The Problem:
Jurors are sleeping during trials and missing important evidence, and courts are
unsure what to make of it.
- In an Illinois appellate court, the Judge noticed a juror sleeping and so did the defense attorney. The defendant was convicted of first degree murder, and the court did not reverse for plain error (People v. Gonzales, 900 N.E2d 1165).
- Plain error is difficult for the defense because the defendant must show she was prejudiced by the error, i.e. since the juror was asleep the juror missed essential parts of trial and/or it changed the outcome of the trial by tipping the scales.
- Another issue is that the defendant bears the burden. The burden is not a light one, because it is difficult to ascertain how the jury reached an opinion due to the numerous protections in place to preserve the secrecy of juror deliberations.
- However, in another case, a conviction was reversed because the judge recognized a juror sleeping throughout most of trial (People v. Jones, 861 N.E.2d 276).
- The law distinguishing the two cases above seems to be how asleep the juror appeared to the judge and for how long. This is a very subjective standard.
- Another court reversed in favor of the defendant when three difference sources agreed that a juror was sleeping. Therefore, it was abuse of discretion by the previous court (Commonwealth v. Braun, 905 N.E.2d 124).
- Some courts deny a new trial when a juror sleeps during closing argument, while others equate a longer snooze during closing to prejudice appropriate for a new trial (People v. Evans, 710 P.2d 1167; State v. Yamada, 122 P.3d 254).
- The Ohio Court of Appeals overturned a murder conviction when a juror slept through testimony of a key eyewitness.
The Cause: There are a few potential places to attribute blame
for sleeping jurors.
- Boredom could be a cause for jurors to fall asleep, especially since one juror even fled the courthouse at lunch for this specific reason.
- School psychology could explain it: jurors are learning so much dense information at once that there is a drop in their ability to pay attention to the task at hand.
- Jurors are away from their technology for a lengthy amount of time during a predominately digital age and might be having withdrawals.
- They’re tired!! Zzz...
The Solution: The solution comes from figuring out whose
responsibility it is to address sleeping beauty (oops, I mean juror).
- In a few courts even though the judge recognized the juror was sleeping and the attorney noted for the record that she had to be awoken, the issue was waived since the defendant did not request to question the juror about the incident.
- One solution is for the judge to stress to the jury in pre-trial instructions that sleeping in the jury box is prohibited and to empower the jurors to ask for a recess if someone is feeling sleepy.
- Courts could also conduct a hearing after learning of a sleeping juror to determine the potential prejudice and how much information they missed.
- Attorneys could strike panel members in voir dire who have a tendency to fall asleep at certain times. They could question members of the panel about their sleeping habits.
- Allowing jurors to take notes would be another solution to help them stay awake.
- More participation by jurors in the legal system would help jurors to stay engaged, according to the school psychology theory.
- Judges can rule on admissibility of evidence before the trial and rarely allow sidebars in order to keep the jury focused.
- The court can have alternates jurors ready in case the sleeping juror must be discharged.
- The court could even hold the juror in contempt for sleeping.
Stay woke, jurors!
Author: Jamie-Lee Denton
Candidate for Juris Doctor, May 2019
SMU Dedman School of Law
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