I agree with you that many people are going to have low levels of knowledge about the complexities of the subject matter of this trial (I dislike the use of the word dumb, sorry). I work in a public facing professional role, have done for 25 years, and I am regularly made aware by members of the public that many, many of them display very low levels of understanding about information that I provide them with. Either they point blank don't understand, or it is difficult for them to grasp, or I have to break my language down to aid their understanding, or repeat things until they get it, or they completely misunderstand or misunterpret what I've said, or I can tell their processing of information is slow and they are struggling to take on board all the content of what I'm saying to them. Often, I'll see the person 2 weeks later, and they have forgotten what I said to them previously, or they can't accurately recall what I said, or they misremember, and I have to go through the information again. This all happens very, very regularly. And this is regarding important information that in my mind is straightforward and easy to understand. I have had to really learn in my career that many people struggle to fully understand certain information.
The ones who understand perfectly well what I explain to them the first time round, who totally get it, who don't misinterpret any of the information and who can very accurately recite at a later date what I said to them at our last meeting, stand out to me.
So if I come across this many people with poor understanding in my job, and have done for quarter of a century, then I am going to assume that out of 12 jury members not all of them are going to have excellent understanding of the information that has been presented to them in court, or of the judicial process.
And to me, this is the biggest threat to the outcome of this trial.
To me, it's irrelevant what the ratio of men to women is on the jury.
To me, the relevance is the ratio of jurors who are able to understand, comprehend, assimilate and retain the information presented to them in court compared to those on the jury who are unable to.