Prosecution and defense attorneys also declined to speak about the matter. Legal experts said that the reason jurors must not discuss cases outside the jury room is that all members should be privy to arguments, and such activity can allow an unfair group dynamic to develop. An individual should not investigate the case themselves, or look up legal terms on their own, or appeal to a juror by himself away from the group. Sometimes these activities follow a jury deadlocking on a verdict, or involve a case where one juror has taken a lone position unpopular with the rest of the jury, he said. And everybody tries to twist his arm and make him see it their way.
Opinions get a lot sharper in that situation, and they all focus on the individual.
Walter Peters, a psychologist who studies jury dynamics for Trial Behavior Consulting Inc. in San Francisco, said private jury talk can dramatically alter the inner workings of a jury. That could be a concern. You could have a group of people who would vote a certain way because they talked about the trial outside the presence of the other jurors. During the trial, Murphy's defense attorney, John D. Arseneault of Chatham, made the patronage issue a keystone of the defense. He told the six men and six women jurors that the medical panel appointments were routine political patronage, and that two Central Medical executives who ran afoul of the law later made the panel look corrupt.