Category: jury trial

Questioning Potential Jurors Undermines the Very Basis of the Jury System

Commentary The lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell are pressing for a retrial on the grounds that one of the jurors failed to reveal before selection for the jury that he had been sexually abused as a child by his step-brother and a friend. Of course, he should have answered the question truthfully: The problem is that…


Hate Crime or Publicity Stunt? Chicago Jury to Hear Case in Jussie Smollett Trial

On a frigid Chicago night in January 2019, actor Jussie Smollett, a star on the TV drama “Empire,” reported that he was the victim of a hate-motivated street attack, but police later accused him of staging the whole affair as a publicity stunt. The case went to trial on Monday in Cook County Circuit Court,…


Woman Gets Life Sentence for Helping Husband Plan Killings

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—An Alabama woman received a life sentence Wednesday for helping her husband plan the 2015 killings of his estranged pregnant wife, her unborn child, and three others. Rhonda Carlson, 48, avoided the death penalty in a deal with prosecutors in exchange for testifying against her husband, Christopher Henderson, prior to his trial. She admitted…