My Civic Duty
by Anna Belanger
This was initially intended to be a letter to the My Favorite Murder podcast but, mostly due to anxiety over opening salutations here I am blogging...
Last summer I was called to jury duty. I have a debilitating sense of moral obligation and therefore had no excuses and was selected as Juror #10 on a criminal case. Over the course of my time on the jury I learned many things about our legal system and the people in my home county. Some of these learns were much more profound than others, but all the same, most of what I learned I wish I had known going into it. And so, in honor of the Twelve Angry Jurors (and in my experience all twelve, including myself, were at one point or another very angry), here are-
My 12 Takeaways From Serving An A Jury
As much as you think the case is open / shut, it ain't. It took our jury almost 3 full days to deliberate on something I initially thought was obvious. One particularly heated bout in the middle of day one ended in a standstill, forfeited only by silence. After what felt like hours, the silence was interrupted when the angriest juror exclaimed, "Well I'm sure you are all wonderful people!" This was met with laughter, probably more than it deserved, and thankfully some of the tension was broken.
You do not need to have any understanding of our legal system before you walk into court. As someone who thoroughly enjoys binging USA's oddly specific Law & Order SVU marathons, I think I have a basic understanding of our legal system. (Am I wrong in remembering there was once a marathon that was focused on episodes featuring twins??) However, having been selected to be on a criminal case I did feel a bit nervous that I did not know the process or what was expected of me well enough. Fortunately, that fear was unnecessary because the judge explained every step of the process as we went. In our trial a term that came up over and over was "reasonable doubt." I think this term is largely misunderstood by the TV educated layman. I won't even go into an explanation of my own for fear of not doing it justice. It seems obvious, but the judge will give you the absolute definition and legal interpretation over and over again throughout the trial. You must listen each time and take it as what is said in those moments, in that context. When it came down to the final few hours of our deliberation we went back into court and asked the judge to once again read us the definition and legal explanation of "reasonable doubt." He did so, we went back into deliberation, and immediately took a vote that was finally a unanimous decision.
No matter what, a criminal case is a sad situation. In our case a person was accused of a hideous crime. I think we made the right decision, however, it is still a very sad things that such a decision needed to be made. You finish your deliberations and have a sense of accomplishment and relief, even excitement. This vanishes as you are reminded of the weight of your decision when the Foreman reads the verdict to a courtroom full of people on both sides. It is sad to think of how many things went wrong in this situation which became a court case. Many people suffered because of it and will continue to suffer. The end of this process for me was a difficult time to stay positive.
It is hard to not share your experiences while they are happening. You are not allowed to talk about the case as it is going on in order to maintain that you unbiased and authentic in your own judgement. I walked out of court many days confused and downright upset. I came out of deliberation one day with a raging anger. I am a talker, I need to talk things out with my partner, my friends and my family in order to process. Once the trial was over, it actually took me a few days to get things out. It had been three weeks of this craziness in silence; I had actually gotten used to bottling it up! We spent the following weekend on eastern Long Island with family and friends. I had a few drinks, and gave my true crime loving people the low down. That was helpful for me to process what I had just been through. Actually, I told them way more than they wanted to hear...hence my remaining relatively tight lipped here (but, you really wouldn't have to press too hard for me to give you all the deets. Comment below lol).
The judge is allowed to give an opinion after the trial. After we read our verdict, the judge thanked us and asked us to hang around. He wanted to tell us that we did good work and that he thought we had made the right decision! What a gift that was at the time. It was such relief that after being thrown into all of this and remaining silent and in the thick of it for weeks, that someone who had also been there, but in a more experienced perspective could give us validation.
Some people just like to argue! Juror #8 was our last holdout in our deliberations. For the longest time this person would not budge. He revealed as he finally turned that he had all along felt that the same way the majority did, but had decided to “play devil's advocate.” If you are ever on a jury don't be like Juror #8. It is not helpful or constructive to fight just for the sake of fighting. It is also not your job. Don’t be Juror #8, no one likes Juror #8.
The courts operate on a pretty light schedule. When we were in trial we were excused each day by 3 or 4 pm, pretty much no matter what. And we usually started late, closer to 10:30 am. We always took at least an hour for lunch, sometimes longer. No wonder the process takes so long! I understand that there are many other elements to the jobs of judges, lawyers, etc., but a couple more hours in court per day would have gotten us finished much earlier. If you are on a jury and they tell you they anticipate the trial will take 1 week, I would add on 2 days to that.
Once you serve on a jury you are exempt for a little while. Apparently you are very likely to get called for a federal case right after serving on a state case, but do not be a fool! Upon completion of your trial, you will be sent over to claim a sheet of paper excusing you from jury duty on state and federal cases for a few years. Put this sheet of paper in a safe place in case you need to whip it out.
They do give you lunch. Once you begin deliberating you are sent to a small room with one table and chairs and one bathroom (yes, you will hear everyone pee). They do not let you out of the room unless you are going back back into court. The door is guarded. Any alternate jurors are sent to a different room as to not be a part of the deliberation process unless they are needed. Side note: we almost had to use our alternate when on the 2nd day of deliberating Juror #4 was over 2 hours late. This meant we sat silently waiting for 2 hours because we could not deliberate without all jurors present. It turned out this person's car had broken down and the court actually sent a cab to pick them up! But, back to the lunch thing, they provide it because, well it's the least they can do, and also so you do not have any further reason to leave while deliberating.
Make sure your car registration is up to date. If your car registration is expired you will definitely be nailed with a ticket while parked in the courthouse parking lot. They basically pray on you there for those kinds of citations. This might be a good time to make sure all your ducks are in a row, cross those annual tasks off your list for the year.
Bring a paperback book! They'll take any devices that can access the internet, including a Kindle, to prevent any Google-ing while you deliberate. But, there will still be down time in which you will not necessarily want to talk to the other jurors. We had a few instances when we sent a note or question to the judge and decided to cease our deliberating until we heard back from him...it frequently took almost an hour for his response.
You will have a strong and strange bond with 11 people whose names you may never know. Five months later, I was headed to my last audition in midtown before break for the holidays. I walked up 8th Ave and between 36th & 37th I met eyes with a person I knew I knew from somewhere. I got a chill: I knew some of this person's deepest values, harshest opinions, and moral obligations. It was Juror #2! We did not greet each other.