Last week I went downtown for jury duty. It was my first time to go, but most of the experience was what I expected. There were long periods of doing nothing, I was told lots of things I already knew, I was herded from place to place with only a number for identification, and I was asked probing questions by an attorney. What I didn't expect was for my entire jury panel to be dismissed because there were not enough people willing to apply the law. Out of sixty perspective jurors, thirty-six said they were unwilling to give a guilty verdict, regardless of the evidence, knowing what the minimum sentence would be. Each side was to be allowed ten preemptory strikes, so twenty-four was not a large enough pool to choose a twelve-member jury.
It would have been hard to maintain a belief in the basic goodness of man after watching all those people say they couldn't follow the law, knowing from what I heard that most of them were just trying to get themselves sent home. The charge was evasion of arrest, so it's not like the law was controversial or immoral.
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I have been told I am a lot like Puddleglum. From C.S. Lewis's book The Silver Chair, he is a character who reliably looks at the bad side of affairs, but is really very courageous and even has a sense of humor in his own way.
3 comments:
It's kinda sad how people don't want to take on the responsibility of a jurror...but it could be that the meaning of a 'jury of your peers' has been lost in the political struggle for power.
Maybe if Americans would understand just how much authority they are supposed to have in a trial, they would be more inclined to do their service?
I find it very interesting that you will never hear the following quote in a court of law in the U.S. In fact, you will hear the exact opposite.
"The jury has the right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy." – John Jay, Joint-author of the Federalist Papers and first U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice
A jurror's resposibility is so much greater then we realize!
I think it would be an honor to serve jury duty, and be a part of our justice system playing out. It's sad how so many people want the right to a fair trial and say that should be available, yet are so unwilling to help make the system work by serving on a jury.
Merry Christmas, and thanks for the comments.
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