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Jurors
are not "stupid civil servants"
On
behalf of all who have served on jury duty
I would like to demand an apology from Matt
Logan regarding his disparaging remarks
about jurors on the recent gang rape case.
Jurors are far from "stupid civil servants,"
in that jurors are not civil servants in
the popular meaning, nor stupid.
As
a juror on four different criminal trials
I'll be honest and say that multiple count
trials are sometimes confusing, but only
in that some cases each count requires a
verdict of guilty or not guilty based on
the somewhat flawed demands of "beyond
a reasonable doubt." It's the attempt
of jurors to really try and be honest and
not biased that makes it a challenge.
Not
every trial ends with a dramatic TV-style
guilty or not guilty. Believe me, I know
this from experience. Sometimes the trial
presentation itself lends to the dreaded
hung jury.
Jury
duty is tiring, boring, demanding and interesting
all in the same day, and those days can
stretch into weeks or even months. The availability
of the trial by jury of ones peers is one
of the cornerstones of our American justice
system. It has its flaws but overall it
works, and has worked, for generations.
That's why each day hundreds (yes, hundreds)
of citizens all over L.A. County respond
to courthouses throughout the area and none
of them expect to be paid much for their
service (state employees only receive mileage
pay, one way, and their jury pay is returned
to the state) nor do they expect to be called
stupid civil servants.
—
John Powell, Network Services
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