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2 Litig. Docket 1 (1996-1997)

handle is hein.journals/litigadoc2 and id is 1 raw text is: A PUBLICATION OF TIlE SECTION OF LITIGATION * AMElIICAN BAR ASSOCIATION * FAL L 1996 o VOLUME 2 NUMBER 1 Section gets the Big Eye icture this: A two-hour documen- tary on the jury system on a m4jor network. Real juries are shown deliberating. And the ABA Section of Litigation is credited with a major contribution to the precedent-shattering experience. It'll happen by the end of the year. The network is CBS, The show is CBS Reports. The jurors are in Arizona. And the Litigation Section helped It all happen. So what's the big deal? How many times have you seen actual jurors in the jury room deciding cases? Never? Well, almost never. It happened once before, in a 1986 PBS documentary. But this time it's on one of the big ones, the network with the Big Eye. How could that eye get a look into the jury room? With the help of the Section's Task Force on Public Dialogue. The judicial powers that be in the state of John O'Leary (from leff), Kim Askewand -under from a Norihwoods version of the CBS eye-- Davi Maine were approached to provide a civil case or two. It was all worked out. All forms were signed. The cameras were ready to roll. Then the case settled at the last minute. That does seem to happen now and then... So the attention shifted to Arizona for the criminal cases. All forms were signed, Including by the jurors involved, of course. And this time it worked. This time three oases were shot by CBS camera crews: & Drug possession and transportation Did the woman defendant low that there were drugs In the suitcase she was carrying? This case involved a retrial after a hung jury, and CBS has both the original trial on tape and the retrial. * Armed robbery - Did the young man taking beer from a convenience store shoplift or was it armed robbery? * Aggravated assault -A homeowner heard shots in the middle of the night and came out of his house with a shotgun. A young man came in his direction with an assault gun and the homeowner shot and killed him. No charges there. But the homeowner then saw a second man get out of a car and shot him also. That person lived, but the homeowner was charged with aggra- vated assault. It was a hung jury the first r intense scrutiny time around (not id Schneider. captured by CBS); this is the second trial. These outlines are courtesy of the pro- ducer of the show for CBS, David Schnei- der. Schneider has been working on the program since January, writing the script while an editor puts together the tapes based on his script. He says the anchor for the program will be Ed Bradley. 'The central thing we're looking at and exploring, Schneider says, are the deliber- ations. It was a fascinating glimpse into the dynamic in the jury room. John O'Leary, Portland, Maine, and Kim Askew, Dallas, are co-chairs of the Section's task force. 'The goal of the task force, O'Leary says, is to improve two-way communica- tions between the public and justice sys. tem. Askew notes that there are 10 people on the task force. O'Leary again: This is a very, very rare and supervised occasion when you allow cameras into a jury room in a real trial. There was nothing to suggest that the jurors were giving any consideration to the presence of the cameras during their delib- erations. It can benefit everybody's under- standing of how the jury stystem works. And Askew: We want juries to undersand how important their role is. It's important for the public to see how juries really work. At a June meeting, Schneider brought outtakes of the program. Mter I saw the outtakes, O'Leary notes, I think It's criminal not to allow jurors to take notes. Arizona allows note taking. After the program airs, the ABA can use all the taped outtakes of the program for educational purposes. 2M1 Ah, Orlando! Disney character Chip gets warm a. .d fuzzy with the daughter of a Section member at the Annual Meeting reception in Orlando. We tried to shoot the Mouse, but... What did Orlando mean for the Section? Mickey Mouse seemed to be everywhere but in the above photo. A plethora of programs educated Section members and made them sharper for their practices when they returned home. For more about what happened in the Sunshine State, see page 6.2M Up and coming stars for the Section ure, you thought it was just the officers of the Section and the chairs of its bazillion committees who did all the work. True, they do a lot of it. But they get a lot of help from folks who are up and coining and enjoy throwing them- selves into projects that can benefit fellow la%yers. Since their names by and large aren't showing up in the Section's leadership direc- tory, these hard-working souls should get a bit of special recognition. This is how it's done: Once a year, the Section chair sends out a query to all officers and committee chairs asking them who put in extra effort for the past year. All those whose names were sug- gested are invited to the Chair's Dinner at the ABA Annual Meeting. This year it was held at Fulton's Crab House in the Disney complex in Orlando. Amid assorted goodies to eat and drink, those attending got some tangible apprecia- tion. Invitees also received a heavy brass star-shaped paperweight with the tag, Liti- gation Section Star. Of course there is always the implication that among such luminaries, the Section's future committee chairs and officers will be found. Congrats, all! A list of the Litigation stars appears on page 2.21 oy or OeLop Edit

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