|
The Denver Post
Survey queries Bryant jurors
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - Eagle - A questionnaire for potential jurors in the Kobe Bryant sexual-assault case asks their views on professional athletes, interracial relationships and familiarity with the trial participants in an effort to seat an unbiased jury.
The questionnaire, released by the court Monday, poses 82 questions ranging from standard personal information to familiarity with the high-profile criminal case in which Bryant, 26, is accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old hotel clerk in June of 2003. The basketball star admitted to committing adultery but said the liaison was consensual. An introductory letter from Judge Terry Ruckriegle says the answers will be kept secret and that potential jurors are not allowed to discuss their answers or any other aspects of the case with anyone. Karen Lisko, a senior litigation consultant for Persuasion Strategies, an in-house service of the Denver law firm of Holland & Hart, was surprised by the brevity of the questionnaire. "Judge Ruckriegle clearly had a heavy hand in finalizing this questionnaire," Lisko said. "A questionnaire with 82 questions is considered fairly short for a high-profile case like this. Consider the fact that the O.J. Simpson criminal questionnaire was over 80 pages long." Lisko noted that 55 of the 82 questions relate to demographics and life experience. The attitudes jurors hold are far more important than the demographic ones, she said. "However, in my experience, judges can be reticent about allowing attitudinal questions," she said. "There is no doubt in my mind that counsel for both sides argued for their favorite attitudinal questions and lost." Potential jurors are asked to list the organizations they belong to and their hobbies. Other questions more bluntly probe views toward the criminal justice system, such as those asking if a person accused of a crime is "probably guilty" or if the person would tend to believe the side of the law-enforcement officers. One question asks potential jurors to reveal information about the case they have gleaned from a specific list of media outlets, including supermarket tabloids and the Internet.
Click here for the questions asked of potential jurors in the People v. Bryant case.
Click here for a 9NEWS video report on today's developments.
Click here for the official court website with officials court orders, filings and documents in the People v. Bryant case.
Click here to see a copy of the felony charges against Bryant in the PDF format. case.
Click here for a chronology of the Bryant case.
Click here for The Denver Post's graphic describing the events of June 30, 2003.
Click here for an interactive presentation on Bryant's career.
Click here for the 9NEWS archive on the case.
Click here for the CourtTV archive on the case.
The questionnaire also includes typical questions for sex-assault cases: whether potential jurors have ever been involved with a rape-crises center, been the victim of a crime or had contact with any of the trial participants. "The questionnaire is very long and thorough, although there are a few important areas that it does not touch upon," said jury consultant Sarah Murray of San Francisco's Trial Behavior Consulting. For example, she said it doesn't ask how often they think people make false rape allegations or whether they think the number of sex partners correlates to credibility in a sex-assault allegation. "The questionnaire poses many very broad and complex open-ended questions that are not likely to elicit very revealing answers on a written questionnaire," Murray said. Question 37 asks for jurors' feelings about sexual assault laws in Colorado. "I would venture a guess that even attorneys who do not specialize in sexual-assault matters would be hard pressed to know what the laws are," Lisko said. She added that the "one-two punch" on the questionnaire are the two parts to question 66: When you first learned about this case, what were your reactions? Have your reactions changed since then? "People's gut or emotional reactions are highly meaningful because we don't over-think our reactions. They just are," she said. The answer to the second part determines how potential jurors' opinions have been affected by leaks and media reports in past months, she said. Lisko thinks the questionnaire is weighted more in favor of defense questions than prosecution questions. "I'm surprised there are not more questions about attitudes toward an accuser. The questions seem to focus more on Kobe's credibility than on the credibility of an accuser," she said. Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com . Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com .
The questions that jurors will be asked to elaborate on behind closed doors focus on: Sexual assault. Jury Question 49 asks: "Have you or anyone close to you, including a child, ever been the victim of any form of sexual assault (this includes actual or attempted sexual assault or other unwanted sexual advances, including by a stranger, acquaintance or family member)?" Racial prejudice. Jury Question 56 asks: "Have you ever been afraid of or had any negative experience with an African-American individual?" The accuser. Jury Question 73 asks: "Have you or anyone you know had any contact with (the accuser), any member of her family, or any of her close friends?" Pretrial publicity. Potential jurors will be questioned about the media coverage of the case they've seen if they indicated any potential bias in their written responses. |