Miscellaneous

One Step Away from a Chip in the Head

By Anne Skove, Esq.

How much information about you is out there? Google, Dogpile, Intelius, YouTube, Zillow, IP address locators, plus our own confessions -- it's a growing body of evidence.

In Harris County, Texas, it's quite a bit. Voter tracking (creepy, yeah, but apparently it's public record) is well-established; it was only a matter of time before jury consultants jumped all over the practice (or, more accurately, that the VoterHistory guy jumped into the jury business).

JurorHistory tells us to "think insider trading...but legal." Let's hope! Basically, the non-techie (because Tom is still in Norway!) explanation is that it's a database consolidating voter history, marital status, ethnicity, occupation, education, age range, etc., (plus whatever else a lawyer wants to input) of the state or local population.

The aim is true: the idea is that the database makes this information accessible to everyone, from the deepest pocket to the most struggling public-interest group. The makers claim to bring jury research into this century, following in the footsteps of the pioneering jury consultants of the Harrisburg Seven trial.

See Database Aids in Juror Selection, Marene Gustin, Daily Court Review (2008).

NOTE: Even though Juror- and VoterHistory.com guru John Witson sent us this link, we're not endorsing anything, just sayin'... Also we received no contribution for yakking about this (or for anything else we do here! Our kid made more money selling dog biscuits in an afternoon than we have all year from Google Ads and donations!).

Meanwhile in Kentucky, the still-without-a-verdict fen-phen jurors' names have been sealed. There's not a clear reason given. We're not sure what it could be, other than basic high-profileness and/or the concern that lawyers as a group might retaliate against the jurors the way some doctors did after learning medmal juror names.

See Fen-Phen Jury Names Sealed, Jim Hannah, Cincinnati Enquirer (June 29, 2008), which includes a link to the order.

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on June 30, 2008 (boomark / email).