A Jury of Your Peers

A Jury of Your Peers
Sat. Sept. 17, 2011

So many thoughts I have to start somewhere. Today I get an email from Manolo Hidalgo Sr. talking about presidential candidate Perry from Texas who has overseen 250 executions while governor.

And then on TV they have big news where a man in Georgia named Davis is about to be executed for a crime he committed in 1989 (I think ?) and apparently the witnesses have changed their testimonies. Even ex-president Jimmy Carter is involved.

So what topic should I address FIRST ?

Let me start with “A Jury of your Peers”.

I have had to serve jury duty 6 times over the 30 years I have lived in Tampa. 2 times I sat in a room with about 500 people and never got called, told to go home after lunch. 2 times I was called but did not serve and 2 times I served and was foreman.
All 4 times the defendant was black (sorry all my black friends prefer the term black rather than African American….although I like to say my children are German-Cuban-Americans and believe strongly that ALL Americans have a heritage…we are truly the melting pot of the world…especially in Tampa, Florida)
The first time about 20 years ago, I was called and at the time the lobby was across the street from the court house. We had to wait outside in 95 degree weather and with humidity that made it feel way over 100 !! I was wearing a suit and many of the ladies were in nice dresses. After about 5 or 10 minutes of melting in the hot sun, the ladies walking into the A/C lobby of the courthouse…and I followed. WE saw this black man coming down the corridor in an orange jump suit with chains on hands and legs. With his goatee and afro he looked like the devil. HE was guilty of something.

The judge heard that we had seen the defendant before they were able to change him into a nice suit, so he excused us after a slap on the wrist for not waiting outside the courtroom.

The second time it was a car theft trial and about 40 of us were called and questioned before lunch. After lunch we were excused because the judge said the defendant fled during lunch. The cop told us on the way out that the defendant had stolen his lawyer’s car during lunch break. We all laughed.

The third time I was chosen out of 20 people for a civil case involving JC Penny and a black woman.
The woman was suing for 1 million dollars for possible neck injury during scuffle with employee. I was chosen as the foreman and we sided with JC Penny. The jury of 6 only had one young black girl that did not say much. We deliberated for only an hour, but the group was ready to vote in the first 5 mins. The lawyer for the older black woman was terrible and lost the case. The lawyer for JC Penny was great !!

So now 3 years later, I was called to jury duty again. Over 1,000 people sitting around. They called 60 people for a criminal case. We first got asked questions as a group by the State. We had to say out loud if we had records. Some people admitted DUI others domestic violence. Then they asked about family members. Many said their husbands or brothers had been arrested for this or that. Then if we had been victims of crime. I mentioned that our house had been broken into 3 times…everyone laughed. The State asked me if I was satisfied with the police work. I said yes one time and no to the other two times. Almost half the group either had their houses broken into or car stolen. Some were raped, some walked up to the bench and talked to the judge privately.

At this point I was getting a little pissed because there were about 20 people there who should have been let go from the beginning. The guy next to me was a Merchant Marine and his ship was leaving Wed. They made him wait all day and answer all these questions. We all knew he was not going to be on the jury. This lady was pregnant and kept crying (they did left her go home early). Another man could not speak English. One lady said she did not understand anything the lawyers were saying. We ALL laughed.

The prosecutor also got rid of the old ladies who could not hear or would not be able to sit all day because of back or neck problems. Why not let them go RIGHT AWAY. No they sat around all day and answered a bunch of more questions. (In a year I will be talking to the State attorney Mr. Moody and ask him why they did not let people go right away and save us all some time)

The State spent some time asking if we understood what it meant to be a principle in a murder case. Apparently if you are driving the getaway car and someone else pulls the trigger, you are just as guilty (whether you believe in the law of not). Several people said they could NOT condemn a person if they did NOT pull the trigger themselves.

Thank goodness someone asked if this was a capital punishment case. They said NO !! thank goodness because I would refuse to serve on a jury (which is by the way unfair to all those defendants who are possible capital punishment cases).

Then came the defendant attorney. His first question was what newspaper do we read, what news show and what organizations do we belong to. I said Tampa Tribune, St Pete Times, NY Times, CNN and FOX and I belong to the Math Teachers of America. The lawyer made some remark about math.

I was surprised to hear that most of the people did NOT read the newspaper, I heard FOX a lot (very surprised…I guess Tampa is conservative after all) and most belong to Church groups.

Then he asked if we all agreed that the defendant was innocent. What ? yes, he is innocent (of course he meant in a legal sense BEFORE trial). HE asked us what would we think if we saw a person in the back seat of a police car, would we think the person did something. I raised my hand. He called my name…Manuel Suarez. You think if someone is sitting in the back seat of a cop car they did something. I said yes. Some other lady said, she would think the person was going for a car ride. So the defense attorney asked the group. Who agrees with MR. Suarez here (dam he used my name again…that was scary). Half the people rose their hand. Who agrees with Ms. Smith, the other half rose their hand.

I thought this alone would get me off the jury.

Then he asked if we were leaders or followers and if we like to compromise or stand our ground.
I said Leader and Compromise. With 60 people there we got all kinds of answers. Many said Follower and Stand my ground (which did not make sense to me).
I was very surprised that they did not ask us about being prejudice, since that was the first question they asked in the civil law suit case.

Then someone mentioned that they could not look at gory pictures. All hell broke loose. After a little discussion with both attorneys and the judge, they asked if anyone would have a hard time emotionally looking at blood and picture of a dead person. Half the people raised a concern. (Later on in the jury room, I asked the 12 people if anyone had raised concern about gory pictures. Not one, they all got off. That is NOT good for the defendant. He needs passionate, emotional and sensitive people on the jury.
Then they started choosing and I was the only one from the front row who got selected. DAM !! There was one guy at the end of my row who could barely speak English and they kept calling him Mr. Engineer…we all laughed every time they called him. No way his real name was Mr. Engineer.

They got 14 people before getting to the 5th and 6th row of people. The judge gave us some instructions and sent us home for the day. I was already exhausted emotionally and mentally and the trial had NOT even started.