Galleon case tests the limits of jury research
The Wall Street Journal continues its postmortem of the Raj Rajaratnam trial in an article that offers insight into the potentials and the limits of jury research. The story reports that the jury consultants hired by Rajaratnam picked the jury they wanted--one that was skeptical of the government's case and sympathetic to the defendant.
A mock trial conducted in advance of the real trial told consultants that the defense counsel's case played best with "those without advanced-education degrees or financial sophistication and with relatively low- to middle-income jobs. Mock jurors who were members of the ethnic minority groups also were more sympathetic to Mr. Rajaratnam," the story reads. That description matched the jury that ultimately convicted the defendant, however, suggesting that jury research only gets you so far against a strong adversary.
That said, such reports shouldn't be taken as evidence against the value of mock trials and consultants. In some cases, they are essential to success. Given the comments of jurors after the trial, it would seem the defense had as good a jury as could be expected.
Had the government's case been a bit weaker, we could be talking about a surprise acquittal. In the end, the most one can do is position one's client as advantageously as possible relative to the evidence in question. Good, credible jury research generally advances that goal.
