Spring has sprung and The Jury Expert is all dressed up for spring with a new design interface! Our hope is that you'll be much more able to search for what you are looking for and that you'll find this platform easy on the eye. We are deeply indebted to our programmer (Phil Stolle) and our designer (Emily Keene) for the creativity and perspiration they have expended on all our behalf. We also have two new Editors. Jason Barnes joins us with a background in visual evidence and Jason Schwartz also joins us with a background in visual graphics. Jason Barnes will be editing your article submissions and helping us with making the website look prettier. Jason Schwartz is producing our pdf version of The Jury Expert and it looks much better than my feeble attempts at pdf design! We are pretty excited about our new look and eager to hear your feedback!
This issue is just full of good stuff. Remember that news explosion on the 'nerd defense'? Basically what it said was that if you put eyeglasses on your criminal defendant the jury would not believe such a studious looking defendant was capable of heinous acts. But not so fast! We have an article from the author of that original research and what he has to say about his work will prove much more interesting than a straightforward 'nerd defense'. We have three trial consultants and a trial lawyer responding to that research. We hope you'll offer your opinions as well. This is fascinating research still in development. You'll notice in the article that the author includes a summary of some as yet unpublished data on corporate defendants and eyeglasses. You'll want to read it.
In addition to the 'nerd defense' piece, we have articles assessing the efficacy of bullet-points in presentations, on voir dire (both an overview and a strategy piece), on responding to jurors and the internet (since what we are doing now doesn't seem to be working that well), on online jury research, on jurors with Attention Deficit Disorder, and finally a video (we are using our new web platform!) review of a couple of jury selection apps for your iPad!
So read away! We are brand new. And happy about it!