Hello, All. I am picking a juvenile Agg. Assault jury tomorrow, and am having a hard time coming up with hypos for serious bodily injury. SBI is a major issue in our case, so any ideas you have would be appreciated!!!

I had a juvie case where two 15 year olds took turns punching a 13 year old in the face because the young victim was a 'cry baby' and 'deserved it'.

Facial fracture of the cheek [very small crack] served as a permanent injury.

Mr. Ray,
That is helpful. What did you voir dire on, as far as SBI?

As I was going through the elements of the offense and discussing the charge, I stopped on the word serious (not reading 'bodily injury') and looked up asking the panel, what does that mean?

If you can loop several answers about 'serious' together you'll get close to the word 'permanent' out of someone. I spent a few minutes talking about what a permanent injury was. We got 'scar', 'broken bone', and 'dangerous' out of it. I remember the jury got off track a little bit talking about a scar on a woman's face being more 'serious' than a scar on a man's face.

At that point, I read out the definition of SBI and asked what people thought of it. Because they'd already covered alot of the ground themselves, it was easy to see who agreed and patted themselves on the back for being 'right' versus those who wanted to nit-pick about what was 'serious enough' to be a felony. Obviously the nit-pickers got the big kibosh. I seem to recall that I got a strike for cause or two out of people that thought a broken bone on a kid just wasn't serious, 'ie permenant disfigurement' because kids break bones and they heal.

The trick in my case was, my pictures of the child's face the next day were very dramatic. If you get the jury to agree that an injury less than the one you have is 'serious bodily injury', then they're surprised severity of what you have.

And, call me Philip. "Mr. Ray" sounds like my dad.

If you had more contact info in your profile, I'd be glad to call you or start an email conversation back and forth. Although there are far better Voir Dire experts than I lurking about.

Bill Turner has lectured on it at the advanced trial advocacy school. (Bryan / College Station)

Casey Garrett and Troy Cotton presented back in '02 at my Baby Prosecutor's school. (Harris County)

I'd try and email a few of the frequent posters around here for a quick answer. Click on the names to see their emails. Try Gretchen, or Greg, or Terry Breen for a quick helpful responses. I've also gotten great help from Robert Duboise, Mike Little, Tim Salley, and Wes Mau.

Thanks, Phillip!!! That really helps! I'll update my profile as well.

The questions will depend on what your injury is, but Philip has a very good point about under selling the injury.

Well, my juvenile last week, at the 11th hour, decided to go to the judge instead of a jury. what a let down! But, Judge found him true (guilty) on the aggravated assault, and sent him to TYC. Thanks for all the advice--I have a rockin' voir dire for my next agg. assault.