Although the jury selection process is intended to weed out bias among prospective jurors, it's an open secret that both sides look for bias -- in their own favor, of course. There's an argument that juries would be more fairly selected by a random process, and "Runaway Jury" is the poster child for that theory.

The new thriller is about a jury consultant who tries to guarantee a friendly panel, and a juror who does a little free-lance jury consulting on his own. The case involves a widow who is suing a gun manufacturer because her husband was killed in an office massacre involving an easily-obtained weapon. The widow has hired the traditional, decent Wendell Rohr to represent her, and the gun manufacturer is defended by a lawyer named Durwood Cable, who is the instrument of the evil, brilliant jury consultant Rankin Fitch.

Fitch has been hired by the reptilian head of the gun company to find a jury stacked in the company's favor, and the most interesting sequence in the movie shows him doing just that. Fitch stands in front of an array of computer and television monitors, apparently able to summon at will the secrets of all the prospective jurors.  Although spying on dozens of jury pool members is probably not legal--especially when information which could be used for blackmail is obtained--Fitch presides over his screens like an orchestra conductor, seeing into potential jurors' souls while offering pithy comments their weaknesses and faults.

There is, however, one juror who gets on the panel, despite Fitch's grave misgivings. This is Nicholas Easter, a feckless young man who seems to come from nowhere and appears to be trying to get off the jury (he feeds the judge a rambling explanation about the videogame contest he's involved in). Easter's evasions inspire the judge to lecture him on doing his duty, and puts indirect pressure on both sides to accept him.

Easter, as it turns out, is involved in a free-lance arrangement with his friend Marlee to sell the jury to the highest bidder. He'll work on the inside, she'll handle the negotiations, and then the highest bidder will get the verdict. Easter even proves his power by leading a jury rebellion that leads to their defiant reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in the courtroom, forcing the judge to treat them like an unruly grade school class.

This is an ingenious plot device, saving the movie from being a simple confrontation between good and evil, and adding a wild card forcing both sides to choose their own morality.  Will the decent Wendell Rohr pay in order to win the verdict he believes his client deserves? Will the devious Durwood Cable add this expense to the massive Fitch operation? Can Easter sway a jury that Fitch thinks he has hand-picked for acquittal? These questions are so absorbing that we neglect to ask ourselves how Easter could be so sure of being called up for jury duty in the first place.  On the other hand, we have here an frightening example of a jury getting the case decided for it rather than deciding for itself based on the evidence.

"There are some things," said a famous Supreme Court Justice, "that are too important to be left to juries."