Legal Definitions - fixing a jury

Fixing a jury, more commonly known as jury-fixing, refers to the illegal act of corruptly influencing or attempting to influence the decision of a jury in a legal case. This can involve various illicit methods designed to sway jurors towards a particular verdict, undermine their impartiality, or compromise the integrity of the judicial process. It is a serious criminal offense that obstructs justice and threatens the fairness of trials.

Here are some examples illustrating jury-fixing:

• Example 1: Bribery Attempt

  During a high-profile corporate fraud trial, an associate of one of the defendants secretly approaches a juror outside the courthouse. The associate offers the juror a substantial sum of money in exchange for voting "not guilty" during deliberations. This act constitutes jury-fixing because it is a direct attempt to corruptly influence a juror's decision through bribery, thereby undermining the impartiality of the jury.

• Example 2: Intimidation or Coercion

  In a criminal case involving organized crime, a family member of the accused sends anonymous, threatening letters to a juror's home, implying harm to their family if the verdict is not favorable to the defendant. This is an instance of jury-fixing because it involves using intimidation and coercion to improperly influence a juror's judgment and decision-making process, rather than allowing them to decide based solely on the evidence presented in court.

• Example 3: Providing Unauthorized Information

  A witness who testified for the prosecution in a civil lawsuit later contacts a juror through social media, sharing additional "evidence" and opinions about the case that were not presented during the trial. The witness urges the juror to consider this new information when deliberating. This action is considered jury-fixing because it introduces extraneous, unvetted information to a juror outside of the proper legal channels, attempting to sway their decision based on factors not permitted by the court and compromising the fairness of the trial.