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Good day ladies and gentlemen. My name is Mark Rollins. I am an attorney here in Washington
D.C. practice primarily in the area of criminal law. I am also licensed in the State of Maryland.
Today we are talking about whether juries in D.C. are able to ask questions to the lawyers
in the case and specifically you may have seen that on TV where in some states where
the juries can actually raise their hand at the conclusion of the testimony of the witness
and question the witness directly. Their answer is not straight forward in D.C.
There is nothing that rules the [inaudible 00:00:43] but you have different judges and
so you are looking at about 50 different courtrooms, 50 different judges in D.C. There is approximately
a little bit more but in any given day you have got 50 judges and each one will determine
in their jury process and in their courtroom whether they will allow the juries to ask
questions in so many cases. It�s not an open and shut case. There are some judges
that will allow the jury to ask question. When the witness finishes testifying, the
juries maybe able to raise their hand and direct the question to the judge and the judge
will present if the judge thinks the question is proper will present their question to the
witness and the witness would have to answer the question if the judge thinks the question
is proper. The vast majority of the judges in D.C. do not do this process and the rationale
behind is that it does slow up the process. It also takes away from the attorneys case.
They are not able to prepare their case the way they want because they dont know what
questions are going to be asked. I can just tell you that 90% of the judges
in D.C., D.C. Superior Court do not allow this process. I hope that helps and appreciate
your watching. If you have any other questions, you can always contact my office. Our number
is 202-455-5610 and you can call us anytime, Monday to Friday and we do take appointments
on Saturdays and Sundays. Thanks for watching. DC lawyer - can jurors ask questions to the
witness in trial