre positive the only reason youre an alternate is because youre the youngest one there. States have the ability to grant someone more rights in terms of the number of jurors in a jury trial, despite the rulings of the United States Supreme Court, provided, of course, that no jury is consists of fewer than six persons. The Supreme Court has, however, said that a jury of at least six jurors is required to satisfy the right to a jury trial that is guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. A person who is sworn to a jury is a juror. Thus, in a very important way, jurors become a part of the court itself. In fact, they won't even know they are alternates. 1. Please leave your comments! The judge stressed that you reach a unanimous verdict because the United States Supreme Court ruled that juries comprised of six people must be unanimous. In any case, had the court either transferred the venue of the trial or sequestered the jury as Chauvins attorney requested throughout the trial Christensen and the other jurors would not have been exposed to any of this. Christiansen interviewed with Jamie Yuccas of CBS This Morning, as well as with Minneapolis NBC affiliate KARE-TV reporter Lou Raguse.