At the precise moment that our new mayor was being inaugurated, I was sitting on a hard wood bench at the Crowley county courthouse along with 60 fellow Dallas County citizens being questioned about whether we should be judging a fellow Dallas County resident charged with murder. By 5:30 p.m., I and 47 other members of the jury pool were on our way home, leaving behind 12 jurors to handle the case. As part of the questioning, I learned a few things...
1) Literally about one-third of the people on the jury, theoretically chosen at random from Dallas County residents, said that they or their families had been victims of violent crimes. That seems like a lot, but then again, perhaps that why we're the crime capital.
2) Quite a few people (maybe about one-third again) said they didn't have much respect for our justice system, perhaps because of their experience with violent crimes?
3) Counter to most of our winks and jokes (between us) about spending the day on jury duty, most of the 60 people actually seemed interested in serving. People generally paid attention during the four hours or so of questioning, and I would have been comfortable having perhaps half of them sitting in judgement of me. I don't know about the other half, though...
Anyway, perhaps it's a good thing that Mayor Leppert is focusing on getting us off the major crimes list and adding police officers — based on my experience today, an awful lot of our fellow citizens would be very happy knowing that someone is concerned about crimes like the ones committed against them.
When you saw the mayor the other day, did he mention what he was going to cut from the budget to pay for all those cops, since he has said we don't need any new taxes?
Posted by: Jeff Siegel | Jun 26, 2007 at 07:26 AM
No, when I saw the mayor (at the end of a very long table filled with about 40 of my "closest" business friends), he didn't mention anything about budget cuts or anything specific for that matter. I read in the Morning News the other day that Leppert, like former Mayor Laura Miller (I like the ring of that), has the ability to "fill a room" with his personality. Personally, I've never seen that when I've run across him; instead, he seems like a hyper-kinetic, super-energized guy who has the ability to talk fast and passionately without saying anything very specific. That will work for awhile, I suppose, and then we'll see what he's really made of. I don't mean that as a knock, either, just an observation.
Posted by: Rick Wamre | Jun 26, 2007 at 08:37 AM
Easily one in four women will be a victim of violent crime in their lifetime, so I'm not surprised at the jury mix. Remember, violent crime includes car jackings and rape.
The disillusioning part of jury selection is that most time, the lawyers seem to prefer people without knowledge and experience about crime -- who don't read the paper or watch the news. I think it's about time we redefined what constitutes impartial and reconsider disallowing people who have prior knowledge of the crime because they watch the news, because in big criminal cases, it' virtually guaranties that your jury isn't the brightest string of lights on the tree.
Posted by: Paula | Jun 28, 2007 at 12:55 PM