Panel encourages giving a greater voice to jurors.

Like children of yesteryear, jurors should be seen and not heard -- until it's time to ask for their verdict at the end of the criminal trial.

Out with that old tradition, recommend members of the Jury Innovations Committee of the Florida Supreme Court's Judicial Management Council.

The committee embraces a new attitude that elevates jurors from muted mannequins filling the jury box to engaged, curious full partners in the trial, allowed to ask witnesses questions, like the lawyers and judge.

Inviting jurors to ask questions in criminal trials is one of 48 recommendations from the committee, chaired by Third District Court of Appeal Judge Robert Shevin, who plans to represent the committee at oral arguments before the Florida Supreme Court on February 4.

"The goal of this committee from the get-go was to come up with suggestions to help bring about jurors who are more educated, who can understand the facts better, who will be much more in a position of being able to reach a conclusion, who will be more accurate about the decision-making process, who will be more confident in their verdict and decision -- all of these things to get them to play a more active role, so we will have jurors who have a better understanding of the importance of their responsibility," Judge Shevin said.

"And I would say questioning by jurors is designed to do just that."

But some would rather have jurors simply listen to witnesses and keep their thoughts to themselves.

"I absolutely hate the idea of jurors asking questions in criminal cases, because they ask the wrong questions all the time," said Miami criminal defense attorney Michael Catalano, a member of the Florida Bar Criminal Rules Committee that is busy drafting and voting on proposed rules to address the concept.

"To me, it shifts the focus of the trial and it interferes. Good lawyers are like air-traffic controllers. On both sides, good lawyers like to control the presentation, and when jurors ask questions, it could change the focus of how we're presenting the case."

The real issue should be making the trial a better experience for jurors, said Palm Bench County Judge Barry Cohen, who served on the Jury Innovations Committee's In-Court Procedures Subcommittee that dealt with the jury-asking-questions issue.

"I think jurors will perform better the more friendly they find the Surroundings. To tell someone who wants to think to not ask questions or take notes seems to only make their job more difficult," said Cohen, who teaches the jurors-may-question-witness concept to new county judges.

And 11th Circuit Judge Fredricka Smith, who chaired the subcommittee, said, "I'm very much in favor of this innovation."

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