I was a jury foreman on a wrongful death trial - head on, person who died was in the wrong lane - I was shocked to even make it on to the jury (grilled pretty hard by both sides). Anyway, we had 3 people who felt the family should get some sort of payout no matter who's fault it was (stick it to the insurance company). The poor driver who survived and clearly wasn't at fault had gone through years of suffering up to that trial, and the family's scumbag lawyer wasn't making it any easier.
Fortunately, we were able to convince them that the person who died was clearly in the wrong lane and caused the accident, the first sticking point (thanks to the ambulance chasing scumbag), and then get them to put themselves into that situation and admit that they would feel horrible being told they were partially at fault for being there going about their normal business.
We also had to come up with a $ value of the income lost due to the death, which was quite challenging due to the deceased spotty work history. We assumed the recent history was a sign of positive change, and with insurance and what-not, rung up a nice $500K value, which the judge said would make the family feel better. Hmmm, ok....that's nice....
Put those same people on a jury where capital punishment is involved, and I don't think you'll even get so much as a slap on the wrist out of them.
Absolutely.
I was a jury foreman on a wrongful death trial - head on, person who died was in the wrong lane - I was shocked to even make it on to the jury (grilled pretty hard by both sides). Anyway, we had 3 people who felt the family should get some sort of payout no matter who's fault it was (stick it to the insurance company). The poor driver who survived and clearly wasn't at fault had gone through years of suffering up to that trial, and the family's scumbag lawyer wasn't making it any easier.
Fortunately, we were able to convince them that the person who died was clearly in the wrong lane and caused the accident, the first sticking point (thanks to the ambulance chasing scumbag), and then get them to put themselves into that situation and admit that they would feel horrible being told they were partially at fault for being there going about their normal business.
We also had to come up with a $ value of the income lost due to the death, which was quite challenging due to the deceased spotty work history. We assumed the recent history was a sign of positive change, and with insurance and what-not, rung up a nice $500K value, which the judge said would make the family feel better. Hmmm, ok....that's nice....
Put those same people on a jury where capital punishment is involved, and I don't think you'll even get so much as a slap on the wrist out of them.