The Summons
Darren Tinker
Created for The Art of Argument class at Everglades CI
Have you ever come home from a long day of work to find that you had mail? Like, someone had sent you an actual letter, and so you were excited to find out who would take their time in this day and age to write you out an entire letter? That’s kind of what happened to me.
I got my mail, took the letter to my room, and opened it up with great care. I didn’t rip into it like some savage impatient child on Christmas morning. No, I’d actually used a letter opener like a civilized person. I mean, someone took their time for me, so I shall take my time for them.
Darren, also known as DT, reading an excerpt of this essay at our Fall 2021 Graduation.
I unfolded the letter, and it read: “You have been selected for jury duty Monday the 18th. Please arrive at the courthouse by 7:30 AM and park in the garage located at the corner of 27th Ave and 1st Street. DO NOT BE LATE! Failure to appear may result in criminal prosecution.”
Well fuck. Definitely not what I expected. First off, my feelings were hurt because clearly, I thought this was something else. Second, who in their right mind wants to go to jury duty? I’ve heard how boring it is, how pointless it is, how mind-bogglingly frustrating and annoying it is. On top of that, I had both work and school on Monday. It’s not like those were much better, but at least I got something out of them. There is little to nothing coming out of jury duty.
Anyway, I went and fulfilled my American duty, my civil responsibility, my non-negotiable threatened obligation. I sat in a waiting room the entire day, watched Sandra Bullock’s The Blind Side two and a half times (great movie by the way), ate a terrible lunch, validated my parking, and went home. Fortunately enough, I wasn’t chosen to sit the jury, but the day was absolutely wasted.
I now look back at my past self sharking my head like some disappointed and frustrated parent looking at a child they could’ve sworn they raised better. Yet I realize it’s not, or shall I say wasn’t just me. Society as a whole is suffering from an illness, an ailment, a defect that goes on undetected, a cancerous mentality that goes on undiagnosed and it is that the American people HATE jury duty. It may not sound so drastic; I mean, I hated it too, but society’s dread of jury duty has become the Achilles heel of the judicial system, as it interferes with a person’s chance at true justice. Without true justice, what kind of society are we?
For a moment, imagine yourself on the other side of the jury booth as the defendant. When you are charged with a crime, you have a right to a fair trial in front of a jury of your peers, and those peers (those everyday citizens) are the ones who will decide whether you are innocent or guilty by majority vote. It seems fair. You might even feel like you got this.
But what if I told you that the majority of your jury is full of people who loathe being there and instead of concerning themselves with our case they are more concerned with what they want for dinner later and how to find the quickest way out of there… still confident? I didn’t think so. No one would be. You could be completely innocent, but now with your life in the hands of these people, it feels like a losing battle. How did this happen, how did such a vital part of our society become so defective?
For one, rarely anyone has anything positive to say about jury duty. After conducting a series of 20 interviews regarding individuals’ experiences with jury duty, only one person said they enjoyed the experience. That’s only 5%! Major red flag here, people. On top of that, human tendency seems to dictate that people love expressing their problems, and frustrations with others.
Now, there may be some therapeutic element to this, but all I see is a bunch of people who just hated their jury experience going home and telling all their friends and family how horrible it was. Thus planting this seed of negativity in their minds and a hope that they won’t ever have to endure it for themselves. When I told the people around me that I had been summoned, the first thing they responded with wasn’t how to sit a jury, it was how to get out of it.
What I’ve come to realize, though, is that society’s gripe and frustration is not without good basis. There is little to no incentive for a person attending jury duty. In fact, the cons outweigh the pros significantly on this one. Let me show you.
Pros:
For every day you attend jury duty, you will receive a $15 check, and at the conclusion of a trial you will receive a $50 check.
Your parking will be validated.
…wait, no, that’s it.
Ok, now check this list out.
Cons:
YOU ONLY RECEIVE $15 FOR THE DAY!!! (That’s 8 total hours, people.) For most people, jury duty would require you to miss work for the day. Even at the lowest minimum wage of about $10/hr, for an 8hr work day you would be missing out on $65. Essentially, you’re losing money and that’s because, believe it or not, your employer is NOT required to pay you for the day you missed.
Jury duty is a non-negotiable obligation, meaning you MUST attend regardless of any prior obligation whether it be work, school, doctor’s appointment, your wedding day, or the birth of your own child, you must be present at the courthouse. The only excused absences are if you’re currently lying sick in a hospital bed, pushing out a baby, or if you work in law enforcement or the military.
Missing jury duty is a crime. That means you can be penalized for it from a fine all the way up to a night in jail.
Jury duty requires you to sit for hours as you listen to prosecutorial debates, evidence, and claims. Studies show that the average adult attention span is 45 minutes. That leaves roughly 5.5 hours outside your normal scope you must dedicate to other people arguing.
No wonder people aren’t jumping at the opportunity to be a juror.
The craziest thing about it is that there are people who genuinely go to jury duty and try. They try to focus, they try to understand, and unfortunately for most people, that’s all they can do because, in that courtroom, the judges, the prosecutors, and the defense attorney speak what seems like an entirely different language. Legal jargon (or law speak) is how it’s coined and it is not a common way of speaking in today’s society. In fact, the only place you are likely to hear it is in a courtroom.
Imagine sitting in a room where a few foreign individuals are arguing in their native tongue, you pick up on bits and pieces and you think you have a general understanding of why Guy 1 is mad at Guy 2 but Guy 3 keeps yelling and you have no idea why he’s even in the room. That’s kind of what sitting in a courtroom is like. Obviously, they’re speaking English, but they are using so many foreign and uncommon terms that it leaves a person confused and dismissive.
In school, particularly between grades 8-12th, a person is likely to find out what jury duty is, but nowhere in that time is anyone ever taught how to sit a jury, what legal terminology is, and what’s supposed to happen in that courtroom. It’s not in the curriculum. That’s almost like giving a person a driver’s license but never teaching them how to drive a car. Do you honestly expect that person to be a safe and adequate driver? So, how in the world can we expect day-to-day citizens to be adequate jurors?
Whether we give people more incentive to willingly be there, whether we promote and popularize the want to be there, or whether we thoroughly educate people on what to do while they are there, one fact remains the same: the system MUST change. Until that happens, however, we as a society need to adjust our perspective.
Millions of people every year voluntarily and willingly allow themselves to be stabbed in the arm by a needle so that they can donate blood. There’s little incentive for this, but the main reason people do it is that they feel as if they’re saving lives. They do it for a cause.
Hundreds of thousands of people a year voluntarily and willingly join the army, subjecting themselves to dangerous people and environments daily. They do this to honor and defend their country. To save lives. They do it for a cause.
Though jury duty is obligatory, it is a service to our country, to our common man. We should do it willingly, not begrudgingly. We should do it because everyone deserves the right to a fair trial. We should do it because, for some people, our decision is the difference between life and death. So the next time that letter drops in your mailbox asking you to attend jury duty, don’t shy away. Rather, be motivated to make a difference and know you’re doing it for a good cause. Know you’re saving lives… I know I wish someone would’ve saved mine.