You may not have heard of jury consultant Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, but there's a good chance you've heard of one of her many clients, including O.J. Simpson and Scott Peterson and Kyle Rittenhouse. She worked alongside the criminal defense teams as Simpson and Peterson, respectively, stood trial on charges of murdering his ex-wife and his wife and with Rittenhouse's team as he stood trial on charges that he wrongly killed two men at a protest that followed the police killing of a suspect.
Dimitrius became famous for developing the jury profile in Simpson's 1995 trial. She described the "perfect juror" for the defense in that case as a "female, African-American with a high school education or less," and her guidance helped Simpson's defense team select specific individuals from the jury pool, including six African American women, to hear the case. Simpson, who died this month of cancer, was acquitted.
Last week, all eyes were on the jury selection process for former President Donald Trump's New York trial on 34 Class E felony counts of first-degree falsification of business records. According to Dimitrius, who spoke to NBC News about the work jury consultants do, Trump's team has been working with Magna Legal Services, a jury consulting company based in Philadelphia.
This is a preview of Katie S. Phang's latest article. Read the full column here.
