Court officials debunk myths about jury duty

An American's responsibility can be a learning experience, too

Mention “jury duty,” and some people think they’ll be holed up for a month in a cheap hotel, isolated from loved ones and friends – everyone except 11 strangers.

Or, they might worry they’ll be kept in a courtroom and out of work while their family goes hungry.

“I think a lot of people are sometimes a little afraid of it, but once they understand it they realize it’s not really that bad,” said Karen Curl, who’s worked for the past six years as Douglas County District Court’s jury coordinator. “A lot of people think it’s a great learning experience.”

A jury trial also is a fundamental right under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Today, as we salute the flag and celebrate the Fourth of July, here are some answers to commonly asked questions about jury duty, gathered with help from Curl, District Court Clerk Doug Hamilton and Douglas County District Judge Michael Malone.

Q: How long will it take?

A: Typically, Malone said, trials last two or three days. In rare cases, such as the murder trial earlier this year of Kansas State University professor Thomas E. Murray, a trial can take a month or more.

Q: Will I be isolated from friends and family?

A: Malone said that in his 32 years as a lawyer and judge in Douglas County, he’d never seen a case of a sequestered jury.

“The jurors are not locked up at the Eldridge or Holiday Inn or Airport Motel,” Malone said. “Rather, they take an oath that they will not read, listen or view any media reports on the trial and not talk to anyone about the facts.”

Q: How much do jurors get paid?

A: $10 per day, though Malone said he had proposed in the past that the state increase the fee to $40 to reflect the actual expenses jurors face. There was no interest.

“I don’t believe we should have professionally paid jurors – people who want to serve because they are paid well – but I do think the fee … should at least cover some expenses, such as child care, eating out, etc.,” Malone said.

Q: Who can serve as a juror?

A: Jurors must be U.S. citizens age 18 or older and have lived in the county for at least 20 days.

Those who can’t serve include people who don’t speak English proficiently, people who have legally been found “incompetent” or people who have a felony conviction within the past 10 years. Also, judges can excuse people if they’re too physically or mentally infirm; if their presence somewhere else is required for public safety, health or welfare; if they have personal relationships that will keep them from being impartial; and if serving on the jury will cause an “extraordinary or compelling personal hardship.”

Q: How does the county decide who gets called for jury duty?

A: The court gets lists of potential jurors from two sources: driver’s license records and voter-registration rolls. Using a computer system that selects names at random, the county notifies about 400 residents at a time that they will be required to be on duty for a two-week period.

Q: If I get a letter, does that mean I’m going to be on a jury?

A: No. Sometimes, there won’t be a need to bring in every juror who was notified. For example, there may not be any trials scheduled for that two-week period. Or, a juror might report to the courthouse but not be placed on the jury, either because enough jurors already have been chosen or because the juror has a legitimate reason not to serve.

Also, once a group of jurors has been identified who don’t have a reason to leave, attorneys are allowed to “strike” an equal number of jurors, with no questions asked, for strategic reasons.

Q: How easy or hard is it to get excused for hardships?

A: About six years ago, Douglas County judges tried to make jury service easier by starting a policy that let jurors defer their service for up to a year and to pick a month that’s more convenient for them.

Still, Malone said, he knows jury service can create “insurmountable hardships,” especially given the low pay.

“If a person is self-employed and if jury service creates a financial hardship, then we will excuse that person,” he said.

Other common reasons people are excused for personal hardship include their work schedules and child-care arrangements. It’s illegal for an employer to fire or threaten to fire an employee because of jury service, but sometimes employers don’t provide paid jury service.

John Poertner, a juror in the Murray trial, said, “I was surprised by the groups of people that are sort of automatically excused because of economic condition.”

Q: If I serve on a jury once, how long until I might serve again?

A: Under state law, jurors can’t serve more than once per year, but Douglas County exempts jurors for two years.

Q: How do jurors handle the pressure of making a decision that could affect someone’s life?

A: Poertner said he didn’t feel any pressure as a juror, in part because he knew any decision he made would be based on a unanimous decision of 12 people and wouldn’t just be his own.

“We were just one part of the entire process,” he said.

Before deliberations begin, the judge reads a set of instructions that describe the law as it relates to the case. For example, the judge lists all the legal “elements” of the crime and tells jurors that the state must prove each element beyond a reasonable doubt.

Q: What happens behind closed doors?

A: The first step is to choose a foreperson. Jurors have guidance from the judge’s instructions, but beyond that, they must decide for themselves how to go about analyzing and discussing the facts of the case.

If the jury can’t reach a decision, it becomes a “hung jury” and a mistrial is declared. Prosecutors then must decide whether to file the charges again. In some cases with multiple charges, jurors might reach a verdict on one count but not on another.

Q: Who decides the sentence?

A: Under Kansas law, jurors have no role in sentencing except in death-penalty cases. Sentences are determined in large part by a grid that combines the defendant’s criminal history with the severity of the crime.