1. not your mother’s Voir Dire
“Get Them Talking”

2. Voir Dire Standard - lecture the jury on the law.
Ask questions using limited facts from your case, Standefer.
Read for prosecution’s understanding of Standefer.
BORING!

3. Not mother’s Voir dire Presided over hundreds of cases and hearings.
Saw hundreds of lawyers from all over Texas.
Good, Bad and Ugly.

4. Run away, far, far away from being a lawyer!
NOT Mother’s Voir Dire
Run away, far, far away from being a lawyer!

5. Not mother’s voir dire Let the jury talk to each other.
Gerry Spence - show them yours, then ask them to show you theirs.
Listen to them - during prosecutor, and your voir dire.
Watch them - look for body language, nonverbal cues.

6. You start by telling your story - have a theme; trilogy, poem, tagline; anything that sticks.
Know your case - legal issues, science, your weakness, the prosecution’s weakness, visit or know the scene.

7. How to get them talking:
Books they have recently read
Movies they recently watched
News articles
TV shows - South Park.
Political views - risky but always a good way to bust a panel.

8. Scaled Questions Use them to “score” your panel.
Before trial decide on the type of juror you want.
Get rid of everyone who does not fit your score.

9. Set up your case in voir dire - order of trial
anticipate your opponent - tell them what to expect
ask their permission to do your job
5th amendment - why not take the stand?
Let them know you might have to get rough with police.

10. Police Cross
The prosecutor has made this person out to be an expert in ___________.
What is your job - not to counter that, but improve on it.
Expert - Master Police Officer; 2200 hours of training, 20 plus years on duty, expert.

11. Police cross
Only after you have built him up - begin to show the cracks
Example - speeding without radar
Example - DIC-24, SFST,
dig into their actual training - how many pages, how long to read through the material;

12. police cross seminar materials - how much time studying after seminar
ever attend “real” training - not “police training”

13. Police cross Be nice, polite Be firm Use your “Spider Sense”
Keep records of testimony
Keep transcripts

14. police cross Make database of officer’s training Talk to other lawyers
Know the bad apples
ONLY leading questions
Example - Troy Phipps

15. police cross Would not answer questions.
State v. Jason Ryan Jones, , 9th Court of Appeals, Beaumont, July 15, 2009

17. “The court further determined that Trooper Phipps was not a credible and reliable witness with respect to whether Jones’s vehicle had been moving without a blinker before stopping at the intersection and that Trooper Phipps had not actually observed Jones’s vehicle during the last 100 feet of movement before Jones turned.”

18. “Not a credible and reliable witness” - HE LIED
This is the 9th Court of Appeals
What is it called when a person lies under oath?
Admissible in future testimony?
What happens to witness that commits perjury?

19. Police cross Keep records Build that database Help each other
ONLY leading questions

20. Kelly W. Case