Why Jury Duty Matters: A Citizen’s Guide to Constitutional Action

Foreword: The American Jury System: Democracy at Work

xi FOREWORD The American Jury System: Democracy at Work A jury verdict changed my life. It was 1972. I was in college at Stanford University and the trial was about a half hour away in San Jose. I was a part of a large group of African American students at Stanford University who had been organizing against the criminal prosecution of Angela Davis. Davis—a political prisoner, black activist, and alleged criminal—had been charged with aiding the kidnapping and murder of a judge during the attempted escape of several prisoners from a criminal courtroom. The Angela Davis trial, mixing murder with racial politics, was one of the most controversial legal spectacles of the early 1970s. Our task was not simple. Ronald Reagan was the Governor of California and Richard Nixon was the President. Our solution would not be a political one, but rather putting faith in the twelve people who would decide Angela Davis’s guilt or innocence. Personally convinced of her innocence, xii / Foreword I and other students had organized to protest what we saw as another unfair target of the criminal justice system , and what we assumed would be a politically motivated conviction.1 How could the face of black radical politics get a fair trial before an all-white jury? On the day of the verdict, we pensively awaited the jury’s decision. In a California courtroom, seven men and five women defied a history of racial injustice and our expectations. The “not guilty” verdict provided a full and surprising vindication. It was a public trial. It was an impartial jury. Davis had the benefit of competent and committed defense lawyers. They were, in my view, the original “Dream Team,” led by four progressives : Howard Moore, Leo Branton, Doris Walker, and a close childhood friend of Professor Davis, Margaret Burnham. Yet it was still a revelation that the system of justice worked. Through the Angela Davis trial, I became aware of the critical role that lawyers, judges, and juries can and should play in securing justice. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in the law. It was the first murder trial I ever witnessed, but it would not be the last. In 1978 I entered the legal profession as a public defender. In short order, I regularly appeared before criminal juries in the District of Columbia Superior Court. Standing before twelve citizens and standing up for one accused defendant were among the most humbling and formative experiences of my professional life. As a trial lawyer, each client, each case, and each jury was different. I learned that jurors have a wide range of life experiences that help provide them with the insight to fairly assess the particular facts of each case. I represented the young and old, men and women, black, brown, and white, and so many others. I represented Foreword / xiii those presumed guilty, the truly innocent, and, again, everyone in between. And it all happened in front of a jury. During those early years, I saw juries struggle with the power being entrusted to them day after day. Just as you develop a compelling narrative in a closing argument , you develop a relationship with a jury. In murder cases or other serious criminal cases, the emotional bond between lawyer and jury becomes palpable. I envisioned my advocacy reaching across the wooden railing of the jury box and into the thoughts, and then the deliberations, of the jurors. I do not know if it worked, but I do know that the juries worked hard at their jobs. In the trenches of criminal court, it is hard not to be impressed with the jury. Yet I was not unmindful of my role as a Harvardeducated lawyer, arguing before predominantly African American juries, for almost exclusively African American clients. My success for my clients was not typical of the history of racially segregated and racially biased juries in the United States. Unlike many jurisdictions, the District of Columbia had racially balanced jury panels and, in my view, the best public defender agency in the country. Hard work, intelligence, and more hard work could get positive results. However, as a busy trial lawyer I did not have the luxury to ponder the historical or systemic inequities of the jury system. All one could do is hope that the twelve citizens before me would do the right thing, listen to my...