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60 U. Kan. L. Rev. 611 (2011-2012)
Investigating Jurors in the Digital Age: One Click at a Time

handle is hein.journals/ukalr60 and id is 617 raw text is: Investigating Jurors in the Digital Age: One Click at a Time Thaddeus Hoffmeister* I. INTRODUCTION In the eyes of many attorneys, the trier of fact, not the evidence presented, is the key factor in determining the outcome of a trial.' Thus, attorneys have long sought to learn as much as possible about those deciding the fate of their clients.2 While information has been readily available about judges who have established reputations and regularly decide cases,' one cannot say the same for jurors who are randomly drawn from the community to hear one case. Traditionally, attorneys had to expend significant time and resources to discover information about jurors.4 The Digital Age, however, has changed this. Attorneys can now discover information about jurors in seconds or minutes as people place more and more personal information online. . Associate Professor of Law, University of Dayton School of Law; editor of www.juries.typepad.com, a blog dedicated to the study of juries. The author would like to acknowledge the excellent work of his research assistant Mike Porter on this Article. This Article also benefited from thorough editing by the staff of the Kansas Law Review. Of course, any errors or mistakes in this Article are solely the responsibility of this Author. 1. John H. Blume, Sheri Lynn Johnson & A. Brian Threlkeld, Probing Life Qualification Through Expanded Voir Dire, 29 HOFSTRA L. REV. 1209, 1209 (2001) (The conventional wisdom is that most trials are won or lost in jury selection.); Steven C. Serio, Comment, A Process Right Due? Examining Whether a Capital Defendant Has a Due Process Right to a Jury Selection Expert, 53 AM. U. L. REV. 1143, 1147 (2004) (Many scholars believe that most capital cases are won or lost during jury selection.). 2. See infra Part II.A. 3. See Bracy v. Gramley, 81 F.3d 684, 688 (7th Cir. 1996), rev'd Bracy v. Gramley, 520 U.S. 899 (1997), and vacated sub nom. Collins v. Welborn, 520 U.S. 1272 (1997) (There are prosecution-minded judges, and defense-minded judges. . . .); see also History of the Federal Judiciary, FED. JUD. CENTER, http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/judges.html (last visited Nov. 22, 2011) (providing biographical information on all federal judges). Many states have similar websites. See, e.g., Judicial Directory, N.Y. ST. UNIFIED CT. Sys., http://www.nycourts.gov/ judges/directory.shtml (last visited Jan. 24, 2012). 4. See infra text accompanying notes 51-59. 5. See, e.g., Johnson v. McCullough, 306 S.W.3d 551, 558-59 (Mo. 2010) (en banc) (per curiam) (discussing the ease by which information about jurors may be discovered in light of technological advances); see also Stephen P. Laitinen & Hilary J. Loynes, A New Must Use Tool 611

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