Read Online Misdemeanor Trials by Milton Schacter - Free Book Online
Authors: Milton Schacter
Ads: Link
you help me?”
Trader heard the voices of several deputies calling out that the evacuation was over and everyone should return to the courthouse. People started to slowly file back into the courthouse.
“Maybe you should talk to a deputy. I don't know what I can do for you but maybe I could find out. I have a generic business card from the office. Let me put my name and my direct phone number on it if you want to talk to me later.” The woman took Trader’s card, and without another word, turned around and quickly disappeared into the crowd. Trader walked back into the courthouse and wondered what he could do for her, and had a nagging feeling that he had failed somehow.
Trader returned to the courtroom, sat at the Prosecution table and waited for the courtroom to fill with jurors. His mind was distant in the courtroom after his short, but strangely compelling talk outside with the blond girl. He snapped out of it when the Judge entered, and the Judge's entrance restored the room to its pre-evacuation silence. The Judge looked at Trader and said, “You may continue, Mr. Trader.” John had one more potential juror to Voir Dire. The juror was in his mid-twenties, wore a blazer with a shirt and tie, and looked like he was climbing the business ladder to success.
“Juror number 12, do you believe you can be open minded, presume the defendant is innocent, and be fair in this trial?” asked Trader.
“I think I can,” said the juror, and then continued. “But the defendant is obviously here because he did something. I mean, the cops don't just willy-nilly arrest people off of the street. I don't think the D.A. would prosecute someone he thinks is innocent just because it presents a unique challenge. It stands to reason the defendant did something and the cops arrested him for doing it. Unless the guy was in Wisconsin at the time of the crime, he can be presumed innocent, but probably isn't.”
Trader was somewhat startled by the no nonsense answer, which reflected a real world observation rather than the Pavlovian response of the other jurors. They all had stated that they could be “fair and impartial” even though they carried all the prejudices, pre-conceived notions, and biases of their entire life into the jury box. In discussions with his classmates in his law school criminal law study group, he had heard others say that blacks always let blacks go free, Asians convicted blacks no matter if they were guilty or innocent, Hispanics had no clue about how the process worked and just went along with the flow of the other jurors, and whites leaned the way their political whims led them. But you could not ask a potential juror if he or she were a Libertarian, Conservative or Communist, or if they believed in God. The ideal would be to have jurors who were fair. In the final analysis, thought Trader, their role is to make a decision, and not necessarily to deliver justice. Still, Trader had no follow-up questions for Juror number 12, and looked at the Judge and said, “I have no further questions, Your Honor.”
The Judge looked at Casey. “Mr. Casey?”
Casey stood up and said, “I would like to excuse Juror number 12.” Trader mused that the system might not have room for a person like juror number 12 who was no nonsense and had a real world view of how the system operated. The jury would end up with persons who could not actually be, but who would pretend to be, “fair”.
John asked himself, “Were the juror’s lives so dull that they thought being selected for a jury would give them some excitement, or were they looking for a few days away from the job when their employer paid them jury duty pay, or were they retired, with nothing else to do?”
Jurors who were acceptable to the Prosecution and the defense were obviously not the best and the brightest. They were the grand compromise. They would make their decisions on the way the felt about the
Trader heard the voices of several deputies calling out that the evacuation was over and everyone should return to the courthouse. People started to slowly file back into the courthouse.
“Maybe you should talk to a deputy. I don't know what I can do for you but maybe I could find out. I have a generic business card from the office. Let me put my name and my direct phone number on it if you want to talk to me later.” The woman took Trader’s card, and without another word, turned around and quickly disappeared into the crowd. Trader walked back into the courthouse and wondered what he could do for her, and had a nagging feeling that he had failed somehow.
Trader returned to the courtroom, sat at the Prosecution table and waited for the courtroom to fill with jurors. His mind was distant in the courtroom after his short, but strangely compelling talk outside with the blond girl. He snapped out of it when the Judge entered, and the Judge's entrance restored the room to its pre-evacuation silence. The Judge looked at Trader and said, “You may continue, Mr. Trader.” John had one more potential juror to Voir Dire. The juror was in his mid-twenties, wore a blazer with a shirt and tie, and looked like he was climbing the business ladder to success.
“Juror number 12, do you believe you can be open minded, presume the defendant is innocent, and be fair in this trial?” asked Trader.
“I think I can,” said the juror, and then continued. “But the defendant is obviously here because he did something. I mean, the cops don't just willy-nilly arrest people off of the street. I don't think the D.A. would prosecute someone he thinks is innocent just because it presents a unique challenge. It stands to reason the defendant did something and the cops arrested him for doing it. Unless the guy was in Wisconsin at the time of the crime, he can be presumed innocent, but probably isn't.”
Trader was somewhat startled by the no nonsense answer, which reflected a real world observation rather than the Pavlovian response of the other jurors. They all had stated that they could be “fair and impartial” even though they carried all the prejudices, pre-conceived notions, and biases of their entire life into the jury box. In discussions with his classmates in his law school criminal law study group, he had heard others say that blacks always let blacks go free, Asians convicted blacks no matter if they were guilty or innocent, Hispanics had no clue about how the process worked and just went along with the flow of the other jurors, and whites leaned the way their political whims led them. But you could not ask a potential juror if he or she were a Libertarian, Conservative or Communist, or if they believed in God. The ideal would be to have jurors who were fair. In the final analysis, thought Trader, their role is to make a decision, and not necessarily to deliver justice. Still, Trader had no follow-up questions for Juror number 12, and looked at the Judge and said, “I have no further questions, Your Honor.”
The Judge looked at Casey. “Mr. Casey?”
Casey stood up and said, “I would like to excuse Juror number 12.” Trader mused that the system might not have room for a person like juror number 12 who was no nonsense and had a real world view of how the system operated. The jury would end up with persons who could not actually be, but who would pretend to be, “fair”.
John asked himself, “Were the juror’s lives so dull that they thought being selected for a jury would give them some excitement, or were they looking for a few days away from the job when their employer paid them jury duty pay, or were they retired, with nothing else to do?”
Jurors who were acceptable to the Prosecution and the defense were obviously not the best and the brightest. They were the grand compromise. They would make their decisions on the way the felt about the
Similar Books
