Police officers and doctors are held to a higher standard from my experience in juror’s deliberations and they vote accordingly. As a jury consultant, I have heard potential jurors say “if a doctor or police officer acted inappropriately they would be harsher and return a verdict accordingly.” Why? They are responsible for the care and safety of others and when that breaks down there are no excuses when dealing with the life or death of a person. During Jury selection the potential jurors will be asked a series of questions by the state and defense to determine bias, called the Voir Dire process. I call this de-selection, the process of purging out of the dangerous jurors that may be more predisposed towards the defendant from the State’s point of view.
The questions that may be asked are the juror’s level of education, knowledge in the medical field, if they were or had a family member that has been a victim or plaintiff in a medical practice lawsuit, the age of the juror, marital status, and if they watch television programs like “House.” It doesn’t look good for celebrity physician, Dr. Murray. He is appears stressed, and depressed with little or no expression except sadness. In hindsight, I do believe Dr. Murray is regretful and it was not a purposeful act as Murray appears to have genuine remorse of the death of Michael Jackson. As a jury consultant it is never a slam dunk or 100% predictable when it comes to jurors’ verdicts. I have seen many guilty people walk right out of the courtroom even when the evidence points to guilt and many harshly sentenced for acts much more heinous in nature.