I agree with Doug in his last sentence that the jury system idea is great but far too many citizens are fear filled racists for me to call it great in practice. Good would my assessment. It isn't only or even primarily the inequalities of representation that anger me. Conditions are vastly improved over how they used to be but putting your fate in the hands of a group of "ordinary people" is probably more comforting to a middle class white male than say an African American male or Latino woman.
Anyway, have fun and do what you can to help someone get justice.
John Thornton
On 16 May 2006 at 22:57, Steven L. Robinson wrote:
> BTW- The easiest way to get off of jury duty is wear a FIJA ["Fully Informed Jury
> Association"]button to the first day of jury duty.... SR
and Doug wrote:
I don't want to get bumped - it's one of the few things I feel a civic duty about. The jury system is great - beats putting one's fate in the hands of some elitist judge! And it's inspiring to watch ordinary people take the task so seriously - something in daily life that makes you believe that democracy could work out after all.
I gotta say, there's a lot that's fundamentally wrong with our system of government; I'm a devoted follower of Dan Lazare's critique of our constitutional system. But the justice system seems pretty solid conceptually. Sure there are tremendous inequalities of representation - rich man's vs. poor man's justice, etc. But those are problems of the larger society. Seems like arguing out disputes before a jury composed of ordinary citizens is a fundamentally great idea.
Doug