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As the movie’s title suggests, ‘Runaway Jury’ is a story of the independent body of juror who are on a case. The movie opens with a scene of shooting in an industrial building. The case involves a lawsuit of a widow and gun making company since her husband was killed in gunfire incident because the deadly weapon was easily accessible. The wife then hires a lawyer against the gun manufacturers and the defense hires a lawyer. The movie however takes an interesting twist where the focus is put on jury selection process and on the insides of the jury’s decision-making process.
A woman on the outside attempted to make a bribe with Fitch who was hired by Cable (on the gun manufacturer’s side) asking 10 million dollar and she would help him by swinging jury’s decision in his favor. She had a different agenda along with one of the jurors, juror number 9, who was also her boyfriend. Since she was able to predict jury’s move all the time, she tried to contact Fitch, she gained his trust for what it led to making the deal. By the end of the movie, the jury makes a decision in the favor of plaintiff which was also their potential aim along with having those 10 million dollars. Turned out that Marlee (who made the deal) had some personal enmity which timed back to about 10 years ago in her hometown when she lost her sister in a shooting and Fitch helped the gun manufacturer to win the case.
The movie is a very precise and accurate reflection of Jury selection process however it is contaminated and unreal to be applied in a true legal system. When it is time to be on the jury trial, anyone is eligible to be on the jury (conditions applied). ‘Runaway Jury’ heavily focused on the jury selection process however; they do neglect the core principles of the jury, primarily impartiality. There have been many scenes which were clearly evidence of misconducts and biasness. Scene where jurors were seen having lunch on the outside of the courthouse and especially the judge paying for the meal is clear example of being influenced. Also, Mr. Rohr not reporting the deal offered to buy the jury’s decision was an act of misconduct.
Several other issues like collecting information on the jurors and threatening them to sway their decision in defendant’s favor. Such a thing is not likely to take place in an actual jury trial in real life which has access to juror’s personal life and even to their house to manipulate the decision. This was taken to an extent where a member of the defendant’s side breaks in Nick’s house to gather information in their defense. Subsequently, when it was revealed to the lawyer, no action was taken to look into this matter, which might not happen in legal system in real life. Our text does state that the lawyers may not have any contact outside of the courthouse with the juror and have no access to any personal information.
The movie has posed as unethical in selecting jury members since Nick who is one of the juror’s is rather more influenced than his own personal feelings and prejudice along with his significant other on the outside instead of the evidence that is presented in the courthouse. There are a lot of things that pose threat to an important characteristic of the jury’ impartiality and personal bias is one of them. The whole movie revolves around some of the major ethical issues in the jury systems that are deemed of utmost importance.
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