Attacks alter the courtroom

Bias concerns have delayed trials, jury selection is tougher, and the legal system may change in other ways after Sept. 11.

By ANITA KUMAR

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 9, 2001

The murder trial of a black militant turned Muslim cleric was postponed in Atlanta. So was a Santa Ana, Calif., case of an Egyptian butcher accused of molesting a boy. And in Knoxville, Tenn., an international money-laundering trial involving a businessman of Palestinian descent was delayed as well.

In each case, judges agreed with defense attorneys, and even some prosecutors, that jurors would be biased against people from the Middle East -- or those who look or sound like them -- following the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil.

Since Sept. 11, cases across the nation have been rescheduled, some postponed indefinitely, for fear of juror bias. That includes a case in which the accused is a Christian supposedly persecuted by Muslims in his homeland.

Though potential prejudice against Middle Eastern immigrants may be the most serious effect on the court system, legal experts expect other changes in jurors' attitudes to affect both civil and criminal cases for months to come.

Lawyers already have had trouble picking juries, and some describe the situation as worse than it ever was during the Persian Gulf War because the attacks hit closer to home.

"Jurors are a product of their environment," Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe said. "They are always going to look at things differently depending on what's happened. You are never going to have a sterile atmosphere."

Some of the changes, large and small, that jury consultants, lawyers and others foresee in the immediate future are jurors favoring police, firefighters and other emergency workers whom they have watched risking their lives trying to rescue victims. That could leave some defense lawyers reluctant to question police work in front of jurors.

Jurors may be more willing to convict those who are charged, especially those accused of violent crimes, arson or making a bomb threat, experts say. At the same time, they probably will be less shocked by gruesome photos of crime scenes after being bombarded with horrific pictures of people jumping out of the World Trade Center towers.

Some experts say jurors will place a new value on life and may be less sympathetic to those who file lawsuits involving money or minor injuries, such as those stemming from car accidents or slips and falls. But others, including Clearwater attorney Jeff Brown, wonder if people will give more money in civil cases because they realize now that life is worth more.

Beth Bochnak, a trial consultant at the National Jury Project in New Jersey, said some people are feeling especially patriotic and want to serve on a jury, just as they want to wave an American flag and give blood, just so they can do something for their country.

"We haven't seen any sign jurors are acting negatively," she said. "Some people are happy to do something."

Some of these findings are mirrored in a recent survey of the nation's top jury consultants by Lawyers Weekly USA, a trade publication for attorneys.

"People are feeling angry, vulnerable and patriotic, and they are going to bring those feelings into the jury box with them," publisher Tom Harrison said.

"The whole idea of a jury is that people bring their collective experience as citizens into the courtroom. That collective experience was profoundly changed on Sept. 11, and there's no doubt that people are going to be making different judgments as a result."

Lawyers sometimes find that potential jurors are biased about one subject in one city, but that does not usually carry over to other cities or states. But today, jurors' attitudes may be the same across the nation, which means judges can't just move a case from one location to another to avoid bias as they sometimes do.

That's why attorneys are asking for postponements -- though sometimes judges refuse to grant them -- or, as Clearwater attorney Denis deVlaming says, both sides may be willing to settle a case without a jury.

An Arab-American passenger recently settled a lawsuit against American Airlines days before a trial was set to begin, partly because of worries an anti-Islamic sentiment would poison the jury. Mohammad Abdel Khaliq, a U.S.-Jordanian duel national, sued the airline over a crash in Little Rock, Ark., that killed 11 people in 1999.

The terrorist attacks already had changed the outcome of some cases, deVlaming acknowledged, but he said the legal system would soon return to its old ways, though that may take longer as the U.S. engages in war.

"Americans are get-on-with-it people," deVlaming said. "I just think it will slowly go back to normal."

For now, though, the U.S. legal system continues to be affected by the attacks.

Countless cases have been postponed. Some, primarily in the first week, were because judges, including those in the Tampa Bay area, worried that jurors were distracted. But others were postponed because witnesses had difficulty traveling because of the airlines' financial and security problems and because attorneys and investigators, mostly in the federal system, were reassigned to terrorism cases.

The trials of a fired Hialeah police officer accused of laundering drug money and the former head of the Palm Beach County housing finance authority accused of kickbacks were postponed because prosecutors and FBI agents were working on the attack inquiry.

The terrorism even led to the postponement of a criminal trial in Hong Kong after two key prosecution witnesses from California were unwilling to fly so soon after the hijackings.

Although delays because of scheduling conflicts are starting to subside, the ones based on juror bias concerns are becoming more common.

"The mood in the country is one of hatred for those with a Middle Eastern appearance," said Gary Moran, a psychology professor at Florida International University and a jury consultant. "It does not take a genius to recognize that jurors are biased."

St. Petersburg lawyer Dyril Flanagan, who represents an Iraqi man charged with drunken driving, said juror attitude worries him so much that he would ask for a delay if his trial were around the corner. He said he worried that people would be biased against all people from that part of the world, without knowing anything about them.

"It's like being Japanese after Pearl Harbor," he said.

-- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright