As a former (and probably future) juror, I have some brief advice for lawyers: don’t put family members on the witness stand. Their testimony is worth less than zero and the jurors know that; further, they might even hurt your side of the case by exaggeration, obvious bias in favor of the relative, and effusive praise on their side and disdain and contempt on the other.
I’ve been on criminal trials where one response—just one—from the mother or father of an accuser or central witness was enough to convince the jury to acquit. Just one response.
Though jurors are often individually inept, just like everyone else (hello, peers!), as a body they perform a pretty good job at reasoning through testimony and arriving at a logical conclusion. For this and other reasons, if ever a juror raises his or her hand during testimony to have a question and answer read back from the court reporter, then you should see red flags waving and hear alarm bells going off. Something is wrong. Whatever was just said in testimony has made the jury confused (yes, the entire jury—not just the single juror who raised his or her hand). I’ve seen this happen, as well as been the hand-raiser, where the lawyers didn’t take the hint and immediately try to follow up with more questions to settle the problem. They all paid the price of losing their respective cases. All of them.
In closing, dear trial lawyers, keep the family members at home or in the gallery and if you see confusion in the jury, then fix it quickly. Your case depends on it.
