High Tech Exhibits Keep Juries Interested

MELISSA SHEFFLER | WHBQ Fox 13

Jurors are going into the third week of sitting in that jury box in [the] John Ford trial and some are not keeping it a secret that they’re tired.

Ford’s trial is full of documents, notes, transcripts and audio and video recordings. It was enough to overwhelm, and maybe sometimes, bore, a jury. But a Memphis-based company has a way of keeping a jury’s attention by keeping it interactive.

If pictures are worth a thousand words, black and white pencil sketches of John Ford’s corruption trial are very telling. A look on the inside of a Federal courtroom isn’t very exciting.

“Ask anybody to sit in a jury box for eight hours a day for two weeks... is tiring, exhausting,” said Charles Wright, president of Data Company. “It’s a lot of information to retain.”

His staff specializes in capturing a jury’s attention.

“So what we try to do is work with the attorneys to get all their evidence into a computer, if possible, where they can present their evidence to a jury in a clear and cohesive manner,” said Wright.

The Data Company uses computers, highlighted text, video, audio anything to make dozens, even hundreds, of exhibits interesting.

“Research studies show jurors are going to retain 70 percent more of what they see and hear,” he said.

In Ford’s trial, jurors have been through more than 200 exhibits, like legislative documents and committee notes.

It’s enough to make some wiggle in their chairs, stare off into space, even fall asleep.

“If you're an attorney, you never want to look in the jury box and see a juror asleep,” said Wright. “They could be missing key information. But that also tells you, they may be bored with what they’re hearing.”

The two sides in Ford’s trial used interactive ways of displaying the loads of evidence sometimes. Whether they were attention grabbing or not, the jury has to sort through it all.