By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Donald Trump, O.J. Simpson, Martha Stewart. The highest-profile alleged offenders draw the biggest headlines. That can make selecting an unbiased jury for criminal cases against celebrities a difficult game for prosecutors. Fortunately, there is a process to weed out bias before the trial begins. Barton County Attorney Levi Morris said it's generally not difficult to find impartial jurors for local cases.
"It's usually not hard at all," he said Thursday on KVGB 1590/95.5 FM's "County Edition" program. "Take the headlines right now: pretty impossible to find a jury who might not have strong opinions about prosecuting a former president. That's tough. Prosecuting some guy nobody knows who got caught with a couple pounds of methamphetamine, and no one really knows him, it's not going to be hard."
Because jurors are summoned randomly, they may know key parties of the case or have strong opinions about the case. Prosecutors and defense attorneys get to ask jurors questions to determine who is best fit to make an impartial decision based on the evidence. After the verdict, the attorneys may ask the jurors how the trial went.
"Every time, for the most part, I've lost a jury trial - just me personally, not the office - they've always said, 'No, we think they did it. We just respect the burden of proof,'" Morris said. "There's never been a jury where we thought we had a bias problem."
While many dread receiving a jury summons in the mail, Morris said jurors usually enjoy fulfilling their civic duty.
"When you are done, my experience is you will feel differently," he said. "Everybody I've ever talked to said having served on a jury was a very rewarding experience. Even though they walked into it with a little bit of negativity, everybody walked out of it positively. Everybody, from my experience, has always taken it very seriously. As you listen to the evidence that's specific to the case, it just becomes crystal clear to everybody how we need that participation and we need everybody to take it seriously. Regardless of how they end up ruling on that case, we have to have people doing it."