A jury summons. Hmmmm....

Dan gets a jury summons.

So, today's mail included the above envelope from the Union County Courts -- a summons for petit jury duty.

Petit juries are those before which civil or criminal trials are conducted and by which guilty or not guilty verdicts are rendered.

Within a few years of moving to New Jersey (and having gotten a NJ driver's license), my name began to appear every four or five years in the jury pool.

I went down to Elizabeth to the jury waiting room every time. Usually, we waited for two days and then were sent home without serving.

Twice I was summoned to the voir dire, where judges question potential jurors to determine if they can be impartial in the case at hand. At those sessions, prosecutors and defense can have a juror removed on a peremptory challenge -- no questions asked.

On a murder trial, I was excused by the judge after answering a question that I had regular, daily contact with police officers through my job. "Dismissed!" he bellowed.

On another occasion, I was empaneled on a slip-and-fall where Toys 'R' Us was the defendant. After a short trial and hours of deliberation, the jury found unanimously in favor of the toy store (the plaintiff had climbed a ladder clearly marked 'For Employees Only' and then fallen off it).

I still have the uncashed check from that service.

Now, I know some people roll their eyes at jury service and look for ways to get out of it.

I always thought it was an honor to take part in a tradition that has its clearest English roots in the Magna Carta wrested from tyrant King John in 1215. That's an 800-year-old tradition, thank you very much!
(Though some suggest earlier customs in the Danelaw of the Vikings and Frankish customs brought to England by the Norman conquerors as precursors of the jury system.)

When called for, trials by juries of our peers are one of the hallmarks of American democracy. Especially in these troubled times it is important to serve if summoned.

I hope readers will agree.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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