July 15 Meeting: Can Civility Return to American Criminal Justice?

Imagine criminal prosecutions where trials, not plea bargaining, decide the outcome. Trials where civility reigns, free of objections, with no interruptions for sidebar conferences. The spotlight focuses on the witnesses, not the attorneys, and a spirit of accommodation rather than contentiousness prevails. Such trials would eliminate many of the routine confrontations familiar in American courtrooms. Defense counsel would postpone its opening statement until after the prosecution has presented its case. Minor problems, such as the wording of a leading question, are often resolved quietly between opposing counsel without interrupting the proceedings.

Such trials are not merely figments of the imagination. They occur every day in England, as Dennis Turner discovered when he spent several months working side-by-side with a British barrister. After assisting in the preparation for criminal trials on both the prosecution and defense sides, he came away with many questions: Would justice be better served if certain elements of the British approach? Would they be welcomed by American jurors? Would greater civility strengthen American criminal law? 

On return to America, Turner and a colleague, Solomon Fulero, conducted an experiment designed to answer such questions. Learn about the results and ask your own questions at the July 15 meeting of the Northport Cracker Barrel. 

Suggested readings:

• Can criminal trials be less combative without sacrificing justice? Adapted for background reading from Turner and Fulero, with discussion topics. 
• Can Civility Return to the Courtroom? Will American Jurors Like It? Dennis Turner and Solomon Fulero, full article from Ohio State Law Journal.
• An American Yankee in King Alfred's Court.  New book by Dennis Turner.