I missed a day blogging and for that I apologize my dear readers, but I finished the infamous paper that I had so procrastinated on. Submission time was about 5 am. Good googli moo.
It is a fascinating paper about Arizona's jury reform in terms of change management. Back in 1993, Arizona started a jury innovation project designed to increase juror decision-making. Here is a small excerpt:
Although Arizona is one of the states that guarantees the right to a jury trial for both criminal and civil cases (Arizona Constitution, art. 2, s. 23), there was dissatisfaction with the overall system of jury trials. Dissatisfaction with jury trials is not new, but the right elements came together at the opportune time in the appropriate state. While jury reform has been under siege for a long time, the battle advanced significantly when the Honorable B. Michael Dann, then presiding judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court in Arizona wrote a thesis paper for his Master of Judicial Studies degree about how to create educated and democratic juries. He discussed four main topics pertinent to jury reform:
1) the decline from an active juror role to one of passivity,
2) how established psychological and educational principles apply to juror decision making,
3) commonly suggested techniques to improve juror participation, and
4) two obscure techniques.
He also sent this paper to a friend and colleague back in Arizona, who happened to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Arizona.
And that is how jury reform started, because Arizona is recognized as the leader in this area.
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