Jury Questions in the Jodi Arias Trial

I have begun to transcribe the jury questions for certain witnesses in this case out of my own curiousity but I hope that others might find it interesting too (links to specific posts are below).

If you look closely at these questions I think you can learn something about the jury, exactly what that might be is up to you. There is no way to know which jurors are writing questions and which ones are not and if the questions really reflect how the majority of the jurors think or feel. I still think it is safe enough to assume that at least half of the jurors are submitting questions and I can't help but speculate about what these questions might suggest about how the jury is thinking.

I notice patterns in the questions, how jurors seem to ask more about certain aspects of a witness' testimony than others, the use of certain words or phrases ("Miss Arias" in some questions and "Jodi" in others), how certain words appear frequently and how some questions appear to be rhetorical or "snarky" like one for Dr. Samuels: "Is there a diagnosis for selective amnesia?"

I'll try not to bore you with my own theories about the jurors based on their questions, but I have a feeling that I'll be updating this post with some of them too.

I am using the Jodi Arias trial videos from @croakerqueen and include the approximate time code for when each of the questions are read by Judge Sherry Stephens. I am dating each blog post to the respective day of the trial when these questions were asked.

I am attempting to transcribe the questions exactly as they are read and would love any feedback if you find errors. I number them as they are read out loud but some of them are follow up questions and actually part of what might be considered a single juror question and so my question total may be slightly different than other reports. I am only interested in the juror's questions, not in the witness' answers.

I am fascinated by the jury questions in this case and had never heard of such a thing before. I think it is a wonderful idea to allow jurors to ask questions before any witness leaves the stand and I wish it could be done everywhere! What fascinates me about them in this case and in general is that they give us all at least some idea of what some jurors are thinking about and I would expect that both prosecution and defense teams pay very close attention to the jury questions.

I have completely transcribed all of the jury questions for Jodi Arias (229), Dr. Richard Samuels (105), Alyce LaViolette (161) and Dr. Janeen DeMarte (19). I'm only planning to cover these witnesses. All comments are welcome, either here in the comments or on twitter via @chrisbr40.

• April 18 Jury Questions for Dr. Janeen DeMarte
• April 12 More Jury Questions for Alyce LaViolette
• April 11 Jury Questions for Alyce LaViolette
• March 25 More Jury Questions for Dr. Richard Samuels
• March 21 Jury Questions for Dr. Richard Samuels
• March 13 Even More Jury Questions for Jodi Arias
• March 7 More Jury Questions for Jodi Arias
• March 6 Jury Questions for Jodi Arias

The instructions on juror questions are read out by Judge Sherry Stephens here just before she begins to read the jury questions for Jodi Arias:


Jodi Arias trial videos from @croakerqueen

see Jodi Arias Trial Juror Descriptions by tamaratattles @TamaraTattles