“Can you listen to the evidence and apply the law?”
Almost every biased juror will say yes, but we all know that doesn’t mean they are actually fair and unbiased.
I’m not sure how “listening to evidence” has any bearing on bias. Everyone has a political bias and still listens to the evidence while filtering it through the bias. Listening to the evidence involves hearing and attention, not bias. That filtered evidence is then applied to the law, yet it still doesn’t mean any of the process was fair because there was a filter involved.
You need to preempt this. For one, file motions with the judge regarding bias and explain this concept. Second, preempt jurors from rehabilitation by explaining bias appropriately.
Try “rose-colored glasses” as an example. Imagine we all wear glasses. Often, the tint is clear. We see things without any haze or tint. However, some of us have rose-colored glasses when it comes to specific topics or subjects. The glasses become tinted through life experiences, which develop beliefs. Any information regarding that topic matter is seen through a tinted filter. Some information is filtered out, and some comes through with a different color. What we need to know, Ms. Juror, is whether any of the issues, in this case, cause a little tint in your glasses such that you might see and interpret things through the lens of that experience in a way that might be unfair to either party. I know the judge will ask you if you can listen to the evidence and apply the law, and I know everyone here will say yes to that, but what we really need to know is, as you’re listening, are you listening without any filters? We want to know what those filters might be and how you think they could impact you in being entirely neutral.
You can then go into the pie or any other bias example you prefer. Explain how you would still sample the pies (listen to the evidence), but your experiences or beliefs would tint your sampling, so when you go to apply the evidence to the law, you wouldn’t have a clean and clear (entirely neutral) view of what the evidence really is as it’s been colored. Who feels like they might have a colored view, even if only slightly?
Adding this to your voir dire should help avoid some of the rehabilitation and get jurors to understand how bias might affect them.
jurorproof 