Jury Service -- Dirty Little Secrets.

Once again, I'm going up for jury service.  This time, I'm going to share the subversive little secrets upon which our trial system is based:

1.  The highest-ranking court officer is, for his or her term of service, the jury member.  He or she will hand down a verdict that cannot be questioned or overruled by the judge.  Only another jury can consider or change a verdict.  You have to understand this basic fact to understand how the system actually works.

2.  Jury deliberations are secret.  Period.  We, as jurists, can roll dice for the decision if we like.  We can take a three-day vacation and read books, newspapers or knit if that's our thing.  We can have a big happy sex orgy, if we want to (to take it to its logical conclusion) and nobody can ask us what we were doing.  The jury is a kind of citizen Star Chamber (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Chamber). 

3.  The judge's instructions mean nothing.  See (2) above.

4.  The reason for (1-3) above is that the Law Is An Ass.  Laws can be passed as a result of prejudice, panic or greed.  They can be weaker or stronger than will serve their community or the constitution.  The job of a properly-functioning jury is to ameliorate the laws, providing a loophole under extenuating circumstances, or throwing the book at the guy -- or deciding financially and legally in his favor while giving him the insult and pronouncement of a dollar's award.

5.  Juries can be twisted by prejudice, panic and greed, as well as exhaustion, stupidity, malice, fear and bad educations.  Or just the boss breathing down our backs.

6.  Nobody really gets tried by her peers in the jury system.  The historical black defendant-white jury syndrome proves this.  No well-educated lesbian is going to get a fair trial in Idaho (if you're from Idaho, don't even pretend you don't know what I mean.).

So, the next time you're up for jury service, keep 1-6 in mind. 

Better yet, print this out and take it along.