- Jurors like to be able to submit written questions during trial (who wouldn’t want that option?)
- Jurors like preliminary jury instructions from the judge (who wouldn’t want to be oriented on the legal issues in the case at the outset?)
- Jurors like interim statements by counsel, rather than waiting until the end of the case (who wouldn’t like to be told what’s going on at various points during a long trial, rather than have to wait until the end, when it may be difficult to remember the testimony of witnesses who testified weeks earlier?)
All of this, and a bit more, is in the Seventh Circuit Bar Association American Jury Project Commission Report.
Lets see, the commission was comprised of three co-chairs, a four-person Executive Committee, and fifty eight (58) lawyers and judges, mostly from Chicago, and took three years to generate its report. Wow, those commission meetings must have been great networking opportunities. The full two hundred page-plus pdf report is here (click at your own risk).