Wednesday, April 17, 2024
The Trump jurors
In Manhattan, they are continuing to pick jurors for the trial of Donald Trump for financial improprieties. It's a fascinating process, and a challenging one. People have strong opinions about Trump, and that equals a suspicion of bias in the courtroom. The coverage of this process has been great-- a real opportunity for people to learn more about juries, and important part of our legal system.
I would love to be on a jury, but it is unlikely I will get a chance. The last time I was called for jury duty was in Waco, about 15 years ago. Both of the lawyers in the case had been my students, though, and they did not want to try a case in front of me!
Juror duty is a right and a duty-- and it is kind of amazing that we pay people $40 a day to stand in judgement of others, sometimes literally choosing between life and death. I remember giving a lecture on the role of jurors to a class in China. One student was incredulous: "So you just pick 12 people at random from the population and have them make this important decision?" he asked (more or less-- it was through a translator, and this is based on my own shaky memory).
"Well, yeah," I said, thinking through how it sounded kind of bad when you put it that way.
"But... couldn't you have an expert decide, like we do here?" he wondered.
I babbled about the wisdom of collegial discussion as a way of getting to truth, something I really believe-- juries show surprising wisdom. Then he really went for the knockout: "So why not make other important government decisions this way?"
What a great question!
And, actually, I think it might not be a bad way to make some of those decisions!
