Off Topic: Jury Duty

Pilote has jury duty next week--maybe longer if he gets on a case.  There is a slim thread from which to hang this post on a motorsports blog: a case involving an automobile.

Thirty-odd years ago, I was on a jury that heard a case involving felony assault--with a car.  A guy had taken his wife and kids out for ice cream, and they decided to eat it at a city park overlooking a lake.  The (resident) local park ranger walked out to tell them that the park was, or soon would be, closing--and they should move along.  Hot words were exchanged.  The driver of the car reversed it abruptly in a 90-degree turn and peeled out. The park ranger got his license number and filed criminal charges for assault with a deadly weapon.  It took us less than 20 minutes to acquit the driver.

The judge and the defense lawyers visited us (separately) to thank us for our service, and we talked about the case.  It turned out that the plaintiff had a reputation for getting into disputes.  He was the kind of officious, petty, tyrant you would not want in certain kinds of jobs--like local park ranger.  He insisted, against advice of the local prosecutor, that the case go to trial.  Apparently the prosecutor did not feel able to "just say no."  The judge told us that an FBI agent was in the back of the courtroom while testimony was heard, waiting to get a warrant.  "What kind of idiot brings a case like that?" was his question of the judge.

The other case my jury heard was a civil dispute between the owner of a failed gas station and Sunoco.  His complaint was that Sunoco did not sufficiently support him as a franchisee, causing the business to fail.  The parties settled halfway through testimony, so we didn't hear it to conclusion.  We were told they settled because Sunco's attorney's cross-examination of the plaintiff's expert witness was very effective, undermining his case.  And it was.  The expert witness was an accountant who specialized in doing the books for gas stations.  Under cross, he said "Gas stations fail all the time because people who don't know what they're doing get into the business."

A decade later, I was called for jury duty again in a different State.  I waited with lots of others in the jury pool room: Monday....Tuesday...Wednesday...  On Thursday afternoon, some of us were called up to a courtroom.  We waited again: 10 minutes... 20 minutes...  Finally the judge came in and dismissed us, apologizing for the delay.  "But I want you to know that even this inconvenience, which may look useless to you, served a purpose.  I had two litigants who refused to settle, although I've pressed them for months.  I told them in chambers as you were being called up here that I was taking them to trial right now unless they settled.  Which they did, while you were waiting.  So thankyou for saving my courtroom for a case that needs to go to trial."

I've heard plenty of jokes about jury duty.  Like the one that asks "Would you want to put your fate in the hands of 12 people too dumb to get out of jury duty?"  I've also heard the saying "The law is not about fairness, it's about the law."  True enough.  But I'm old-fashioned: I consider it an obligation of citizenship.  My experience is that potential jurors are unhappy, bored, and even resentful of being called.  But the actual jurors I served with were very conscientious when we heard cases.

I hope to get on a case next week.  Not something appalling, like an axe murder.  Or something that will give me a headache, like a complicated civil case.  But the obligation of citizenship--the duty of a
juror--is to play the hand he's dealt.  I'm taking a book to fill my time.  At worst, I will have finished a good book amid the dull roar of people on their cell phones and iPads.  At best, I will have played a small part in some rough form of justice being served.