A three part series on what to do when you are called for jury duty
Part Three: Jury Duty – The Trial Begins
- From the start of the trial until deliberations begin
Finally – the part you expected! Lawyers talking! Witnesses! Cross examination! Deliberations! What now? What will it take to be a good juror?
Your service will have 2 major responsibilities; your attention and conduct during the trial, and your deliberations at the end of the trial. This section will address issues from the start of the trial until deliberations, and I will write a separate section about deliberations.
Show up, on time. You will have breaks during the day, and your trial is going to last more than one day. Be back from any break (which are called “recesses” even though no playground is involved!) at the right time. Many, many people are involved in a trial. If one person is late, everyone suffers. Further, more than you know, time is money. Late starts are a burden to everyone.
Expect that it all will seem a little strange. You have never done this before. You are being asked to think about things that you don’t usually think about, and make the kinds of decisions you don’t usually make. There are rules and procedures that you may not understand at first. Take comfort in the fact that this process has evolved over centuries, and that there are good reasons for things being done the way they are.
Have patience. Some of the trial will be boring. Some of the testimony will seem unnecessary. Some things will be repeated too many times. Breaks may last longer than they should. You may want information that you are not getting. At some level, that’s just the way it is. This isn’t Hollywood, where trials take 20 minutes. Roll with it!
Pay attention. See “Have patience,” above. You have an important job. You will only get to see and hear what you see and hear once. There is no instant replay.
Don’t discuss the case, with anyone, during the trial. That means anyone – not other jurors, not your significant other, not your Facebook friends. Even if the case involves medicine, and you are married to a doctor, if you talk about the case, you are violating your oath as a juror, and your conduct could result in a mistrial – the case being thrown out of court and tried all over again months later. That is a catastrophe for everyone involved.
Don’t investigate anything about the case. You are sworn to decide the case based upon the law and evidence you see in court. If you get on line to look up photos of the intersection where the wreck happened, or to dig into the background of the parties, or to look up information about medical issues, you are NOT deciding the case based upon the law and evidence you see in court. Also, don’t read the paper or surf the web to see any reporting about the trial during the trial. If you do this, you will be in trouble, and the case will be subject to a mistrial (see above). No matter how tempting it may be, or how easy it is, or how relevant it may seem to you, DON’T DO IT.
Take notes and ask questions. Most, but not all, courts today will let you take notes during the trial. If you have that chance, do it, but be careful not to pay so much attention to writing things down that you don’t spend time looking at the witnesses and thinking about the big picture. Also, many courts have a procedure that allows jurors to submit written questions to witnesses at the end of their testimony. Take advantage of that opportunity! However, be aware that the judge won’t allow every question. Some things you would like to know are based on evidence that is not admissible under the rules of evidence, so you won’t get an answer. If that happens, you will no doubt feel frustrated, but, again, remember that the rules exist for a reason.
Keep an open mind until the end of the trial. There is a lot of research out there that shows that people often make up their minds about a matter very early in any discussion, and based upon only a fraction of the information that is available to them. Your obligation as a juror is to do just the opposite – you must keep an open mind about the case until you have heard all the facts and evidence, heard the jury instructions (see below), and started deliberations with your fellow jurors. Trials are, by their nature, incremental. You get a little information at a time. One side goes first, and the other side doesn’t get to put on their evidence until later. If you start making up your mind too soon, you will be doing so based on only part of the story, and you will be disrespecting the process. Sure, it is more comfortable to “pick a story and stick to it,” but doing so is not fair to either side. You never know what evidence is yet to come, and it may significantly impact how you see things in the end. Stay flexible, and understand that a trial is the sum of all of its parts.
What about objections and instructions to disregard evidence? From time to time the lawyers will object to certain testimony or to certain things that happen. From time to time, the judge will tell you to ignore things you have heard. In fact, the human mind has no “reset” button. Nevertheless, you are to do your best to not get caught up in the question of why certain things were objected to, and to forget what you have been told to disregard.
Things you want to know, and you expect to hear about – but won’t be told. Every juror in a civil case involving a car wreck wants to know “Who got the ticket?” In a medical negligence case “has this doctor ever been sued before?,” or, “How much insurance did the defendant have?” Most jurors expect to be told about what has happened in other similar cases. All of these are great questions. None of them will be talked about at trial; those questions, and others that may seem important and logical and helpful will never be answered. Why? Because, again, trials are governed by the rules of evidence, and some things are not admissible. Also, some things are just part of the job of jurors, and the answers just don’t matter. For example, in a civil case involving a car wreck, it is the job of a jury to decide whether someone is negligent. A traffic ticket, however, is a police officer’s opinion about whether or not there is probable cause that a criminal traffic violation has occurred. A ticket is not admissible because that opinion is irrelevant to the issues in a civil trial. Remember also, the officer didn’t see it happen and so is not an eyewitness to the crash. A civil jury has different evidence and different standards than a police officer, so, you won’t hear what the officer thought about who was at fault.
Jury Instructions
At various points during the trial, the judge will talk to you. She or he will read to you something called “jury instructions.” You may have had a taste of these before or even during voir dire.
You are NOT to substitute your idea of what the law should be for what you are told it is. As a juror, you do NOT get to decide the law, you only get to decide what the facts are that applies to the law. As an example, in your case you are instructed that it is negligent to enter an intersection on a yellow light. You listen carefully to the testimony and review the evidence and decide that the defendant entered the intersection on a yellow light. At that point, you don’t get to argue: “I was taught in Driver’s Ed that it was OK to enter under a yellow light.” Your job as a juror is to decide whether the defendant ran the yellow light, not whether the law (that it is negligent to enter an intersection on a yellow light) is a good idea or a bad idea. Another example is the death penalty. If you don’t believe in the death penalty, you can’t be a juror in a death penalty case, because the application of the death penalty (in some cases) is the law. Jurors decide if someone deserves the penalty, not whether there should or should not be that penalty.
After the instructions, you will be taken back to the jury room, and the real work of a jury will begin. More about that in Section B, to come.
