Juror Appreciation Week 2011
In a resolution adopted on Wednesday, May 11th, the Pennsylvania Senate has designated the week of May 16 through 22, 2011, as "Juror Appreciation Week" in the Commonwealth. In adopting the resolution, the state Senate recognized that, for over 200 years, "the jury... has played a pivotal role in balancing the scales of justice, equalizing the rights of the poor and powerless with the privileges of the rich and powerful, securing other allowed rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and, most importantly, extending and preserving democracy."
Each year, more than 225,000 Pennsylvanians report for jury duty, and more than 60,000 actually serve as jurors in civil and criminal trials. The resolution, introduced by Senators Daylin Leach and Jay Costa, acknowledges the indispensable role those jurors play in the administration of justice. Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts joins Senators Leach and Costa, and the Pennsylvania Senate, in thanking our state's jurors for their service.
Juror Appreciation Day 2010
On May 20th, PMC co-sponsored the Eleventh Annual Juror Appreciation Day with the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Sharon Pinkenson, Executive Director of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, offered the keynote address. She proclaimed that jurors “have a starring role in our system” and encouraged the all of the jurors to feel proud for fulfilling their civic duty. Mayor Michael Nutter, Administrative Judge D. Webster Keogh, President Judge Pryor Dembe, Judge Roger F. Gordon, Jury Commissioner Gerard P. Shotzbarger, and Lynn Marks of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts all thanked the jurors for their service.
Jury service is a public act with a private component—the jury room. PMC’S Executive Director Lynn Marks and Deputy Director Shira Goodman submitted an opinion piece to Public Record on the importance of respecting the private nature of this space.
“We come to the court when summoned and sit with our fellow jurors through jury selection, a trial, judicial instructions and then deliberation. But the jury room – where deliberation and decision occurs – remains a sacred space. What happens there is not to be made public, until the jury communicates its verdict in open court. Jurors are supposed to feel free to discuss the case, raise questions, and challenge each other in their work to reach a fair, just verdict.
People have always been tempted to reveal secrets or to try to get jurors to reveal what’s happening behind closed doors. And today, it’s easier than ever. With just a push of a cell-phone button, the world can be alerted about what’s happening in a jury room. But just because we have the technology to do something does not mean we should do it. Instead, we should respect the special nature of the jury room and protect it as a private sphere in which collective, public action occurs.”
Read the entire piece here.
Praise from Jurors
PMC intern and law student Rahul Munshi was summoned for jury duty in the summer of 2007 in Philadelphia. Munshi showed up and was selected as a juror on a criminal trial. In fact, the jury elected him as foreperson. Munshi wrote a commentary piece about his experience that was published in the Pennsylvania Lawyer, the journal of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
