Thoughts on Jury Service & Friendship
Well, I completed my jury service just before noon today (Pacific Time) and have to say I was impressed with my fellow jurors. While we came from diverse walks of life, we were able to discuss the case in a civil manner and even reached unanimous verdicts on all seven counts — even though unanimity was not required in this civil suit.
We all sympathized with the plaintiff who was suing the defendant for damages because he allegedly had sexual contact with her when she was a minor. None of us, however, thought that the plaintiff’s attorneys have proven their case. And we were able find for the defendant even as we recognized his flaws and errors in judgment.
It was, to say the least, an interesting case. And it was very difficult not to talk about it.
I may well have more to say about this at a later date, but will say that I was fortunate to be on a jury with a good group of people and enjoyed our conversations outside the jury box — about all sorts of matters except the case at hand. It was quite a relief yesterday when we began our deliberations and could finally discuss the matter that had occupied our attention for the previous week. And it was remarkable that we were able to reach a consensus on the difficult matter.
It will be weird not seeing these people tomorrow, given that I have become used to using them for these past seven weekdays, almost as if they were colleagues in an office. But, I do expect to see at least two of them again. The three of us became friends, lunching together on a regular basis and talking about our families, our passions and our work.
It’s often interesting where you meet good people in this world. In a situation that I had hoped to avoid, I may well have made a few new friends.
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Hey, I sounds like you had an enlightening experience. My partner also had a similar experience with his jury duty. I’ve been summoned a couple of times but my groups have always been released the night before we were due to show up. I was a bit surprised at the negative response to juries engendered by your first post on the subject. Glad your experience was positive.
Comment by Ian S — May 24, 2007 @ 8:37 pm - May 24, 2007
[...] Original post by GayPatriotWest [...]
Pingback by Politics: 2008 HQ » Blog Archive » Thoughts on Jury Service & Friendship — May 24, 2007 @ 8:55 pm - May 24, 2007
Dan, thanks so much for sharing your experience. We had some fascinating discussions last fall in my Criminal Law class about the jury system. Lots of theory, but of course so little practicum (if that’s the right word?) seems available.
Would that more of us understood our civic duty to the jury pool.
Comment by Mike — May 25, 2007 @ 11:05 am - May 25, 2007
Unfortunately, so many Americans are so hell-bent about getting OUT of jury duty that they don’t realize what kind of an impact they could have on the American justice system if they did their civic duty and served.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — May 25, 2007 @ 3:42 pm - May 25, 2007
I related my jury duty experiences on one of the other threads, and some of the stories were negative. But I do like jury duty, and feel that as an American, it is a responsibility we have. The one issue I have is that it seems like it comes during an inconvenient time. I put off jury duty once saying that I would prefer it during the summer when school’s out. But my last jury duty notice came during the beginning of the semester, and decided to do it then. I was almost on a trial that would have lasted about three weeks. That would have definitely aversely affected things at work, otherwise I wouldn’t have minded.
The other complaint that I have is the inefficiency. Judges seem to have a knack of wasting so much time. They could and should get twice as much done in a day, instead of having jurors twiddling their thumbs, while the judge and the attorneys go over issues that should have been decided well before the trial began.
Comment by Pat — May 25, 2007 @ 4:26 pm - May 25, 2007
I’m a retired lawyer. Our profession and our system of justice depends on the willingness of reasonable people to serve as jurors. It’s refreshing to be reminded that most jurors take their responsibilities seriously. Thank you for serving.
Comment by DRJ — May 26, 2007 @ 3:50 pm - May 26, 2007