Investigating jury bias in a child molestation case

Abstract

Defendants in most criminal cases have a constitutional right to be tried by a jury, however they may waive that right and elect to be tried by a judge. In several states and the federal criminal system, waiver of a jury trial requires the consent of the prosecution. Based on a United States Supreme Court decision in Singer v. United States, a criminal defendant does not have a constitutional right to bench a trial, although the Court acknowledged that certain cases might exist in which “passion, prejudice … public feeling” or other factors might render an impartial trial by jury impossible or unlikely. The present article describes one attempt to prove the Singer exception because of strongly biased pretrial publicity in a Virginia child molestation case.