Write a 1 To 2 Paragraph exploring what the conversation may have been while the jury was deliberating. what did they discuss? How did they reach a conclusion?
Explanation:
This research project, which took more than a year to complete, would not have been
possible without the cooperation and support of a large number of people and organizations
committed to improving American jury trials.
We start by acknowledging and thanking the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of
Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice, for funding the project and the associated
NIJ Visiting Fellowship grantee B. Michael Dann was privileged to enjoy. Special thanks are
owed Christopher A. Innes, Chief of the Justice Systems Research Division, Office of Research
and Evaluation, NIJ, for his support, suggestions and patience during the fellowship and research
project. Many others at NIJ are owed thanks as well, but the Director, Sarah V. Hart, was
especially interested and encouraging. NIJ DNA experts Dr. Lisa Forman and Kim Herd, an
Assistant U.S. Attorney and former Special Assistant to the NIJ Director on DNA, offered
valuable technical advice in the project’s early planning phases.
NIJ’s financial grant was administered by the National Center for State Courts in
Williamsburg, Virginia. That indispensable work was ably performed by Sherry KeeseeBuchanan and Mary Hogan and overseen by Paula Hannaford Agor at the National Center.
Nicole Waters provided expert assistance with the statistical analyses.
We are indebted to the members of the project’s Advisory Committee who gave us
invaluable counsel and advice concerning research design and which jury trial innovations to
test, among other things. The Advisory Committee was chaired by Judge Ronald S. Reinstein, a
trial judge from Phoenix, Arizona, and member of NIJ’s Commission on the Future of DNA
Evidence; Robert P. Biancavilla, Deputy Chief, Nassau County (New York) District Attorney’s
Office; Connie L. Fisher, Forensic Examiner, FBI Laboratory, Quantico, Virginia; Paula
Hannaford-Agor, Principal Court Research Consultant, National Center for State Courts,
Williamsburg, Virginia; Judge Gregory E. Mize, Superior Court for the District of Columbia
(Ret.); Anjali R. Swienton, Consultant, SciLaw Forensics, Ltd., Germantown, Maryland; and
Beth Wiggins, Senior Research Associate, Federal Judicial Center, Washington, D.C. Professor
William Shields, of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, served as an
additional resource on mtDNA analysis, answering questions and providing us with useful
material about the interpretation of mtDNA tests.
We recruited several cast members for two separate tapings of the “trial” for use in the
subsequent mock jury trials. The first shoot took place in June 2003, in Tempe, Arizona, at the
Arizona State University College of Law. The Tempe cast included Leonard Ruiz, an Arizona
prosecutor; Susan Corey and Chad Pajerski, local public defenders; James Humphrey, a former
Phoenix Police Department detective; Katherine Dann, a student at George Washington
University; and Elliot Goldstein, Professor of Biology, Arizona State University. The
videographer in Arizona was Manny Garcia of Manny Garcia Productions, Inc. In Phoenix.
Attorney Mara Siegel, another local public defender, consulted regarding the script.
