Why The Judicial System Adds Insult To InJURY

Junk mail isn't as overwhelming as it used to be. We used to get tons of magazines and who can forget Publishers' Clearing House envelopes bursting with false hopes. We also used to get an influx of medical supply magazines selling gadgets like boot warmers and silly looking gardening knickknacks. Today, there's that ONE PIECE OF MAIL you'll dreadfully receive and it's the equivalent of a mental death sentence; you start to feel animosity towards conventional mail altogether. 

The courthouse had a scenic view of the borough, at least!

In February I finally received that long, yellow-highlighted notification advising me to report to jury duty on Wednesday, March 20th. Of course, they wanted me to call their useless phone number the night prior to going to the Supreme Court in Downtown Brooklyn. Why waste time calling to find out if you have to report? About 80% of the time, you have to report in. You usually can't get out of it unless you're disabled, have children or can find another real, legit and brilliant excuse as to why you can't sit in a building wasting 8 hours a day for less money than you'd earn actually going to work. 

Honestly, I didn't see the negative aspects of serving jury duty -- at first. Hey, it's a day off of work, right? I wouldn't have to travel to the city, I'd be in the heart of Brooklyn with all of those gourmet fooderies and I could do some shopping!  It wouldn't be sooooo bad!!!

Great! I woke up at least an hour later than usual, I took my time and pffffff - I got there at 9 a.m. even though the jury card said 8:30 a.m.  Come on! They're not paying me to be there on time!!

Courthouses are pretty cool and neat. Neat meaning, they look more sterile than a hospital during a flu outbreak. As I went into the huge auditorium already showing some flimsy video clip about citizens being required to carry out their civic duty by being part of the judicial system, I hoped this ordeal would be simple.

Not so much (of course!).

All of the jurors were corralled like harnessed stable horses from the big auditorium into a smaller room where we were addressed by a court officer. "I know y'all all bearing with us, but just imagine - we have to do this every day!"

Every day? In effort to escape getting arrested for arguing with a law enforcement official, I stopped myself from standing up and hollering - "Every day? Y'all get PAID a nice salary and a pension with plenty of vacation and a retirement plan fit for a king!!!! Y'all get to wear bullet proof vests and get certified as reputable law enforcement while we waste away in this suit-obsessed building for a measly $40 a DAY!!!"

Falling asleep in the courthouse - not an unusual site.

For some reason, the professionals who work in the courts want us to pity them (when this is what they pine to do professionally and get paid pretty well to carry out) for having to endure the criminal justice system every day.
Hey- we're just hard working New Yorkers forced out of our jobs and lives to determine someone else's legal fate whether we want to or not!!! Who has it rough?????

The group of jurors I joined were corralled up to another floor where we waited yet again. I didn't get to enjoy my "day off". I wanted to read, catch up on my date book planning and text with a friend. With all of the standing and waiting, I lost over 3 hours of productive time.

Finally, when we were inside the courtroom, we were - in the end - either chosen or not chosen to preside over a burglary case. I obviously can't give the details of the case, but in the back of my mind I wondered why someone would need a dozen random people to prove their innocence!!! How many upstanding citizens who simply go about their business and stay OUT OF TROUBLE wind up in a courthouse with several different criminal charges and their lawyer sitting there trying to convince us that this is a "nice guy". Why would I even care if he was framed?

The bad news was that I was chosen for the case. The good news is that I was later excused from serving as a juror for the simple fact that I couldn't afford to be out of work for a week - the projected time the case would take to reveal all of the evidence and testimonies - at $40 a day.

After dodging the bullet of having to put someone in jail - or letting them roam free - I started noticing more stories in the media about everything that's wrong with our government's jury selection process.

I don't know how many of you have ever served on a case or have witnessed the process by which prosecutors and lawyers choose juries. I've been to jury duty selection 3 times since I was 20 years old and the oddest thing I realized is that most juries are comprised of middle class (or once middle class) workers who are average residents of the county.

 In the juror pool I joined last month, at least 7 of the jurors were freelancers - many journalists for news sites. Others were artistic designers, liberal arts aficionados and construction workers. Of course, the court's time was wasted inevitably by roves of poor souls trying to provide an excuse for why they couldn't be picked for a case. One woman pretended she didn't understand English. DANG, why didn't I think of that?... Oh, yes, it's not really a "disability" as many think it is.

I've actually never seen or heard of a jury "of my peers" who were doctors, lawyers, CEOs of companies, Wall Street types or politicians. How often do they even receive summonses to appear for jury duty? Is there some salary bracket that upper class and rich people fall into that by and large excludes them from the judicial hell that is jury duty? Does their professional standing get in the way of them being chosen - and are they easily excused from even being picked because their professions are SO in demand that the State Of New York doesn't want to touch their delicate schedules??

Who knows!!!!

It doesn't take much to realize that jury duty and the process by which the courts "randomly" chooses us is the worst and most out dated rigmarole I've ever seen. There are a few factors that makes jury duty itself faulty and ineffective to any case - especially one that's in the spotlight.

The court system is full of confidence and legal nonsense. They want people who don't care about someone else's criminal activities to think beyond reality. We have to declare and believe that someone's "innocent until proven guilty."

Let's get real!!!!!  The reason they're in court to begin with is because someone out there deems them unsavory and they've already gotten their hands dirty somehow by being involved with the wrong people or by being at the wrong place of accusation.

Now, I'm not a saint by ANY means, but I've never had a brush with the law. I've never been involved in a situation where I put myself in any legally compromising position. No one has ever had to defend my innocence. 

I'm sure there are millions of people out there who just live their day-to-day life without being questioned by the law. It' my opinion that those aren't the people who need a jury to decide if they deserve time behind bars.

Nowadays, jury selection shouldn't be about choosing a "regular working person" at random and throwing them into a room to be questioned. 

If you picked up the March 27th issue of the Daily News, you could clearly understand in their article, "Let Me Trial Again: Chapo Sez Toss Conviction by Tainted Jury," how cocaine kingpin El Chapo felt the randomly selected individuals were swayed in their decisions by social media.

Who isn't???

Whether the courts want to admit it or not, most jurors - when exposed to a case - can't help but recall some of the most notorious stories in the media - the O.J. trail, Michael Jackson's array of legal woes - from sexual allegations to claims that his own doctor reportedly assisted in his passing, and more recently, Bill Cosby's almost shocking sentencing years after his abusers were victimized.

As "normal folks" we're all watching 'Law And Order,' 'CSI', 'Forensic Files', 'The First 48 Hours' and 'Dateline'. Nowadays, we're constantly fed information on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter about new evidence, updates on a crime and press releases/statements from politicians intended to go viral. We know more about a robbery, murder or lawsuit than we truly want to because it's all made public information somewhere and who can be 100 % honest that what they've read in the news has NO impact on how they view the criminal justice system?

The old saying goes that no matter what, if you're picked for a jury, you have to be able to prove the client's guilt/innocence "beyond a reasonable doubt."
By the time they reviewed this bit of famous information,  I was sitting in the jury box - pitying the suits who had to waste the court's time questioning our perception of the law. Who knows how many individuals receive unfair trails every day?

For example, anyone who lived in New York in August 2016 knows the horrible story behind the murder of Karina Vetrano, a runner who was reportedly attacked and killed in Queens by Chanel Lewis. The jury on this trial revealed a guilty verdict and the Daily News' April 2nd article, "Justice For Karina" implied that the jurors weren't being fair to Lewis in many legal facets.
So an average person like ME has to sit and listen to a case we already knew about and feel horrible for the family? Were the jurors swayed inadvertently by the evidence and stories they'd heard on the news and social media years before Lewis' trial began? Did they feel bad for the Vetrano family at the inception of the tragedy?

Of freakin' course!!!

By the end of my own jury court day, as I was informed of the procedure when we returned to the courtroom the following week, I already thought about the criminal justice system and my hatred/dislike for its processes.
So many defense lawyers and prosecutors want retrials, new jurors, appeals and verdicts that really mean something to their clients' case. With this in mind, how can they proceed with jury selection when their pool is limited to the class and types of jurors they bring in.

My proposal? Bus in a slew of retired professionals who have life-long experiences and values who don't mind spending a day Downtown Brooklyn wasting time. Provide these seasoned individuals with meals and transportation from their senior centers to the courts.
Make jury duty a volunteer-based legal program with benefits (provide jurors with meals, allow them to use their cell phones whenever they want and PAY THEM AT THE END OF THE DAY!!!) Please - stop forcing working people to sacrifice their salaries just to decide the fate of someone they don't even care about (which is the point of hearing someone's story).
If someone's receiving unemployment for a long time, make it mandatory that they serve on a jury in order to receive benefits until they find a job. Yes, plenty of jurors are unemployed etc., and the court should take advantage of those who aren't worried about missing work and important deadlines.

No matter who's picked, it always seems like the supposed criminal isn't being operated fairly... or someone isn't happy with the verdict. Then what good did the courts do selecting jurors to preside over those cases in the first place?

Well, I'm still waiting for my $40 compensation for serving that one day - that one day which made me realize that nothing's improving in our judicial system and even when "justice is served" there will be someone out there looking to settle the score and challenge a new jury's decision because they're unhappy with the results. It's also unsettling that it's a crime to not show up to jury duty!!!

Really!!!
Case dismissed!