In a little less than an hour I find out if I will have jury duty tomorrow. Based on the reactions of nearly everyone when I mention that, I think I am just about the last person left in the country who actually wants to carry out this part of our social responsibility. I’ve been told that it is often just a lot of sitting around with nothing to do, which just sounds like a great chance to get some reading done. I’ve never been one who gets bored easily so that aspect doesn’t bother me.
More importantly though I look forward to the chance to be on a jury. When you break the legal system down to its most basic form, you have one person saying, “That man committed this crime.” The accused then responds, “No I didn’t.” The accuser must then convince twelve people that he is right. The basic conceit being that it is better to allow a guilty man his continued freedom than to take away the freedom of an innocent man. As a staunch believer in freedom that’s an idea I love.
The system is of course flawed. We are moving, especially in regards to “larger” cases, towards a system of guilty until proven innocent. Yet I still believe in the ideals of the system. When it is put into practice, it is still one of the fairest justice systems in the world (and I’d rather have a system that can be corrupted than one that is corrupt).
Assuming that all of you reading this piece are reasonable intelligent people (which is what the system assumes), the opportunity to be on a jury should be welcomed as a chance to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. You could bring your patient consideration to the case presented to you. You could be responsible for freeing the innocent or punishing the wicked. Seems like a noble goal to me.
Am I being stupidly naive? Possibly, but I’ve found the world lives up to your expectations, good, bad, or indifferent (your true expectations, the ones deep in your heart where maybe you don’t even see them). If I do get to go down to the courthouse tomorrow, I plan to go there with these positive thoughts, an open mind, and a good long book.
(And no, these thoughts have nothing to do with my having recently seen, for the first time ever, Twelve Angry Men. I’m also not put off by the shootings last week at the Fulton county courthouse.)
I agree with you on this one too. It’s a little bit of a hassle being a student, and not getting paid for the day “off,” but well worth it.
And when you refer to a system that can be corrupted, I assume it is in contrast to a system that is INHERENTLY corrupt.
The day after, when I went back to work, I expected that maybe someone would say something positive, but all the comments I got were something to the effect of “too bad you had to do that”.
People complain so much about the state of the country and then whine when it’s time to carry out their civic duty.
And yes, I should have stuck “inherently” in that sentence to make the meaning clear.
I also agree. I enjoied my one day of jury duty, the only painful part of it being that if I had gotten selected for a long case it would have interfeared with my school. I look forward to when I work and can be more comfortable with missing days due to jury duty. I do like being a part of the system. If I was ever on the bad end of it, I would like to know that my peers would take my case seriously and make sure that justice is done.
And hey, you get a whole 15 bucks! That ain’t bad for a day of reading books.
[...] am all about voting and doing your civic duty (I’m the one guy you know that actually wants to be on a jury after all), but I’m not going to tell you to vote tomorrow. Sure, if you know who you want to [...]