It was 3.30 a.m. and I had enough of sitting my desk so I asked Irwan outside whether I could borrow his just-arrived Runaway Jury DVD. Juri Yang Melarikan Diri.

I never realized the existence of a bunch of people called jury consultants - highly-paid people whose service to trial lawyers is to advise them which juries to pick. That only happens in the American legal system I suppose. A Malaysian judge or magistrate does not have them to help him decide the outcome of a case - at least not for the criminal court but I know the juvenile court has "accessors" - people who give opinions on whether the convicted young man should be sent to Boys' Home or not. My grandpa was one for quite sometime after his retirement.

So, this movie is about a civil court case involving the widow of a shot stockbroker and the gun industry. She was suing them for being the cause of his husband's death for the reason that the gun industry promoted the use of guns. The widow hired an honest but reputable lawyer (Dustin Hoffman). For the gun company, it's not the lawyers who actually runs the show but a charismatic professional jury consultant who's more like a jury fixer (Gene Hackman). What makes this guy look cool is the people working for him. They are young college grads, fresh from tech institutions (at least MIT was mentioned) who run the surveillance for him. Flat panel TVs surrounds their workspace in a rundown New Orleans building. The other thing that was impressive was how the jury consultant anaylzes probable juries during the jury selection. Yeah, damn, the lawyers can choose the juries. Sounds like half-bribery to me. The gun company's lawyer had hidden microphones oddly placed behind their ears. With hidden video cams on their briefcases, they would choose which jury according to what he tells them on through their earpieces.

They ran into a mistake by choosing Nicholas Eastor (John Cussack) who is secretly running a similar jury fixing business but within the group of juries. He's a jury himself! He and his girlfriend offered a bid on fixing the trial. $10 million if either side wants to win. So, cat and mouse chase began between Eastor and the jury consultant but not with widow's team. It was typical of John Grisham's plot - the climax was a race against time. You know, some people chasing for something when a decisoin is about to be made. Anyway, the gun company lost as they tricked by Eastor and his girlfriend. In turns out that Eastor's girlfriend was in revenge for their lost in a civil case against the gun industry many years ago for the shooting of her sister back in high school. The couple actually tricked the jury consultant of $15 million. I guess the gun company's ceo would be mad at his hired jury consultant for being too cocky that they could win the trial.

I like the scene in this movie. New Orleans Very not typical of an American city. I thought it was some city in Spain or Southern France when the first few scenes rolled out. Must visit it one day. Maybe during the next spring break.