Serving as a juror

[mtbc]

Some while ago, I was summoned for jury service at Aberdeen Sheriff Court. I was warned that I may be needed then, one morning, told that I had been selected in a ballot and that I should show up that very afternoon. It was strange to spend a few days getting to know, one way or another, my fellow jurors, and the various participants in the courtroom. It turns out that, unlike in the US, a sheriff acts as a kind of judge, and wears a wig accordingly. They may ask witnesses occasional questions directly, typically clarifying examination that preceded.

It was odd to reflect on the secrecy of the jury's deliberations. We saw a couple of courts, with nearby rooms for the jury, which would typically be kept locked. We inhabited our own bubble of secrecy but those rooms see a long sequence of such, each filled with different people and details. For each case, us jurors are part of a new community, filling our minds with increasingly much detail about people and events. Then, verdict is rendered and that microcosm promptly evaporates. A side-effect of the secrecy is that, after all is done, we may not even reveal what it was that most swayed our thinking.

An interesting aspect was the clear instruction we received in how we may reason: what counts as evidence, what to consider in evidence, such as the credibility of the witness and the reliability of their testimony, that we either accept or reject evidence, in whole or in part, but after rejection we should then just move on as if it were never offered, etc. The Crown was to prove particular elements of the criminal case by both direct evidence and corroboration, so as not to warrant the not proven verdict particular to Scotland, so there was some interesting background on that, also on the standard for reasonable doubt by which defence evidence may justify not guilty.

I have been instrumental in decisions that change others' lives, such as hiring and firing, but deciding about a criminal case brought a new sense of gravity. After it was all done, I wondered what the truth of it all had been, also what happened to the participants since the incident, then since the trial. I am content never to know, to leave it all behind along with our deliberations. The verdict matters but our part is now done and I left it behind gladly. For me, normal working life resumed promptly the following day.

Comments

[mellowtigger]

I'm slightly envious... but not much, since it's a serious role. I'm 55 years old, and I have never been called for jury duty. Once, back in Austin TX USA in the 1990s, I even went to the county courthouse to ask how people got their names onto lists for eligibility. They said there was no manual submission required, since everyone was automatically added from other lists. Yet I've never been called. I'm pretty sure that I am on a list... just not the inclusive kind. LOL }:)

[thewayne]

It's my understanding that voter rolls in the USA are taken from registered voters and DMV lists. But it is quite true that some people get hit up regularly, some never do.

Moving to a smaller county will increase your odds. We live in one such and get hit up regularly, though my wife has never been empaneled and I've gotten off as medically unfit since my immune system collapsed.

[mtbc]

I wondered how many of those students encouraged to register to vote, by the Obama campaign on college campuses, knew they might also be signing up for jury service. (-:

I was a registered voter and had a driver license in the US for many years (mostly in Ohio) and was never called. I always assumed it'd be more likely to happen there instead of here, given that I guess criminal cases probably come with a right to a jury there. A colleague in central Ohio was called, I don't know on what case.

[emperor]

It's weird - my Dad's done jury service a few times, but as far as I know no-one else in my family has ever been called up for it.

[vyvyanx]

I was called for jury service in Northampton a few years ago: [warning: contains reference to child abuse]
https://vyvyanx.dreamwidth.org/206565.html

A year later, my husband was also called for jury service. However, my parents have complained that they have never been called once in their entire lives, and are now over the maximum age for it. They think it's some kind of administrative conspiracy, but I think it's probably just the nature of randomness...

[mtbc]

Oh, that's interesting, thank you for the link. Wasn't much security for us, we were kind of waved around it instead and had our mobile telephones with us in the jury room, but we had the same "affirmation is okay but non-default" too and I didn't want to waste court time on their having to do me separately. One of our first jobs that first afternoon was to choose tomorrow's lunch. There wasn't any apparent risk of our being objected to.

[darkoshi]

I've had jury duty 4 times, but was only chosen to be on a jury once so far. It was a civil/lawsuit case, not criminal; I was somewhat glad not to be deciding someone's fate in that way.

> For each case, us jurors are part of a new community, filling our minds with increasingly much detail about people and events. Then, verdict is rendered and that microcosm promptly evaporates.

Yes, that mirrors my memory of the experience.

[andrewducker]

1 case for me, criminal, and it felt quite uncomfortable for deciding someone's fate in that way.

And yes, odd after a few days of enforced semi-intimacy to say goodbye to people knowing I was unlikely to ever see them again.

[thewayne]

Served once in a drug case that was partially a frame-up: defendant was black, and was dating the lead detective's sister and he did not approve! There's no doubt that the guy was selling drugs, we just wonder of the likelihood that he would have been investigated so hard had not the detective had an interest in the relationship.

I was called when the Covid lockdowns were easing, neither my wife nor I thought it a good idea for me to be in such an environment so my immunologist sent a letter that got me out of it.

[mtbc]

Could have been tricky, glad to know that the apparent lack of conflicts of interest didn't sully the material evidence!

[wpadmirer]

I have never served on a jury. I have been called, but have always been dismissed as they had already selected enough jurors from the people who were brought in.

I don't know how I'd feel about it. When I was working as a private investigator, most of my work was for defense attorneys. I liked the work a lot, because it was interesting to be looking for the truth in a case.

But that might disqualify me from serving on a jury. They tend to not like people who have been involved in defense on criminal cases.

[fred_mouse]

I've been called twice. The first time I was exempt for being the primary carer for small children; that particular exemption no longer exists (I have no idea what single parents without family support are supposed to do).

The second time I ended up on jury for one trial, and I was intensely frustrated by my fellow jurors. Yes, the person had committed a crime. But they had already been convicted on that one, and we were judging a separate but related crime. Some of the people I was with wanted to convict anyway, one approximately 'because people who take drugs should be locked away'. I'm proud to say that the two of us who were all 'we have to focus on this crime, not the other one' did eventually get through so that the decision was made on guilt for the crime not on general 'is a criminal' grounds. Still crabby about people who are in favour of punitive justice in that way.

[shimmerwine]

Timing: I was just called up for Grand Jury duty starting on the 3rd. At orientation I was in the 2nd group of the day, and we were all chosen as alternates, which means we may only serve twice, at the most, during the 3-month stint. I served on a petit jury years ago (the traditional 12 people listening to the lawyers that you see on tv), and it was interesting, if for no other reason than to see in person just how much a lawyer can obfuscate. (I think I used that correctly).

You mentioned the secrecy, and we're sworn, as Grand Jurors, to NEVER discuss the case, even years later. I don't remember that being part of the petit jury oath.

[mtbc]

Interesting! Good luck with the Grand Jury duty, for whatever counts as luck in your situation. (-:

[shimmerwine]

Thanks!