Nearly half the jury in a widely watched Orange County gang-rape case has agreed to help the defense prepare for a new trial.
Lawyers for Gregory Scott Haidl, 19, the son of a wealthy and high-ranking Orange County sheriff's official, said that one juror would be paid an undisclosed hourly rate but that four others had agreed to sign employment contracts as consultants without pay because they were sympathetic to the defense. Attorneys said they also might hire up to four other former jurors to help them understand the strengths and weaknesses of the case.
"Consulting with the actual jurors who have already heard the case is the best focus group in the world," said Joseph G. Cavallo, Haidl's lead attorney in the first trial.
As employees -- paid or not -- the jurors would be barred from talking to prosecutors without permission from the defense, Cavallo said.
Although attorneys routinely ask jurors for feedback after a trial ends, retaining former jurors is all but unheard of, lawyers say -- though no one collects statistics on such arrangements.
Some legal ethicists and defense lawyers praised the lawyers' creativity.
"It's novel and edgy," said Diane Karpman, a Los Angeles attorney who writes a column on ethics for the State Bar of California's monthly newsletter. "In my opinion, it shows great lawyering. They're going to get the best criticism they can, right from the horse's mouth."
Others, voicing arguments similar to those raised after jurors wrote books about the 1995 criminal trial of O.J. Simpson, call the practice ethically debatable and wonder if jurors hoping to cash in on consultation fees might try to hang a jury.
"People shouldn't profit from their jury experience," said David Graeven, a jury consultant with San Francisco-based Trial Behavior Consulting. "With a carrot out there of a monetary reward, people will not be able to focus on doing justice."
Chapman University professor Jeremy Miller said that adding money to the equation -- even for just one juror -- tainted the judicial process.
"It's a great idea to get into these people's heads, but involving pay gives the appearance of impropriety," he said. "That turns the case into a sort of trial-by-combat, where the one who has the most money wins."
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