You’ve been summoned to appear for jury duty!
How a person thinks about jury service is how a person conceptualizes democracy.
After years of widespread abuse by courts stacked with King George's cronies, our Founders established the right to a jury trial. The colonists wanted to ensure that members of their community would be responsible for safeguarding their liberty and rights.
Before you can enjoy your constitutional right to a speedy trial, jury selection must take place. The jury is the ultimate arbiter of the facts. Being a juror and participating in the American judicial process is of great importance.
Jurors perform a vital role in the American system of justice. The protection of our rights and liberties is largely achieved through the teamwork of judge, jury and legal counsel whom all work together in a common, cohesive effort and put into practice the principles of our great heritage of freedom. The judge determines the law to be applied in the case while the jury decides the facts. Thus, in a very important way, jurors become a part of the court itself.
Your 6th Amendment rights in the U.S. Constitution guarantee the rights of criminal defendants, including the:
♦ Right to a public trial without unnecessary delay
♦ The right to a lawyer
♦ The right to an impartial jury
♦ The right to know who your accusers are
♦ And the nature of the charges and evidence against you
There are two types of juries serving different functions in the federal trial courts: trial juries, also known as petit juries, and grand juries.
As we continue our intense focus on the 3 C’s of the criminal justice system (the Cops, Courts and Corrections) this new installation of Light ‘Em Up focuses on doing your civic duty – participating in the jury selection process.
Our special guest for this educational episode, April Litman, who is a music business insider, consultant and academic educator, shared that, “a lot of personal questions (were) asked of the potential jurors…I was a bit surprised; I didn’t think they would be digging so deeply into our personal lives and our personal experiences…but they did. They were directly asking us questions about hardships that we had faced, encounters with violence, any past criminal behavior or activity, convictions…you are asked this in front of everyone and expected to answer under oath truthfully.”
Your role as a potential juror is straightforward. The jury:
♦ Listens to the evidence during a trial
♦ Decides what facts the evidence has established
♦ Draws inferences from those facts to form the basis for their decision, and finally, yet most importantly,
♦ The jury decides whether a defendant is "guilty" or "not guilty" in criminal cases, and "liable" or "not liable" in civil cases.
We will educate and empower you with simple to understand descriptions as to:
♦ “Voir dire” process
♦ Types of questions you’ll be expected to answer under oath
♦ The inner workings of the jury from an actual participant’s perspective
We explore compensation (for your service), expectations (what will be demanded of you as a potential juror), the basic qualifications for eligibility to be a juror, y mucho mucho más!
We’d like to thank our friends at Feedspot, as recently we were honored by being ranked #6 in their most recent poll out of the 40 Best Criminal Justice Podcasts. Visit their blog at www.Feedspot.com or simply follow this link: Best 40 Criminal Justice Podcasts You Follow in 2022 (feedspot.com)
And for all your news and current affairs check out our friends at Newsly by visiting https://newsly.me. Use the promo code L1GHTEMUP to launch your 10% savings.
We bring the classroom to you!
We are here for you and because of you! You’ve received your summons, now, listen to the show!
Executive Producer, Phil Rizzo