Does anyone have any material on preparing for voir dire on a narcotics case? I am a new narcotics prosecutor and would appreciate any help or material. Thanks.

Justin

I used to prosecute drug cases on the border (for over four years) and have had a chance to prosecute a few more here in Washington Co. Every case is just a bit different. Sometimes the issue to focus on is inconsistent stories on travel plans, or reasonable suspicion for a stop, or how do you tell if people are telling the truth or not (sweating when cold weather, won't look agent in the eye, different stories from passengers, etc.). Sometimes you need to focus on what possession means (doesn't have to be on your body for you to be found guilty). I had a lot of gas tank cases at the checkpoints. I like to use the example of your car is in your possession as you sit here at jury duty. No, it's not in your pocket, but you have care, custody, control of it because you parked it, locked it & have the keys in your pocket or purse. Maybe you borrowed car from mom or dad. You don't own the car, but you are in possession. Just think about what the defense attorney has harped on the most at your pretrial meetings & think of examples on how to overcome his arguments while educating the jury. Hope this helped. E-mail me if you have any questions about this: ehernandez@wacounty.com