Jury Duty Responsibilities And Experiences Of Doing Jury Service

Jurors are used for serious crimes. This means you will exposed to often shocking details and images. You will also see at first hand the victims of crime. This is sometimes difficult to deal with.

Whilst it is demanding most people, me included, found the experience of doing jury interesting and rewarding. I felt very proud that I was doing service for the community. Here in the UK we are asked to serve as juror for 10 days.

The most upsetting time for me was hearing the testimony of the wife of the victim in the case I was on. It was a serious assault which she witnessed and her story was very difficult to hear. Luckily her husband survived.

Don't be suprised. Jury duty is a stressful experience that can have consequences for your general well being and health whilst you do it. Researchers at Leicester University in the UK are keen to talk to people who have done jury duty Jury Duty Survey

There are several resources available about the effects of stress and jury duty. They include:
Overcoming The Stress of Jury Duty
Tips for coping with stress of jury duty
Tips for coping after jury duty

University of Leicester's Dr. Noelle Robertson and colleagues says that"women are most vulnerable and that a lot of it occurs because jurors are not allowed to talk about the case. Other observations include the fact that doing jury duty can result in symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder!

It might be assumed that jury decisions are based on logic and the facts. My experience shows that should expect to be faced with alot more than that. The mix of people in the jury means that there are 12 very different people with different ways of making sense of information, different ways of using power and influence and different ways of communicating.

In my case the moment the door was closed it seemed that everyone but me thought the defendent was innocent. I was a clear minority of 1 and this has huge implications. Imagine the situation reversed too. Dealing with this situation means having an insight into what psychologists call Minority Influence is helpful.

It was first really studied by a man called Moscovici in 1976. He explained how minoriities convert people to their way of thinking. The first problem minorities have with majorities is their reaction:

"When a minority expresses a deviant view that is
expressed with consistency and confidence the
majority view wants to how they (dare) do this"

Minority influence is not immediate it is delayed.There is always PUBLIC resistance followed by PRIVATE cognitive change. Despite this a process of VALIDATION is started "what are they [the minority] saying?, why are they saying it?" Minorities need to demonstrate objective, expertise and not appear to fixed and dogmatic.

In the jury room you need to spot 4 types of minority:

Progressive minorities Innovate - e.g. lets look at the evdidence this way
Conservative minorities Block Change - e.g. the judge said this is what we must do
Moderniser minorities Block Going Back e.g.we decided 10 minutes ago she was guilty
Reactionary minorities Want A Return to the past e.g. if only we had public hangings

Often doing jury duty means waiting around. In the UK on your first day you will receive regular updates about trials listed and be told when you are to be part of a panel of 15 jurors. It is from the initial 15 that 12 jurors will be chosen randomly to sit on a trial.

The courts try not to keep you waiting too long. Trials can be delayed though and you should expect this. Next time I do jury service I will be taking a good book and also my laptop so I can work. Wi-Fi facilities are available in most western courts.

The selection of jurors for the final 12 can be quite a 'dark art'. You might be de-selected for any reason. It might be your ethnicity, age, sex or clothes! In fact some people specialise as jury consultants. This link to an article called Unnatural Selection has loads of stories including one about a lady nicknamed Strawberry Shortcake (real name Richelle Nice) who earned her nickname by coming to court with her hair dyed a different shade of red almost every day. The prosecution were wary of using her because of her edgy appearance.

Jury Selection has become a highly specialised process, so much so that it is known as Scientific Jury Selection whereby SJS practitioners determine what background characteristics and attitudes predict favorable results. One of the most famous cases of jury selection was during the trail of O.J.Simpson (his first one that is!) in which the racial of the jury was considered significant.

Here is a great video explanation of Jury Selection from Illolio Jones

The modern jury system is claimed to have been created in 1215 in England with the signing of the Magna Carta by King John. It enshrined the idea that noblemen could be tried by thier peers rather than by the Sovereign alone. Aspects of it are said to unperpin the US Constitution although many of its details have been repealed in English Law.

Historians believe that the very first trial by jury system began in ancient Greece where the jurors were known as Dikasti. For every day cases 500 people voted and for serious crimes 1000 people voted.

As the job title says, jury duty is a 'duty'. It is a serious social commitment that benefits society and the responsibility of all adults. I do not condone 'shirking', 'bunking off', or avoiding jury duty for no good reason.

I have done jury duty once before and at the time of my second summons I had contracted Tinnitus, and I have to say 'give me jury duty every time'. That said I contacted the court and because re-trials are very costly I was considered too much of a risk so I was excused.

Sometimes innocent are found guilty and guilty people are set free. Tom Rogers of Intuitor explains how this happens through statistical analysis. He classifies mistakes into Type 1 where the an innocent person goes to jail and Type 2 mistakes where a gulity person is set free.

Obama Called For Jury Duty
Obama Skips Jury Duty

an insight into what happens in the jury room