MovieChat Forums > Runaway Jury (2003) Discussion > How did Nick get into the jury pool

How did Nick get into the jury pool

posted 8 years ago by tomtomkraft
7 replies | jump to latest

Everything had been planned but Nick could not plan to be chosen as candidate for jury duty in this perticular trial. How did he manage that? What does the book say?

[–] SkiesAreBlue 8 years ago

He drew attention to himself like he was trying to get out of jury duty which made The selectors thinking, " who does this jerk think he is. He's not getting out of this"

SkiesAreBlue

[–] transmentalist 8 years ago

Remember, too, this film shows us the one time that Nick actually DID make it onto the jury.

HIs background suggests he & Marley had made several attempts over the years; this was the first time they succeeded

[–] db20db (17235) a year ago

"...this was the first time they succeeded"

Exactly, and it explains his cryptic, mumbling response of "Christmas coming early" when he received the jury summons in the mail when we see thereafter that he appears to be doing everything possible to avoid serving. We eventually learn it was part of an elaborate and successful charade.

I love John Grisham legal thrillers! He's a talented storyteller.

[–] Savior_89 8 years ago

Not only did he get chosen out of the people questioned for the jury (I can buy him tricking his way into the 12), but he actually got lucky enough for the jury duty in the first place (out of millions eligible). Lucky it was exactly what they wanted, and not some car accident or something.

Suspension of disbelief, I guess.

This is just my signature and is not part of the post lol...
- Signature, Mr

[–] tomtomkraft 8 years ago

That's exactely what I mean. There are some scenes that give an indication. At about 1:05 the computer technician says he retrieved some fragments of a list of registered voters for Cincinnati. "Why would Nicholas Easter want a list of registered voters in Cincinnati?" Fitch: "Because voter registration lists lead to potential jury pools." And at 1:15 "I got Mr. Easter's list of potential jurors. Boston, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati." "They've been stalking gun cases. Now they're in the house." Finally at 1:24 "We've been poring over those boxes of jury files. We found this in the Cincinnati stack (picture of Nick). He used the name David Lancaster. He was prospective juror number 54 but he didn't make it on." The movie wants us to believe Nick was able to manipulate the list in some way.

[–] markfilipak (1) 7 years ago

Hello,

How Nick got into the jury pool is answered by Mr. Lamb after Rankin Fitch asks, "Mr. Lamb, how did this confidence man crash my jury pool?" (@0:52:57) Lamb reckons that Nick hacked his way into the municipal database -- weak protocols. It's later shown that Nick (or rather, Jeff Kerr) hacked voter databases in various cities over time to register his various aliases to make those aliases eligible (as resident), then hacked the voter roles to add those names & residences to the various jury lists of interest. Until Wood v. Vicksburg Firearms, he was unsuccessful actually getting into a trial for various reasons. In Wood v. Vicksburg Firearms he finally was successful.

Nick did plan to be a candidate in this particular trial, as he had in previous gun trials. The difference this time is that he survived the culling process, preemptory challenge for example, that he could not control. Presumably, he learned how to get through, for example, by his Madden Football Challenge ploy.

I hope I've answered your question about this outstanding film.

[–] JFZ (1459) a year ago

The author wrote it that way.