Bound and Gagged: The Peculiar Predicament of Professional Jurors

Abstract

A physicist sits as a juror in a murder case. The victim is a six-year-old boy. The cause of death: a screwdriver driven into the boy's chest. The boy's father, who is charged with murder, claims the boy accidentally tripped and fell onto the screwdriver in the bathroom. In support of this theory, the defense calls an expert witness, a physicist who testifies that-given the physical characteristics of the entry wound and the way objects are propelled through space-it is unlikely the boy was intentionally stabbed. The physicist juror disagrees, and during jury deliberations he suggests that the calculations the expert witness presented do not support the defense's conclusions. The jury convicts.