The Runaway Jury

The Runaway Jury- By John Grisham

3rd Quarter – Period D

Crey Bankes

Moodle Entry:

February 5, 2012

Pages 1-159- The Runaway Jury

I have chosen “The Runaway Jury” by John Grisham for my 3^rd quarter independent reading assignment. This fictional book is about a legal case, Wood vs. Pynex. The widow of Mr. Jacob Wood is filing the law suite. The widow is suing the tobacco company for her husband’s death. Her suit claims that smoking cigarettes caused Mr. Wood’s lung cancer.

The beginning of the book describes how multiple cases have been tried on individuals suing the big four tobacco manufacturers. Eight cases have been tried and the defense has won in six out of eight cases. In two cases, the judge determined mistrials. The anxiety for the tobacco manufacturers is that if a case wins anywhere, it opens up a potential of hundreds of new law suites being filed against the big four companies.

The defense and the plaintiff spend a large amount of money investigating the jury that will serve on the case. It is extremely important that the jury is properly selected. If the jury has a bias one way or another, it will determine the outcome of the case. The judge in the case is Harkin and the case is being tried in Mississippi. The jury selection takes 3 business days and a diverse group of people was chosen.

Juror number 2 is Mr. Easton, a 28-year-old white male that works at the local mall. This juror puzzled both the defense and the plaintiff’s legal teams but he ended up being on the jury. He is quite mysterious and has served on previous tobacco cases in Pennsylvania.

The book has been full of suspense. The topic of tobacco use and the link to cancer is very controversial. Although individuals that smoke are aware of the harm, tobacco is addictive. I look forward to continuing to read this book.