Re: More Crime and Justice stink.

> > > As it happens, my understanding of the law is not great.  But it is that
>  > the
>  > > jurists are not ALLOWED BY LAW, to discuss the case prior to
>  > deliberations.

Well my understanding of the law also could stand improvement.
But it is my understanding that the rules for this
VARY BY STATE

In some states they are allowed to take notes during the trial about the
trial.
In most states where jurers are allowed to take notes, they are not allowed
to look at each other's notes until the deliberations start.
In other states they have to keep it all straight in their heads without any
artificial aids, so if it was me on the Jury, I would tell the rest of the
jury that my memory is not good enough to remember all the details & I need
access to the entire trial transcript so that I can analyse it for
inconsistencies.

In some states they are allowed to discuss the trial AMONG THEMSELVES before
the end of the trial.
In some states they are not.

In some trials they are sequestered from access to information outside of
what they get in court.
In some they are not.
Most sequestered juries are permitted contact with families, with warnings
not to discuss the case with them or let them tell them anything relevant to
the trial.

Other people in the trial, such as lawyers, witnesses, judge, are NEVER
sequestered.
Witnesses are often kept out of the court room so their testimony is not
contaminated by them seeing hearing what someone else said, except they are
never sequestered from access to the TV & newspapers.
Witnesses are often told not to discuss this case with anyone until the trial
is over, but never told to stay out of lurking watching what other people are
discussing about the trial.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)