http://devney.com/Ling/blog Joseph J. Devney, M.A. Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:10:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 http://devney.com/Ling/blog/?p=14&cpage=1#comment-2 Jessie Miyasaki Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:10:35 +0000 http://devney.com/Ling/blog/?p=14#comment-2 Your point about jury instructions including rules written BY legistators FOR lawyers is well taken. Jury selection is all about selecting 'average' people... yet they are expected to understand legal jargon to make critical decisions. Rather scary if you think too much about it. Unfortunately, it is more expedient to leave this situation 'as is' than to invest extra time and expense to hire writers to improve jury instructions... and potentially improve the outcome of future trials. I DO hope you are successful in promoting your revised instructions. Your point about jury instructions including rules written BY legistators FOR lawyers is well taken. Jury selection is all about selecting ‘average’ people… yet they are expected to understand legal jargon to make critical decisions. Rather scary if you think too much about it. Unfortunately, it is more expedient to leave this situation ‘as is’ than to invest extra time and expense to hire writers to improve jury instructions… and potentially improve the outcome of future trials. I DO hope you are successful in promoting your revised instructions.

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