Jury Dury - Phoenix Style
In November, I served on a Jury in Maricopa County, Arizona. The most surprising thing was how many people it took to fill the jury pool for the trials that were scheduled to begin on that particular Monday. 700 people. That's how many people were called up by the county as prospective jurors for that day. And I mean - all 700 had to show up at the Maricopa County Superior Court assembly area in the courthouse by 8:00 a.m. that day. The juror assembly area only had seating for around 400 people, so many just stood or sat on the floor.
The people were assembled into pools, by a computerized random draw, and escorted to the individual court rooms by the judges bailiffs. For trials where the final jury size was to be 8, the jury pool was 35 people. I was selected for two separate jury pools of 35 people each. Not picked for the first trial, but selected as one of the 8 jurors for a second trial. For larger jury sizes, I saw groups of 50 being led out of the jury assembly areas. I assumed these were for trials where they needed 12 jurors.
My particular trial lasted 3 days, and fortunately all the other jurors were open minded and fair when considering the testimonies and the charges. The jury verdict was irrelevant to my comments here. What impressed me the most were the organizational skills required by the Clerk of the Court in Maricopa County (and that office) to run this kind of pool selection process day after day.
I asked later if they only did jury selection on Mondays, and was told that it is an everyday thing, Monday through Friday. The normal juror pool was around 400 new people each day, reporting to the downtown Phoenix courthouse.
I never realized how large a legal system we have to support jury trials. And I never realized how our litigious society is impacting our ordinary law abiding citizens. The newspapers only cover the major, sensational cases, and the TV news shows use the best footage for their 20 second coverage. That is a very small part of what transpires each day of the week in our legal courtrooms. What rides far under the surface of this teaming river of justice are all the families that are impacted just to support our legal system. At 400 people a day, just the downtown location for the Superior Court takes as many as 8,000 people a month away from their work and homes for at least a day. And for those selected to serve on a jury it is many days more.
So just remember the next time an issue comes up on the ballot to modify our legal system, that getting "tougher" on crime will also impact the ordinary citizen when it comes time to serve on a jury. This is not "all for free". There are impacts, and these personal impacts must be traded off against improving our communities while trying for "safer" streets. And you could be the one sitting on the floor of the jury assembly area with 700 other people, while waiting to see if you will be selected for a jury trial that will extend into days, weeks, or months.
This was an interesting lesson in community service.
The people were assembled into pools, by a computerized random draw, and escorted to the individual court rooms by the judges bailiffs. For trials where the final jury size was to be 8, the jury pool was 35 people. I was selected for two separate jury pools of 35 people each. Not picked for the first trial, but selected as one of the 8 jurors for a second trial. For larger jury sizes, I saw groups of 50 being led out of the jury assembly areas. I assumed these were for trials where they needed 12 jurors.
My particular trial lasted 3 days, and fortunately all the other jurors were open minded and fair when considering the testimonies and the charges. The jury verdict was irrelevant to my comments here. What impressed me the most were the organizational skills required by the Clerk of the Court in Maricopa County (and that office) to run this kind of pool selection process day after day.
I asked later if they only did jury selection on Mondays, and was told that it is an everyday thing, Monday through Friday. The normal juror pool was around 400 new people each day, reporting to the downtown Phoenix courthouse.
I never realized how large a legal system we have to support jury trials. And I never realized how our litigious society is impacting our ordinary law abiding citizens. The newspapers only cover the major, sensational cases, and the TV news shows use the best footage for their 20 second coverage. That is a very small part of what transpires each day of the week in our legal courtrooms. What rides far under the surface of this teaming river of justice are all the families that are impacted just to support our legal system. At 400 people a day, just the downtown location for the Superior Court takes as many as 8,000 people a month away from their work and homes for at least a day. And for those selected to serve on a jury it is many days more.
So just remember the next time an issue comes up on the ballot to modify our legal system, that getting "tougher" on crime will also impact the ordinary citizen when it comes time to serve on a jury. This is not "all for free". There are impacts, and these personal impacts must be traded off against improving our communities while trying for "safer" streets. And you could be the one sitting on the floor of the jury assembly area with 700 other people, while waiting to see if you will be selected for a jury trial that will extend into days, weeks, or months.
This was an interesting lesson in community service.
posted by sunlaker @ 10:58 AM
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