This is the first time I have been called for jury duty selection and I was so excited ! My husband had been called a few years ago and I was wondering why he got called but not me. I wondered if the 'Government' had decided I was not a good jury member on some grounds and felt really envious of him because he had been called but not me!
I also had to endure hearing people moaning that they 'keep' getting called for jury duty and they don't want to go as they are too busy...I wish they did not moan ! Here I am, raring to go, but not getting the call; they don't want to go but keep getting the call!
I definitely wanted to be selected and decided on my good jeans(Gap) and my Blundstone instead of my regular wear i.e. rockstar jeans from old navy and dirty, old but comfortable sneakers. The Gap jeans and Blundstone shoes are the closest to 'formal' wear that I have. I did not carry my lunch as I did not want to 'spoil my image' by carrying my rather large lunch bag, holding three lunch boxes into court.(saaru anna, mosaru anna and fruit in 3 separate dabbis!) I had my Coach computer shoulder bag, instead of the bright red, cloth sling bag from India to look 'formal' or 'decent' or whatever...to up my chances of getting selected
I was there promptly at 9am and went through security check. I went up to the 6th floor of the building and sat with several others, waiting for jury selection. I was awed to discover that not only were we about 100 or more people in this room, but there were apparently more people in another room, for the same case, for jury duty selection! More than a hundred &fifty people, have come for jury selection, for at least two days, giving up their work! I cannot even imagine how much this case would cost, by the time, it's through.
I earn about 35-00$ per hour which means me being here is 35x6x2= 420-00, of money my company is losing, by having me at jury selection. Now imagine the total sum of money, when you add the earning potential of all those accountants, doctor, school teachers, managers, etc who have given up their jobs for two days to be here. For those who do not know, jury duty is our duty as Canadian citizens, and we don't get paid to be on jury. I attended both because I was called and it's mandatory and also because my company pays me, even for those days, I am not working, as I am on jury duty.
Apart from the many people, present there for jury selection, the others in the room included, four staff in black coats and some sort of uniform who managed the room, the judge, the lawyer for the crown, the clerk, the accused and his lawyer.
One staff announced that all rise and then the judge walked in and we sat after he did. We were in the room at 9am but the judge came in only at 10.45 and apologized for being late.
The judge explained how the proceedings would be. The lawyer told us briefly, the nature of the case and it was a robbery.
More than a hundred people, got up, one by one and said they could not be jury for this case as they 'could not keep an open mind' as ..... Each one of those people claimed to have been robbed or know some who was robbed, 6 months ago, 5 years ago, 25 years ago, here or in Nigeria or where-ever.
I simply refuse to believe that so many 'Torontonians' have been robbed or know someone who was robbed! One or two or even a dozen, I can accept, but not that many.
What I loved about the judge was his calm demeanor and he repeating, respectfully the same sentence, over and over again, for each and everyone of these 100 people! (He asked every one of them, if the person, could not keep an open mind, etc, and each of those people said 'no'. ) If I was the judge, I would have gone crazy, repeating the same sentence over and over again! OR, my tone would have changed with the repetition. I am 100% sure my tone would have become bored and mechanical; or I might have let sarcasm creep into my tone, when I suspected the person was lying to get out of jury duty. I simply could NOT do what this judge did...repeat the same sentence respectfully, with the same even tone, with the same kind expression on his face, with the same 100 % attention to each person he addressed.
The judge gave us a 15 minute break; then he gave us a one hour lunch break and then again a 15 minute break on the first day.
Each person, who was excused from jury duty walked out of the room for good. (We had been told in advance, to carry all of our things, when we went to the front, so that we could immediately leave the room/court, once we were excused.)
After this, a whole lot of people (maybe 100 or less) said they could not be jury for this case for other reasons such as:
mothers said they had to pick children from school as there was no one else; some said they had to work as their employer would not cover jury duty; some said they were self-employed and no one would pay them for their time; some said they had medical appointments which were made a year ago and could not be changed or cancelled; some said they had ill relatives to look after, some said they were doing important jobs which could not be done by others or had deadlines to meet, etc. The judge excused almost all the people who requested to be excused, from jury duty. It was only three or so people, whom he did not excuse.
The second day was when people of the two rooms had reduced enough to sit in one room. This again was more than 100 people. They called out 22 names and now it was the turn of the defense and crown lawyers to accept (they say 'content' if they accept) or reject (they say, 'challenge' to indicate rejection) the prospective jurors.
The judge again explained the procedure which would follow now for jury selection. He said, the defense lawyer will ask a question to each of the prospective jurors ; also that he will ask the same question to all of the jurors and the prospective juror has to answer it. After the answer, the judge will ask the prospective juror to look at the defendant and the defendant to look at the prospective juror. This looking is for about a second or two. Then the defense lawyer accepts or rejects the prospective juror. He took just a second. Next the Crown Lawyer accepts or rejects the juror; two people who are from the prospective juror pool also accept or reject the person. Only a person accepted by all three is selected to be a juror. Even one rejection, he or she is not selected to be juror.
Once a juror is selected, one of the two who were from the jury pool return to the jury pool; once the second juror is selected the second juror from the jury pool, who was selecting/ rejecting the juror for the jury returns to his seat at the prospective jury pool. These two jurors, select or reject the next juror. Once a juror is selected, the first juror who was selected makes way for the third juror to sit along with the second juror to select/reject the next jury candidate. Once the 3rd juror is selected, the 2nd juror makes way for the 4th juror to work with the 3rd. And so on.
The question the defense lawyer asked was, 'if the juror could keep an open mind and not be affected because the defendant was black'. He, like the judge, asked this question, at least a 100 times, and each time, he asked exactly like he did the very first time. There was no fatigue, boredom, change of tone, loss of energy even though he asked this question SO MANY TIMES! Hats off to this guy. I doubt if I could do that, even if I was paid well.
An Oriental lady, answered the defense's question, indicating she is not biased, but she went on to give a long explanation indicating she heard many people before her answer the question, and now she knows how to answer! Needless to say, she was rejected by the jurors.
One middle-aged oriental lady, answered this question indicating she cannot keep an open mind, and the defense lawyers look combined both shock and a smile. I believe she did mean to say she's biased but she said the opposite as she could not figure out the double negatives in the question. Which means, her understanding and expression of English is seriously flawed. I hope, if I ever end up in court as a defendant, that my jury understand English !I shudder to think of people who don't know English, in a English speaking court, determining my fate!
An African-American lady answered indicating she cannot keep an open mind but the grim expression on her face indicated to me that she knew what she was saying. I was shocked! Needless to say, she was rejected by the 2 jurors.
This jury selection by the defense, the crown lawyer and the jurors was the most interesting part of the jury duty selection for me.
Jury Duty Selection is where, 'Appearances matter BIG-TIME'.
After about ten jurors went through the process of jury selection by the lawyers for defense & crown and the jurors, I could predict correctly, in 90% of the cases, whether a juror would be accepted or rejected; if rejected, I could guess correctly, which of the three would reject.
This is the pattern I noticed.
The defense, rejected every single Asian (who look like they are from the far-east i.e. Chinese looking) prospective juror, whether male or female, young or old, whatever manner they were dressed. This indicates the African American lawyer and his client do not trust to get a sympathetic deal from the Asians or don't expect fairness or objectivity.
The defense lawyer also rejected a few accountants, bank staff, managers of companies, some smartly dressed men, a neatly dressed Caucasian male, who appeared to be gay.
The jurors rejected people who gave the appearance of not understanding what was going on or who seemed to have mental health issues or appeared to have 'conduct problems'. A young Caucasian man, with his underwear showing as his pants were low i.e. the top of his pants was half-way down his thighs, was rejected by the jury. I myself was put off by his clothes, his way of walking, his poor eye contact and fidgetiness, when he was addressed. Another young man, answered right, his demeanor was okay but he was shaking his hands nonstop and he too was rejected by the jurors.
I was shocked when a middle aged, Caucasian, neatly dressed, Catholic priest was rejected by the Crown lawyer! I then understood that the Crown will reject anyone who may seem 'sympathetic'. A CAS worker, a nursery school teacher were also rejected by the Crown lawyer.
I guess I would have been rejected by the defense as I look Asian; I would have been rejected by the Crown lawyer as my profession may imply that I may be sympathetic. It would have broken my heart if the jury had rejected me, had I chad my turn!
They got 12+2 jurors before it was my turn to be called. So I did not get into jury duty. I wish I had been selected. Or maybe it's good I was not selected ...this case was expected to go on for 5 weeks!
Below are the sculptures outside the court where I went for jury duty selection. I like the writing and the philosophy of these sculptures.
There were a few more statues but I have not put them here.
No comments:
Post a Comment