MookTrader

Random story. I once hung a jury when I was 19. There were 6 charges and it was a long trial (5-6 weeks) related to assault on police officers. We unanimously found the defendant guilty on 3 and not guilty on 2. The last charge was hung 11-1 with me being the holdout. In the end the prosecution just dismissed the final charge after seeing we were stuck for 2-3 days. Definitely a lot of peer pressure when you are up against everyone else who just wanted to go home. It was my first time seeing how the justice system worked. And honestly, back then, it seemed to work decently well. What surprised me a bit was how little some of the jurors seemed to care (~20%) and how impatient they were to get back to their lives (~35%). Still the end result was pretty reasonable and just. Reminds me of what de Tocqueville said. It’s the jury rather than the defendant, who most benefits from jury duty because it allows them to see that the justice system works correctly. Of course, 20 years later, trial by jury does not seem to work as well as it used to. As the populace polarizes and Balkanizes, what does it even mean to have a jury of your peers? Who is even a peer to whom?