The Baltimore Sun's federal court reporter, Tricia Bishop, has an interesting story today on jury bias and how stereotypes can often be wrong.

I was particularly interested in one section in which the jury in the Patrick Byers -- the man who ordered a hit on a witness -- was analyzed and found that a juror candidate who grew up in the same tough neighborhood as the defendant was harsher than her fellow jurors.

She faced the same hardship but she didn't grow up to kill anybody.

The article focuses on the federal court, but I bring this up because we so often talk about how tough it is to win a conviction in Baltimore Circuit Court because of mistrust of police and that many jurors come from the same neighborhoods as the defendants. But they also come from the same neighborhoods as many of the victims, and could just as easily know the mother of the guy who was shot as the guy who did the shooting.

Tricia points out that jury biases have been around for decades and she provides an interesting list. I'd be interested to hear what you think.