Friday, November 12, 2004

Serving on a Jury

Everyone I know is happy to get out of jury duty. The first time I was called to serve, the case involved someone falling down in a snowy parking lot. As the potential jurors were being screened, one said she couldn’t possibly be open-minded about the case. If you walk on snow, you know you’re taking a chance, she argued, and you shouldn’t sue the shopkeeper if you fall. She was not interested in learning whether the law required the shopkeeper to maintain a safe parking lot. After this woman was excused from jury duty, several other alert jurors announced that they too would be guided by their prejudice rather than by the law.  They too were sent home. These citizens were conning the system, but, happily, the jury selection process protected the litigants from them.

The second time I was called for jury duty, I had a more satisfying experience. I was able to see a less selfish part of myself and my fellow citizens.  It’s true that a wave of relief swept through the jury pool when the judge announced that the trial would take only one day.  We weren’t saints, after all, but thirteen of us were willing to serve. We were asked to consider a case of check fraud.

The jury got off to a good start.  We discovered some points of common ground – for one thing, we joked about wishing we weren’t on the jury. We also shared the goal of completing the task, and we were all relieved to discover the case didn’t provide very many ways to disagree. One of the jurors had served on a murder trial a few years earlier.  She said that it had been difficult and interesting, and telling us that set a proper tone for the work at hand.

Frankly, I enjoyed most of the process.  The courthouse was formal and ceremonial in a way that was just right for the serious work being done there.  The judge kept us well-informed during the entire trial.  “Folks,” he’d say, and then he would explain to the jury what would happen next. I came to respect his careful approach, and I was happy to help re-elect him on November 2.

The prosecuting attorney presented a well-organized case that took us step by step through the events. Strategically, he held back until near the end the fact that the defendant had been convicted on related charges twice before. The defense attorney was strategic, too, focusing on the one thing that could win his client an acquittal. Did she know she was cashing a bad check?

If she knew, she was guilty; if she didn’t know, she was innocent. The jury’s job was to figure out what was in the defendant’s mind when she walked into the bank with that check. We especially considered the defendant’s own testimony.  I remembered when they brought the check over in the courtroom and she looked at it as a person might look at a small poisonous snake. It was not hard to see the gravity of the work we were doing and the impact it might have on her life. After a couple of hours we were able to reach a unanimous decision.

As foreman of the jury, I filled out the verdict form, signed it, and carried it into the courtroom with my fellow jurors. Soon the clerk took the paper from my hand and carried it across the room. The judge read the verdict, then said that it was signed by the foreman, and then he spoke my name.

The other juror had been right. Jury duty is like many of the best things in life: difficult and interesting.  I thought it was a good experience overall. I was grateful to have a chance to talk seriously with a group of well-meaning people about something of substance. On jury duty I saw that it is possible to cross lines that sometimes divide our society, lines like class and race, and come to an understanding through deliberation. That was jury duty’s gift to me.

The next time I’m called, will I be happy to go? Of course the timing will be inconvenient – given the lives we live, what time is convenient? – and there is always the risk of a long, complex, and profoundly troubling case. But I’ll report for jury duty, perhaps not quite willingly, but at least hopefully. There will be a task set out and a dozen interesting strangers, fellow citizens, ready to get to work. All right, then.

Broadcast by Ken Smith on November 12, 2004
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