Juror Summons I have received jury duty summons four times while a resident of Sacramento, California. I went to the court house for three of the four summons and the fourth one will happen next year as I was able to secure a postponement. At the outset, I can tell you as a potential juror, in my experience, the attorneys and the judges were looking for people who were unbiased in the area the trials were centered on. As a deaf juror, the lawyers and the judges want to make sure that I can see the interpreters, that the interpreters are qualified, and that I can follow the evidence and testimony during trial as well as participate in the jury deliberations after the trial closing arguments.
Reporting for Jury Duty
My first jury duty experience was on a civil jury trial. When I arrived at the courthouse, I found myself waiting in a sea of potential jurors, waiting to be called to one of the courtrooms for the voir dire of the potential jurors. When I reported to the Jury Clerk, they notified the interpreters that day where to find me. All of us potential jurors participated in a juror orientation that explained the importance of serving as a juror and thanked us for participating in a democratic government.
The hard part was the waiting. Everyone who has ever served as a potential juror or juror will agree the hardest part of being a juror is just waiting to be called. The pools would be called and groups of people would go into one of the courtrooms. My pool was provided a long questionnaire for a civil trial it appeared from the type of questions it asked. We were all sitting quietly, filling out the questionnaire. I remember one question was what my opinion was about psychologists as it asked if I had a bias toward that profession. We then turned in the questionnaires and waited again.
Voir Dire
Our pool was then called to sit in the courtroom and undergo the voir dire where the attorneys and judges would ask each individual standard questions. The voir dire is the process by which attorneys ask the potential jurors their backgrounds and possible biases. As people moved through the voir dire, I got to sit in the juror box with other potential jurors. It was evident from the questions that the trial involved a child or children as questions were centering on whether the jurors had children. Finally twelve of us were chosen, including myself, to serve in this civil jury trial. Since I am an attorney by training, the lawyers were intent to impress on me that I was not to use my legal training to influence the jurors and I said I would make sure to not use my legal knowledge in making my decision. That statement appeared to be satisfactory. They didn’t make much of an issue of my deafness, they seemed to be more concerned with my legal background.
Civil Trial Juror Experience
The trial lasted a week and a half. It was a civil trial where the parents of a girl under 18 years old were suing a local Holiday Inn for injuries sustained in the hot tub when the family was staying at the hotel one time. The pool drain had sucked the girl under water for some time but she was rescued and brought to the hospital to secure medical attention. I was able to observe the witnesses from where I sat in the jury box as well as see the interpreters during the opening arguments, witness testimony, and closing arguments.
We were then escorted to the jury deliberation room and made arrangements for seating so I could participate in the ongoing discussion and see the interpreter simultaneously. We voted for a jury foreman and started the discussions from the instructions the judge had given us to consider. The discussion lasted two or three days and when we finally came up with a vote, we decided to provide the family with some damages, but not the entire package they were asking for.
The family and their attorney, of course, were disappointed to not secure their entire request. The judge told us jurors we could stay and ask the attorneys questions if we wished. Plaintiffs’ attorney was upset so he left but the defendants’ attorney who represented the hotel, stayed and answered our questions as we had some pertaining to some parts of the trail we were curious about as we noticed there were stipulations to not discuss some medical or legal aspects, meaning the two parties had agreed to those points and we jurors did not need to know those facts.
One was the fact the plaintiffs’ attorney was the fifth they had hired to bring the case to court. We jurors had not been too impressed by the plaintiffs’ attorney and we had wondered why the case had been brought to court so many years after the injury as she was small when the injury happened and she was nearly 18 years old in the court case. The defense attorney said that was because the legal theory for the plaintiffs was, the closer they could arrive at an adult age before she turned 18, the more they might be able to claim for if they could show how much she would lose as a wage earner if she were not able to achieve her dreams of securing a professional job because of the injury she had sustained. The plaintiffs had also alleged she suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which was not too well known at the time but was attributed mostly to war veterans at that time, not children.
As you can see from this first trial, I was able to follow along with all the other jurors and not miss any piece of evidence or discussion in the trial and in the jury deliberation room.
Criminal Trial Experience as an Alternate Juror
The second time I was called to jury duty, the waiting was just as bad. Finally, my pool was undergoing the voir dire and twelve jurors were selected but I was still in the jury box. This time the trial was a criminal trial so three alternates were needed in case one of the twelve jurors became incapacitated during the criminal trial. As an alternate, I had to sit with the two other alternates to the left of the 12 jurors, but still situated in the jury box so we could see the parties, attorneys, and witnesses during the trial. I noticed the attorneys were always pleased to find people who had previous jury service.
I found that a criminal trial is harder to participate in than a civil trial. The defendant was charged with killing three individuals. His defense was that he had killed in the heat of the moment, that these were not intentional deaths. As the testimony unfolded, we learned about guns and how they worked from an expert in guns. We also saw photos of the grisly crime scene. We were also exposed to gang culture and language that could be vulgar. When closing arguments came in, the alternates were excused and the twelve jurors went to deliberate. The judge told us alternates that we were welcome to come for the juror verdict. It was about 5 days before I got the telephone call notifying me that the verdict was coming in. I went downtown to the courthouse and waited with the other alternates for my interpreter and then we went in to the court room, sat in the juror box with the 12 jurors and listened to the verdict. The defendant was found guilty on all counts of premeditated murder.
Third Potential Juror Experience
My third appearance as a juror ended in one day. I went to the court house on the day I was expected for service and reported to the Jury Clerk window. They asked me if I could return the following week as the deaf juror from the previous week trial had gone longer than expected and the interpreters were assigned to him. I pointed out that I had called the previous Thursday to see if I should come in that day and I was assured that it was fine for me to come in. I also said I had rearranged my work schedule and released my work interpreter that week as we knew the uncertainty of jury service, which could be waiting all week to be called. As it turned out, I was told to wait so I waited that day. Nothing happened during the day so I lined up with the other jurors and went up to the window to see if I were dismissed or if I had to show up the next day. The Jury Clerk was horrified to see me and said didn’t you go into the courtroom when your panel was called? I said no one came up to me so she told me to wait and she would get back to me. I waited and then a representative of the Jury Commissioner came to me and said I was dismissed and did not have to return for jury service.
My next appearance as a potential juror will be next year. I will continue that story later.
Tips for What to Do When You Get a Jury Summons
Here are some general points for deaf people who receive jury summons.
Links:
[1] http://www.nad.org/users/sheilamentkowski
[2] http://deaf.disqus.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nad.org%2Fblogs%2Fsmentkowski%2Fdeaf-juror-experience