Federal Judiciary

Eastern District jurors

By Michael C. Smith

In talking with some of the people who saw parts of the i4i trial which concluded yesterday in Tyler, one thing came out that I thought might be of interest, and that was the education and technical expertise of the jurors in the case.  Traditionally, Eastern District jurors are perceived (at least outside the district) as having a generally inadequate - or at least reduced - degree of educational or technical sophistication, which I've always told people is a dangerous stereotype to subscribe to.  (In plainer terms, y'all think we're all dumb hicks who just hang out with farm animals.  Well, to quote Jim Kirk from the recent Star Trek movie in response to a slightly different question "well, not just farm animals").
However in this case  I understand that the jury foreman (or woman - I didn't ask) - had three college degrees, including one graduate degree, there were a couple of college educated on the jury whose majors had been in mathematics, and one had a degree in computer science. (Of course Judge Davis has a master's degree in computer science as well, so he stood ready to handle any technical issues involving punch cards).   There was also a supervisor for a telecommunications firm with several thousand employees that used computers daily.  And six of the eight used a computer on a regular or daily basis for word processing or Internet access.  Not a bad panel for a case involving computer word processing software.
Of course, maybe daily users of computers weren't Microsoft's target jurors ...

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on May 21, 2009 (boomark / email).