Jury System

Sonny Morper wasn't the least bit daunted when his Orange County jury mates voted him foreman as they prepared to decide whether a convicted pedophile should be released from a state hospital. A retired middle school principal from Lake Forest, Morper, a firm believer in the system, was pulling his first jury duty.

At first brush, there was nothing about the 74-year-old beauty contest supplier from the Bible Belt bastion of Texarkana that inspired trial consultant Robert B. Hirschhorn to want her on his high-tech client's jury. The case involved patent rights, and it was Hirschhorn's job to identify jurors in the pool who might be receptive to the claim that a lucrative Internet dating service had copied his client's search engine accelerator without paying for it.

Nearly one year after the indictment of former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, some 650 prospective jurors are expected to file into the Santa Ana federal courthouse today in the first step in choosing a jury for his upcoming corruption trial. Despite speculation in Orange County law enforcement circles that the case would end in a plea bargain before trial, all indications this week are that testimony would begin Oct. 28 as scheduled.

High-profile Los Angeles trial attorneys told law students Thursday that lofty notions of jurisprudence, such as the presumption of innocence or burden of proof, are all well and good. But in defending clients, it's best to focus on how jurors actually think, they told a conference on celebrity justice at Loyola Law School.

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was dismissed on his second day of jury duty after attorneys passed him up while choosing a panel to hear a personal-injury case. If the billionaire mayor had been chosen, he would have become the second sitting mayor in a row to be part of a jury in a city that no longer allows occupation-related exemptions. His predecessor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was the foreman on a jury in a landlord-tenant dispute during his second mayoral term in 1999.

Thousands of county residents will receive jury summonses next month as a federal judge begins the search for an impartial panel to decide the fate of Sheriff Michael S. Carona, his wife and his longtime mistress. Judge Andrew Guilford said Monday that he hopes that 200 residents will have schedules that accommodate a 30-day trial next summer. He said he hoped to give attorneys the opportunity to interview potential jurors in May. Carona's defense attorney, H.

Orange County residents can check in and be excused for jury service without having to step inside a courthouse, thanks to a new online feature, court officials said Monday. In the past, prospective jurors wanting to postpone their service had to call the court and speak to a clerk. To be excused from service, they mailed or faxed a letter explaining why they should be let off. If their request was denied, they would receive a letter from the court.

When a bomb killed eight people at a busy marketplace on a steamy summer afternoon here five years ago, police quickly solved the case, as they often do with spectacular efficiency in Russia. A composite drawing of a mysterious woman seen at the market that day was distributed, and a local drunk who vaguely resembled her was soon arrested. One of her former lovers was hauled in next, and then a few ne'er-do-wells he knew.

Re "The Web's yellow DNA," Opinion June 22 Jonah Goldberg argues that the Rodney King video shows that reality isn't captured by objective media, as the jury saw something different than the media-fed rioters. Instead of pinpointing a problem with objective media, Goldberg's example highlights a shortcoming of our justice system: a suspect jury made up of something other than one's peers agreed to ignore the obvious, probably because of their fears and prejudice. It wasn't the first time the jury system produced an unjust and incorrect verdict, and sadly, it won't be the last.

The 12 people assembled around the conference table unanimously agreed someone should pay for what happened to Todd O'Malley. The 5-year-old was gravely injured in a botched delivery, and his parents were suing. The lawsuit said the boy's cerebral palsy was caused by a lack of oxygen during birth. Hospital nurses ignored warning signs during his mother's labor, the suit said, despite knowing hers was a high-risk pregnancy. Twelve hours into labor, her uterus ruptured.