subject: An Attorney's Insight Into Jury Duty [print this page] An Attorney's Insight Into Jury Duty An Attorney's Insight Into Jury Duty
When you receive a summons for jury duty, I'm sure your first response is not, "Sweet, I get to participate in part of the system that makes our country great and is a founding principle in our Constitution." You probably think, "Great, how do I get out of this?" Well fortunately for us tral attorneys not everyone can get out of jury duty (not even us trial attorneys).
I was called for jury duty aboutt 5 years ago and actually got selected to sit for a jury on a criminal case. I wondered why anyone would want an attorney sitting on the case who understands and knows a little too much about the sytsem and the rules of evidence.For instances when the side bars were taking place with the judge and attorneys, I had a good idea what was happening. When thedefendant started talking about something thathappened after the incident for which he wasontrial and the judge sent the jurors out of the room, I knew they were discussing whether a subsequent bad act of the defendant could be admitted into evidence thus allowing the jury to hear this information. It was also a question if it opened the door to allow all criminal charges defendant ever had before to be revealed to a jury. For the average person, there are so many things that take place in a trial out of the sight and ears of the jury, I really thought it was a no brainer not to have me on the jury.
Well, in hindsight, it was probably one of the most valuable experiences I ever had in order to further my work as an attorney. Picking a jury, called Voire DIre, is one of THE most important aspects ofa person's case, whether it is a criminal trial or civil litgiation. Each side is trying to find jurors who relate/sympathize with their client. As a plaintiff's attorney, I do not want a juror who will hold my client's mistakes he or she made 5 years ago against him/her in the matter at hand. On the flip side, the other side wants people who think just because someone messed up once means they are still a lying, cheating scum. I know that sounds cynical, but I honestly believe we all make mistakes and what we did before and after an incident does not mean that in the case at hand we must be lying.
As I listened to the case, I determined the prosecution did NOT prove their case against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt. There were too many questions I had that did not make sense. However, as we deliberated, I found out not all jurors took the same oath as I did and decided they had their own agenda. Yes, in my opinion they did not follow the law.
After a day and a half of deliberations we realized we weren't going to be able to come to a unanimous decision as there were 3 jurors who would never vote "not guilty" for the defendant. One was an older lady who just thought sex was nasty and anything that did not happen in a bedroom must have been non-consentual and thus he was guilty of anything. She had no other views other than her own view of the situation and refused to listen to any of the evidence. Another juror was a middle aged man and he finally said that maybe there wasn't enough evidence but he have a daughter andhe would never want this to happen to her, we should believe those girls if they say something wasn't consentual, then it wasn't. He even admitted he had some doubt but he took his own personal belief and took it out on the defendant. Another elderly man said he had doubt but he had a son and if the first jury would have found him guilty then he would not have been in trouble again. He felt the evidence showed the defendant was a punk ande if he did not do this crime he did something elsefor which he should be punished. WHAT???
As i disagree with how these 3 jurors looked at the evidence and in my opinion did everything but follow the law, they still took their time and stood up for their opinions. They were not going to be swayed by me or any other juror. I even had the judge re-read the jury instructions hoping that would convince them, but it did not.
This experience made me realize no matter how well you think you picked a jury in your case, a jury can still do whatever they want. I do believe our jurors take their time and understand the siginficance of what they do. However, I do not think they fully understand how to apply the law and are prone to following their own instincts to decide our cases and thus do not always follow the law.
