Juries have blues

Take one famous defendant, add prosecution and defense teams performing for the came ras and a cast of characters that would make any sitcom producer salivate. This equation sounds simple so far. Figure in 1,000 prospective jurors and it becomes nightmarishly complex.

The ordeal that's become more of a made-for-TV movie than a trial raises questions about how the court system currently handles the Sixth Amendment guarantee of speedy, fair trials and an impartial jury. It is to laugh. The O.J. Simpson trial may take months and finding an impartial jury might be impossible.

Bo th camps, battling as much for their careers as Simpson's future, will try to select a jury that will most favor themselves while television coverage from the media circus will pre-empt daytime TV programs ... possibly the only positive outcome of the trial.

With the advent of jury consultants and the birth of jury selection strategies, trials are becoming more of an entertainment draw than the now- dead great American sport: baseball. Both defense and prosecution will come up with game plans and the media, in this trial at least, are serving as sports commentators.

As it stands, the population at large in this country treats jury duty with the same distaste as a visit to the dentist, and while everyone is qualified to go to the dentist, n ot everyone is qualified to serve as a jury member. The Sixth Amendment guarantees an impartial jury, it says nothing about intelligence.

The time has come to retro-fit the jury selection process. Maybe we need to have professional jurors, intellige nt people qualified and able to pierce subjective arguments designed to persuade an unqualified jury into making a decision based more on emotion than facts.

If that seems too extreme, then let's make jury service mandatory and paid. Everyone is su pposed to serve, but how many actually do?

If everyone serves equally, jury service might sink to a level that makes it acceptable. As it stands, the majority of the citizenry shirks this because it takes huge chunks of time out of their lives with little or no compensation.