Jury: The People Vs. Juan Corona

by Victor Villaseñor

Book Overview

On May 20, 1971, the body of a brutally murdered man was dug up by sheriff????????s deputies near Yuba City, California. Over the next two weeks, two dozen more bodies would be discovered. Juan... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316903000
• ISBN13: 9780316903004
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Little Brown & Company
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating Case Study of the U.S. Justice System

In May 1971, a body was found in an orchard near Yuba City, California-then another, then another. Finally, a total of 25 bodies of male field workers were unearthed. The accused was labor contractor Juan Corona of what was, at the time, the largest mass murder case attributed to one man in United States history. Victor Villasenor interviewed the men and women on the jury not long after the verdict was announced in 1973 (the book was published in 1977). Villasenor tells the Corona case through the words of the jury members in the deliberation room and follows their progress each day as minds change and tempers flare. Many times while reading this book I wondered how these 12 jurors ever agreed to a verdict. There is much repetition in this book. Jurors complained so many times about how defense attorney Richard Hawk did not put on a case that I almost said aloud "Get over it already!". Repetition is understandable because some jury members had to go over pieces of evidence and strange speculations over and over again. I have never been on a jury. I can only assume this example is atypical considering the magnitude of the case and the peculiar personalities of some of the jurors. Still, I became immersed in this book. I only wish there were photos of those involved in the case so I can picture the scenes in my mind better. In addition, the author includes some of the experiences of the Corona family members as they struggled with a second language, unfamiliar justice system, and a blood-thirsty media. An up-to-date chapter would be a welcomed addition. Corona was retried in 1982 based on a few of the problems with his defense that was brought up by jury members in this book, but was still found guilty.

Great book for trial lawyers.

I am a lawyer who has done jury trials and expects to do some more in the future. I thought I knew how to try cases. When I read this book, however, I realized how little I and my fellow lawyers know about jurys. This book is a detailed account of the jury deliberations in People v Juan Corona, a trial of a mass murderer in the early 1970's. The trial lasted over five months. Throughout the trial, Richard Hawk, a high profile criminal defense lawyer, had humilated the police who did the investigation. The prosecutors seemed barely competant. At first, during delibrations, the jury was overwhelmed by the mass of evidence. The court gave them little guidance. They stumbled through the evidence with no direction. Suddenly one juror remembered one prosecutor's rebuttal. "... Fahey talked like he'd never talked before. He explained everything so nice and simple that nothing was confusing any more and then ... when he took each piece of their evidence and piled it up in front of us, piece by piece, gun and knives and slips of paper and pictures of blood running out of the back of Corona's van, I then said to myself, hey, they got themselves a case. They've been having one all along but it's just always been too mixed up for me to see it." "So I think what we should do, is do like Fahey did, and pile up our ideas and our evidence so we can see it." Jury, pp 68-69. The jury did so and convicted Corona. This book should be required reading for any lawyer who does a jury trial. It should be discussed in law school and in every trial advocacy class. If you want to be a trial lawyer, read it.