Jury Service

Earlier this year, I was chosen to service on the Grand Jury for the state of Maryland. Grand Jury service is different from petite jury service in many ways. To start off, your notice doesn’t come by a letter in the mail. On New Year’s Day, while I was getting ready for our big party, a county sheriff appeared on my front step. He handed me the summons. I was totally freaked out. I think I asked him 3 times if I was in trouble. Another major difference is that there is no questioning/elimination process. You can request to be excused , but it is up to the discretion of the judge. Basically, if you get the summons, you’re serving. The main purpose of the Grand Jury is also different. The job of the Grand Jury is to hear cases to determine if there is enough evidence for the state’s attorney to further the case. We were to decide if it was probable that a) a crime happened and b) this person probably committed that crime. We did not have to decide guilt or innocence. The other differences from the petite jury is time commitment and the number of cases heard. For petite jury service, you are chosen for a single case and you serve until that case is done. For grand jury, we heard all felonies that were coming through the system and served for 3 months. We usually heard an average of 20-30 cases per day

For the most part, I would say it was a good experience. I learned a lot about the law, my county, crime and got to see an interesting side of human behavior that most people aren’t exposed to. On occasion, I got very mad. There were many cases of a single, split decision changing people’s lives, usually not for the better. We heard a few cases that caused heated debate among us and I learned a lot from these debates. I also got to know some of the officers that were presenting their cases. I was quite happy to learn that our local police force seems to be very diverse, many minority and female officers. They were all professional and respectful of the people involved in the cases. In some cases, we really felt like we were doing good work, getting some truly bad guys off the street. Other times, we felt bad because we didn’t agree with the law as written, but had to vote the law.

In general, I was able to compartmentalize the violence and destruction. These things happened to other people, from other neighborhoods because of their own choices. Only one case had a huge impact on me. The jury was drilling the presenting the police officer pretty hard. Giving him a hard time because he was new to his department (but not to the force), asking questions about minutia that didn’t really matter. Finally, the assistant state’s attorney must have seen that it was going to continue without end. She handed out pictures of the victim. This was like bringing down a sledgehammer. All questions stopped. Those pictures haunted my dreams for a few weeks.

This experience has had a profound effect on me. I have a much stronger respect for policemen in general and our local police department for their hard work, professionalism and their tireless effort to protect us. I also have a stronger respect for the men and women who fight for the victims and for the people. I learned that I find criminal law fascinating. I would like to be part of the system that is working to get the bad people off the streets.   Because I am at a point in my life when I can explore new directions, whether going back to work or going to school, this experience has made me consider criminal justice as a possibility for my future.