JURY DUTY - PART 3 - WHO ARE YOUR "PEERS?"

Sadly, they are not who they used to be, or are supposed to be.

Recently, I was summoned for jury duty, which apparently lasts from December 2017 until March 2018. It was the first time in my life that I ever received a summons for jury duty, and it got me thinking a lot about what I've learned about jury duty in the past. I find it most unfortunate that so many things pertaining to jury duty are not even close to understood the way that they were originally meant to be.

CURRENT "UNDERSTANDING"

If you type "jury by peers" into the google search engine, the first sentence that you will find will be the following:

Now, however, "a jury of peers" more accurately means "a jury of fellow citizens."
source

Fellow citizens, huh? Does this mean random people off the street who have no idea about you, or anything else for that matter? The common understanding these days about what a "jury of peers" is basically falls into the beliefs that any random, "local" people fit the criteria.

The state puts together "a jury of peers" by first randomly selecting local citizens for the jury pool.
source

From these random citizens, the prosecution, defense and even the judge question each potential juror and eliminate any that they find fault with.

Interestingly enough, this doesn't really match up with the things that were once said pertaining to this particular part of the legal system.

ORIGINAL INTENT

Please consider these quotes from those who understood what "peers" originally meant. See if you can spot the difference.

What is meant by his peers? Those who reside near him, his neighbors, and who are well acquainted with his character and situation in life. -Patrick Henry

a jury of peers would, from their local situation, have an opportunity to form a judgement of the
CHARACTER of the person charged with the crime, and also to judge of the CREDIBILITY of
the witnesses. - John Holmes

Where jurors can be acquainted with the characters of the parties and the
witnesses — where the whole cause can be brought within their knowledge and view — I know
no mode of investigation equal to that by a trial by jury: they hear every thing that is alleged;
they not only hear the words, but they see and mark the features of the countenance; they can
judge of weight due to such testimony; and moreover, it is a cheap and expeditious manner of
distributing justice -James Wilson

Why do we love this trial by jury? Because it prevents that hand of oppression from cutting you off . . .
This gives me comfort — that, as long as I have existence, my neighbors will protect me. -Patrick Henry

Hopefully, you could spot the difference. Let it be fully understood that originally "peers" were people who actually knew the person on trial. They were acquainted not only with the defendant, but possibly even the witnesses or others involved. As actual neighbors, they could know the character and nature of the persons involved, and even notice things like changes in countenance and already know the credibility of those involved.

This is why I believe that I really have no business being selected for jury duty where I live. I don't know many of the locals, especially in the county that I live in, since I spend most of my "town time" in the next county over, which has a closer town.

ERODING THE FOUNDATION

The foundation of things like jury trials and trial by peers has been being eroded for a long time. Far too few understand what these things were originally intended to be, and an ignorant people is often used against one another, rather than being able to defend themselves from illegitimate and unconstitutional laws.

While I am not sure what the first few months of next year will hold for me as I have the potential to serve on a jury, just mentioning some of the things that I have in this series would be enough for me not to be selected. Simply put, informed jurors are not what the legal system is looking for. Otherwise, these things would be common knowledge.

I'm glad that being summoned at least got me thinking about these things once again, and even got me to share about them. If anyone really wants to learn a lot more, check out the Citizens Rule Book, Jury Handbook by clicking here. Thankfully someone was intelligent and nice enough to give me a printed copy many years ago.