12 Angry Men
Suppose you got a summons for jury duty. It said that you were part of a massive pool being assembled for a high profile case in which the jury was likely to be sequestered for some time. Suppose you went digging in the paper and figured out the dates matched up to a highly publicized child murder in a town not terribly far from yours. Imagine that the notice called for jurors to be empaneled for voir dire 3 weeks before you are scheduled to move out of state. And imagine you tried to get out of it by arguing you were moving shortly after the date of the summons, but the court said no.
That's the situation my mom is in right now. She doesn't want to serve, both because of the inconvenience when my parents are about to move, but also because the factual subject matter of the case is likely to be highly disturbing to her. She doesn't want to be sequestered, but she really doesn't want to haer about a child who was raped and murdered.
She had all these ideas about what she could say that would get her out of it--like that she's already read about the case and made up her mind, etc. I told her unfortunately with all the publicity that would probably be the case for 95% of the jury pool and was no guarantee. And I tried to put myself in the mind of both prosecutor and defense attorney and figure out what would make me waste a peremptory challenge on my mom, but honestly she is exactly the kind of person that would slip through because her demographics and her views aren't quite objectionable enough to either side to get her dinged. (She tends to get picked when she's called for jury duty, for whatever reason.)
I really, really hope she doesn't get picked, but I'm worried. I know I couldn't handle hearing the sort of evidence she would hear if she was forced to sit through that case.
And just in case anyone was going to ask what case, I can't say. But if you hunt for it you can probably figure it out.
2 comments:
I *think* I know the case you are talking about (in the last 12-18 months I think)... highly publicized on CNN and from abduction to arrest was less than 2 weeks. Something about a grandparent and a dad I think.
Anyway, regardless, I think I might have to say I was molested as a child (or have a CLOSE friend who was or something that could hold up) and I have VERY strong negative/biased feelings about what should/could needs to happen to people like this - in fact I might have to shoot off an email to my state senator before showing up to jury duty requesting the death penalty for all child molesters that result in the death of a child (if it's not already a law there)... especaially a repeat offender. Just my 2 cents... you'd be a prosecutors dream, but a defense NIGHTMARE. And I can't think the question "have you, a close family member or close friend ever been molested?" won't come up in polling the jury.
My 2 cents
Well my mom won't lie, so anything about her or a family member being molested is out. I actually know exactly what she could say to get a guaranteed peremptory challenge if not a dismissal for cause--that she is fundamentally opposed to the death penalty and would not be able to vote to impose it on anyone. The prosecution can move to dismiss such potential jurors for cause, and if their motion is denied they will almost certainly exercise a peremptory in this case. I told my mom that, but she said she's not opposed to the death penalty so she won't say it. (See *I* could get out of jury duty in this case with no difficulty or lying.)
What I ultimately told her to emphasize was that she used to be a teacher of students approximately the same age as the victim and that she would have a highly emotional reaction to hearing testimony and seeing evidence of a brutal rape and murder of someone the same age as her former students. I don't know that it will be enough to get her dismissed, but it's the best reason I can think of why the defense might not want her on the jury. Ultimately though she's going to have to serve if picked. My parents' house closing is July 31st, so it will be a huge problem if she is sequestered in another part of the state for the trial when that is supposed to happen.
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