Vol. 8 No. 3(March 1998) pp. 133-134.

JURY TRIAL INNOVATIONS by G. Thomas Munsterman, Paula L. Hannaford and G. Marc Whitehead (Editors). Williamsburg, Va.: National Center for State Courts, 1997. National Center for State Courts Publication No. R-193. 324 pp. $18.00 Paper ISBN 0-89656-174-7.

Reviewed by Christopher E. Smith, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University. E-Mail: smithc28@pilot.msu.edu.

JURY TRIAL INNOVATIONS was produced by the National Center for State Courts and the Jury Initiatives Task Force of the ABA Section on Litigation under a grant from the State Justice Institute. It is a collaborative effort by various law professors, social scientists, judges, lawyers, and jury consultants to analyze systematically and concisely numerous innovations in the organization, selection, and instruction of juries. This volume seeks to make an objective presentation of the advantages and disadvantages of various innovations rather than to endorse specific jury trial reforms. Each section presents lists of "Advantages" and "Disadvantages" for each reform as well as a brief list of references, studies, and case precedents relevant to each topic. The collaborative nature of the project and the self-conscious effort to avoid advocacy are evident in the book's description of its processes and goals:

Judges and litigators reviewed materials prepared by jury consultants, for example, while attorneys and academicians reviewed materials prepared by judges. Our intent was to offer a balanced presentation of these techniques and innovations, based on what is known through formal evaluation and practice, without endorsing their use by trial courts in every instance. (p. ix). The volume is organized into seven chapters: 1. How Jurors Make Decisions: The Value of Trial Innovations; 2. Jury Administration and Management; 3. Voir Dire (Or, In Plain English, Jury Selection); 4. Pretrial Management; 5. Trial Procedures; 6. Jury Instructions and Deliberations; and 7. Post-Verdict Considerations. Chapter 1 is the only chapter written by a single author, Dr. Vicki Smith, who is apparently a jury consultant. Authorship of the other chapters is attributed to each chapter's list of "Contributors and Reviewers," the lawyers, judges, and scholars involved in the collaborative project, who numbered from three (Chapter 7) to fourteen (Chapter 5) depending on the chapter's topics.

After the first chapter's concise overview of scholarly literature on jury decision making, the subsequent chapters use a consistent format in presenting and analyzing innovations within each chapter's topical area. For each innovation, there is a section entitled "Technique" describing the innovation followed by "Issues," which is a list of important questions raised by the use of the particular innovation. A "Procedures" section describes in detail how the innovation is applied. After the detailed description, there are concise lists of "Advantages" and "Disadvantages" followed by lists of relevant statutes and case precedents ("Authority") and concluding with a "References" section. These formatted sections are quite brief and to the point. For example, the presentation in the Jury Administration chapter on "One-Day/One-Trial Terms of Jury Service" is a mere three pages long. The fifty-seven topical presentations comprising Chapters 2 through 7 range in length from one page ("Place Cards or Seating Charts") to five pages ("Reducing or Eliminating Peremptory Challenges").

As indicated by the foregoing description, JURY TRIAL INNOVATIONS is essentially a reference book. It does a very good job of achieving its goal of describing various techniques to reform the management, selection, and instruction of juries. However, the concise nature of its presentation necessarily reduces the volume's potential usefulness as a source of substantive contributions to scholars' research on juries. Instead, the volume serves as a good source for quick identification of innovations and issues that can be pursued elsewhere through examination of scholarly literature. The list of references accompanying each topic provides a good starting point for finding useful literature, but the lists are so brief that they are merely starting points for scholars interested in seeking closer examination of these topics.

JURY TRIAL INNOVATIONS provides its greatest benefit for judges, lawyers, and others interested in court reform who want to identify and evaluate existing techniques for improving jury trial processes. For the audience of people interested in practical court reform issues, this is a valuable reference book. For scholars and teachers in courses on courts and law, its value is less certain and will depend on individual needs. Clearly, scholars and teachers should be aware of the existence of this volume. Students interested in writing papers on jury processes can be directed to JURY TRIAL INNOVATIONS as a starting point for identifying and pursuing research topics. Scholars can use the book to provide a quick assessment and brief reference list concerning unfamiliar topics. Moreover, the appendices in the book may be a source of useful information. For example, while I have little use for the sample verdict forms and jury instructions in the appendices, I was happy to discover that Appendix 4 provides the number of peremptory challenges permitted in each state for felony, misdemeanor, and civil cases. I have no doubt that I will return to this book to draw from this well-organized information in any future teaching and research concerning peremptory challenges.

In sum, I believe that the many people who collaborated in the production of JURY TRIAL INNOVATIONS deserve commendation for performing a significant public service by organizing current knowledge into a concise, easy-to-use format. Although the book will be most valuable for court reformers contemplating the introduction of new jury innovations, scholars should take note of the book's existence because it will be a handy source of quick information about the details of jury processes.