West Virginia Jury Pool Too Opinionated to Seat a Jury in a Tobacco Trial
One of my news clipping services brought me this fascinating tidbit from The West Virginia Record: after 3 days of trying to empanel a jury in a massive liability trial over cigarettes, the court simply gave up. It had gone through 650 prospective jurors and only qualified 6 for potential service. According to the article, "Lawyers excused a woman who said people have no right to sue over diseases that are disclosed on the warning label of a package." Funny, I would have liked her on my jury.
The court will try again in June, this time with a panel of 2,000 prospective jurors.
The article's description of the trial raises some constitutional questions, too. Apparently one jury would participate in the liability trial, and if it finds the defendants liable, a second jury would be empaneled for a damages trial. Seventh Amendment, anyone? (Or at least, as my colleague Hayden Coleman correctly points out, its state constitutional equivalent?)
