The Jury Pool Problem: How Pre-Trial Media Coverage Shapes Verdicts Before Opening Arguments

Before the first witness is sworn in, has your case already lost the room?  Long before a jury is seated, people are forming opinions. They're reading headlines, scrolling past news alerts, and absorbing whatever version of events has made it into the public conversation. By the time those same people show up to voir dire, they're not blank slates — they're consumers of a narrative