Why You Shouldn't Duck Jury Duty

 

Jury Room, 1959 by Norman Rockwell

By David Churchill Barrow

Jury duty? Don’t duck it; step out of your silo and expand your horizons!

"When the English adopted the institution of the jury, they formed a half-barbarous people; they have since become one of the most enlightened nations on the globe, and their attachment to the jury has appeared to grow with their enlightenment."

- Alexis de Tocqueville 

In Democracy in America, Tocqueville noted a peculiarity in the New England towns that gave the selectmen (the executives under a town meeting system) the unique power to decide who was fit to be placed in the drawing of names for jury duty. This practice survived at least into my younger days, and so it was that my father, a selectman, arranged for my name to be drawn that summer between college and law school. This was easy to arrange, since service was for an entire month, and anyone with a full-time job could plead hardship. He knew that once I was a lawyer, there would be little chance I would be allowed on a jury (because it would taint the laymen quality of a jury, and thus its purpose) and he thought it would be a valuable experience. It was that, and much more. I served on cases ranging from kids stealing beer to attempted murder.

One case was a real estate agent charged with carrying a gun outside that he had just sold to an undercover ATF agent. That act carried a one-year mandatory. This was the 1970s, and I looked just like Ted Neeley in Jesus Christ Superstar. If you got drawn for the 1st chair closest to the judge, you were automatically the foreman, unless you declined. Did you know juries sometimes get to bring the evidence in with them for deliberations? At the conclusion of the trial, the judge said to me: 

“Here is the gun,” as the bailiff handed it to me.

“Here are the bullets. Do not put the bullets into the gun. Do you understand me,

son?”

“YES, your Honor!” I loudly replied with a wide smile, which was returned.

I walked into the jury room upon a cloud of pride and self-importance.

The kids who broke into the supermarket to steal as many cases of beer as they could fit into their car were led by a wiseass punk. When asked why they did it, he said they were thirsty. That did not go over well, with us or with the judge, from the scowl on his face. Now I may have looked like a punk myself, but I remember thinking that defense counsel should take this punk by the ear into a conference room and slap him around some for making his job so tough.

The attempted 1st degree murder case had an interesting twist. A man, outraged that his wife was divorcing him, was accused of shooting a .22 rifle at her as she was entering her car. He missed, but the rounds were clustered near the mirror. My fellow jury members were of the view that perhaps he just wanted to frighten her, and so was not guilty. I wanted to hold out for a guilty verdict. I was a young man completely disgusted with this vile human being, and argued to the jury that forensics showed the site was off on the rifle. They reminded me of the standard - reasonable doubt. They had a point. THAT, and not my disgust, should rule the case.

Tocqueville wrote that “the jury… serves to give to the minds of all citizens a part of the habits of mind of the judge; and these habits are precisely those that best prepare the people to be free.” Jury duty assists us to give a care beyond ourselves as individuals, because as Tocqueville wrote, “it teaches men the practice of equity. Each in judging his neighbor, thinks that he could be judged in his turn.” Its educational value is inestimable.

Tocqueville explains:

“The jury serves incredibly to form the judgment and to augment the natural enlightenment of the people. There in my opinion, is its greatest advantage. One ought to consider it as a school, free of charge and always open, where each juror comes to be instructed in his rights… I think that the practical intelligence and good political sense of the Americans must principally be attributed to the long use that they have made of the jury…”

Cynicism about our legal system, and civic duty writ large, has spread among us far beyond its justification. If you avoid jury duty for “light and transient causes” because you simply lack the inspiration, you are not only depriving your community of your service, but you may be robbing yourself as well. The more diverse and populated the jury pool, the stronger the foundations of our liberty become.

David Churchill Barrow is a Massachusetts “Swamp Yankee” descendant of William Bradford and Myles Standish of Pilgrim fame, who grew up on a farm that has not been sold since first built in the early 1700s.  In that farmhouse still hangs the commission of James Churchill as a captain in the Massachusetts militia signed by John Hancock, and the sword of Thomas Churchill, a Navy engineer who served in the Blockade of the Confederacy.  He met his wife, MaryLu, in high school. They were married in 1979 and have three adult children. MaryLu is a former elementary school teacher. Today they live just outside Tampa, Fla. They are the authors of And Justice for All, Even Redcoats, and are working on their next novel about the Pilgrims. David also writes for PJ Media.