Why does it always rain on me?
A few years ago I received in the mail a letter informing me I had been selected for jury service. I was kind of excited at the time, it was in my university holidays so it wasn't going to interfere and the idea of being on a jury seemed interesting.
I went along on the first day and we sat for AGES before anything happened. Eventually someone arrived and explained that she would be pulling names out of a hat for two different cases. I think about 30 names were pulled out of the hat for each case. Anyway, anyone who wasn't chosen for either case could go home and come back the next day to see if they were selected for the following days cases and so on for the rest of the week. This doesn't seem so bad I thought to myself, I get a week off work and only had to spend mornings at the courthouse. After all, with all the people there the odds of my name getting pulled out of the hat seemed pretty slim - I never win anything!
One of the cases being selected that day was a one-day case, the other was a 7 day case. Can you guess where this story is leading and what happened? That's right, my name got pulled out of the hat for the 7 day case. So, the 30 of us that had been selected went into the courtroom and sat down. Names were again pulled from a hat. This time as our name was called we were to stand up and walk to where the jurors sit, take a bible and sit down. If either lawyer didn't like something about you they would call out as you walked that you were declined and you would turn around and walk back. If you made it to sitting down without anyone calling out declined you were a juror. Well, again I thought I was safe and that my name wouldn't be called. For someone who never wins anything the idea of my name being pulled out of a hat twice in a row seemed ridiculous. But, of course, my name was again pulled and I made it to sitting down without being declined. I was now an official juror on a 7 day fraud case. (Man I wish the prize had been cooler.)
The experience of being a juror was pretty fun. The case itself was boring but everytime it was getting too boring to bear and I was close to falling asleep it would be time for a break anyway since we had a break every hour and a half. The guy who was on trial was facing a huge number of charges, I think it was about 27. By the time we had listened to all the evidence there was so much of it that our deliberations took 2 days. This meant that we got to stay overnight in a hotel and were not allowed to talk to anyone but each other for the whole 2 days. I think we found the guy guilty of about half the charges.
Why on earth did I just tell that boring story you ask? Mainly because I was thinking about the differences between the American judicial system and ours. The way I've just described it is the way our system works for picking jurors but in America it seems much more complex. The lawyers learn heaps of facts about all the potential jurors and actually ask them questions to see if they will be selected. All the lawyers had to go on when I was picked was my name, age, occupation and appearance. Not a lot really but maybe in the end that is more fair. With the American system you get a chance to interview the potential jurors and find out if they will be sympathetic to your case or not and you then pick them that way. Obviously, both you and the opposing lawyer are interviewing the same people so someone with a strong opinion either way generally won't get through. But I think the way I did it you probably get a far more random, and therefore balanced, mix.
I'm at the end of my thought process and I'm still not entirely sure why I decided to write it down. I'm sorry for anyone who suffered through it, thank you for your commitment! share this: facebook
I went along on the first day and we sat for AGES before anything happened. Eventually someone arrived and explained that she would be pulling names out of a hat for two different cases. I think about 30 names were pulled out of the hat for each case. Anyway, anyone who wasn't chosen for either case could go home and come back the next day to see if they were selected for the following days cases and so on for the rest of the week. This doesn't seem so bad I thought to myself, I get a week off work and only had to spend mornings at the courthouse. After all, with all the people there the odds of my name getting pulled out of the hat seemed pretty slim - I never win anything!
One of the cases being selected that day was a one-day case, the other was a 7 day case. Can you guess where this story is leading and what happened? That's right, my name got pulled out of the hat for the 7 day case. So, the 30 of us that had been selected went into the courtroom and sat down. Names were again pulled from a hat. This time as our name was called we were to stand up and walk to where the jurors sit, take a bible and sit down. If either lawyer didn't like something about you they would call out as you walked that you were declined and you would turn around and walk back. If you made it to sitting down without anyone calling out declined you were a juror. Well, again I thought I was safe and that my name wouldn't be called. For someone who never wins anything the idea of my name being pulled out of a hat twice in a row seemed ridiculous. But, of course, my name was again pulled and I made it to sitting down without being declined. I was now an official juror on a 7 day fraud case. (Man I wish the prize had been cooler.)
The experience of being a juror was pretty fun. The case itself was boring but everytime it was getting too boring to bear and I was close to falling asleep it would be time for a break anyway since we had a break every hour and a half. The guy who was on trial was facing a huge number of charges, I think it was about 27. By the time we had listened to all the evidence there was so much of it that our deliberations took 2 days. This meant that we got to stay overnight in a hotel and were not allowed to talk to anyone but each other for the whole 2 days. I think we found the guy guilty of about half the charges.
Why on earth did I just tell that boring story you ask? Mainly because I was thinking about the differences between the American judicial system and ours. The way I've just described it is the way our system works for picking jurors but in America it seems much more complex. The lawyers learn heaps of facts about all the potential jurors and actually ask them questions to see if they will be selected. All the lawyers had to go on when I was picked was my name, age, occupation and appearance. Not a lot really but maybe in the end that is more fair. With the American system you get a chance to interview the potential jurors and find out if they will be sympathetic to your case or not and you then pick them that way. Obviously, both you and the opposing lawyer are interviewing the same people so someone with a strong opinion either way generally won't get through. But I think the way I did it you probably get a far more random, and therefore balanced, mix.
I'm at the end of my thought process and I'm still not entirely sure why I decided to write it down. I'm sorry for anyone who suffered through it, thank you for your commitment! share this: facebook
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on Saturday, August 04, 2007 at 3:30 PM.
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