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The following program was produced by the United States Courts.
Hello, I'm Chris Thomas with the United States Courts.
In this edition of Court Shorts, we focus on jury service.
Every year some local federal courts
host a national open doors to federal courts outreach program.
This program introduces high school students and their teachers to jury service, the most
direct way of participating in our democracy.
In this broadcast students question federal judges from across the country on the basics of jury service.
Let's see what they have to say:
Why is jury service important?
Thomas Jefferson said
that one of the three bedrocks of freedom in this country
were freedom of religion,
freedom of speech,
and the right to trial by jury.
So jury service is not something that has been important because it's been around for a very
short period time.
It's part of the foundation of our American system.
Juries are the purest form of democracy that we have in this country. Every week,
in courthouses around the country, six to twelve people will sit
and bring a particular statute to life --
bring the Constitution to life,
and give it meaning.
Without the jury,
our whole judicial system as we know it falls apart.
The juror is really the most important person in the courtroom when there is a trial.
What is the role of the jury?
They make the decision. The judge is the referee and makes sure that they understand the rules,
just like people who play in a game have to understand the rules.
The judge gives them the rules, and then they make the decision.
We like to say that a lawsuit has two
parts. There's the facts and the law.
I'm the judge of the law, and the jurors are the judge of the facts.
They decide who to believe and who not to believe.
I give them instructions on what law to apply
to those decisions, but
the jury uniquely decides
what the facts are of the case, and then they apply the facts to the law as I give it to them.
How long will I have to sit on a jury?
Most trials only take one or two days.
You serve from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., we take an hour for lunch,
we take a 15-minute recess in the morning, a 15-minute recess in the afternoon.
We strive every week to make sure that when a citizen comes to our courthouse to serve
as a juror, that we use their time wisely.
Is it worth my time if I wait in the jury assembly room, but don't serve?
We need a pool
from which to select the jury. Those names are drawn then randomly,
and they go to the courtroom. Even some of the ones that go to the courtroom aren't selected
for the actual jury.
But without them being there, without the lawyers having the ability to pick the ones
that they believe will be the fairest in their case, the whole system falls apart.
Having the jury in the room, and maybe the defendant or the plantiff hearing for the first time
the case coming together in a certain way, sometimes will facilitate a settlement.
So even if a jury doesn't hear a case to conclusion,
they have contributed to solving the dispute between the parties.
Is it important for the jury to be diverse?
The goal of a jury is to have a cross-section of the community.
And so if
people aren't willing to serve, then only those who don't have a good excuse not to
serve are the ones that will end up on the jury.
And that's not a good cross-section.
We want everyone to be there,
everyone to have their voice in the way our justice system works.
I just think it's amazing that you get twelve people
from different walks of life,
different ages, different backgrounds,
different life experiences,
who usually can come to an agreement.
Do you always agree with the verdicts?
When a very diverse jury -- ethnically,
gender, and geographically --
they agreed unanimously, you have great confidence in their decision-making.
When you have twelve people making a decision,
they're more likely to get it right. If just one person makes a decision, they might not
think of all the angles. Having a jury and their ability to discuss it with one another,
they can really talk through the evidence and reach the correct decision.
Have you ever served on a jury?
I've been called for jury service about six times,
and every single time I show up.
So I know the pressures and responsibilities of jurors.
I haven't had the good fortune of actually sitting in the jury,
but I've been called
and I've actually served and fulfilled my duty and responsibility.
I'm an American citizen just like everybody else and when my number gets called, I think I
have to report. In fact, I have to report
at the end of this month, and I'm happy to do so because I think it's important that
if I'm going to demand that other people serve as jurors, that I be willing to serve also.
Why should I serve on a jury?
Jurors invariably say to me afterwards: "Judge, I didn't realize that it could be so interesting
and really fun at times."
I have never talked to anybody who has served on a jury, no matter how apprehensive they were before,
that didn't love and value their experience after they had it.
I think it's a privilege to be able to participate
in this system that
we have had for over two hundred years.
They walk away feeling that they're greater citizens and better members of our citizenry for doing that.
In today's world we talk a lot about patriotism. I think jurors who serve on jury duty are
being very patriotic. They're doing a role that the Constitution
asks them to do.
For podcasts,
games,
homework help, and much more on jury service,
explore the educational resources section
of www.uscourts.gov.
With this edition of Court Shorts, I'm Chris Thomas