4.Motion to Limit Voir Dire About Jury Leadership
9 linesMR. WEINREB: Your Honor, can I be heard for a minute before we call the next juror?
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. WEINREB: It will be just a moment. I would like to -- I don't know how exactly to characterize it -- but effectively make a motion in limine to preclude questioning of jurors about whether they would attempt to be leaders in the jury box or followers or whether they would respect the rights of the other jurors to make up their own minds or try to influence them.
First of all, none of those questions could possibly lead to a motion for cause because if -- there's no causing a juror off the jury based on their predicted behavior in the jury box with respect to other jurors; and secondly, it's just a way of trying to pre-instruct the jurors on what the defense hopes they will do when they're in the jury box. And it's improper. It doesn't serve any purpose related to voir dire, any legitimate purpose related to voir dire, and it has the genuine danger of confusing the jurors and potentially inhibiting them from acting the way that they would normally be inclined to act in the jury box, which is something they're entitled to do.
MR. BRUCK: Well, this was an unusual juror. He talked about his sense of anxiety about the jury and he did it in the context of being a leader, a team leader. He's a man that in some ways thinks around square corners, and I just felt I was entitled, and it was appropriate to explore the question, since he had talked about his worry about being in this very, very different setting, whether or not he could, in effect, not be a team leader but be a team player and a member of the jury.
THE COURT: Okay. I hear from that that it was targeted at this particular juror so we'll -- I don't think it's necessarily inappropriate and I think that explanation actually makes sense.
MR. BRUCK: Okay.
THE COURT: But I do agree that trying to get these laypeople -- I keep coming back to this, that don't -- who don't think like lawyers -- to accept our categories and speak either fluently or even sensibly about things that -- around the corner they can't even anticipate is not very fruitful. I'd just make that as a general observation.
MR. BRUCK: Well, I suppose since that has been somewhat our position with respect to the questioning on guilt or innocence, we can't really disagree with that statement.
THE COURT: Before we have the next juror, we'll cut the audio and have a sidebar conference.