Update February 16, 2022: called again. The pandemic will not get you out of jury duty, but it will put your civic pride at risk.
Update February 8, 2022: thank woke criminal justice for turning civic pride into a partisan responsibility.
Update June 23, 2021: Cook County jury trials are back and the bias will be worse than ever.
Update November 23, 2019: does horrendous violence demand retribution from the jury box?
Update August 29, 2019: how can we judge these defendants not guilty?
Update September 16, 2018: civic duty vs. society’s demands: can jury duty forbid a not guilty verdict?
Update July 21, 2018: what do a judge and his gun tell us?
Update March 24, 2017: waiting in a jury corral is no fun. Getting caught in the crossfire is worse.
Update July 30, 2016: civic obligation fulfilled. Did the journey create bias?
No one smart enough to navigate the trip to a Cook County courthouse can possibly separate their preconceptions, biases, and innate prejudices no matter what they promise the court. This predicament turns one’s civic pride into a tremendous burden because it separates who you are and what you believe from an obligation based on the fantasy of impartiality.
I laugh when people preach about civic pride and jury duty. Sure, being judged by an impartial jury is one of the good things about living in a country that values the rights of the individual. That said, I’m not certain I trust my fellow citizens enough to not opt for a bench trial should I ever find myself being judged. Still, due process and its conclusion – facing a jury – beat being dragged out of your house without knowing why. We may dislike taking time out of our lives for jury duty, but we also need to appreciate the bigger picture. There is civic pride to be had in this obligation.
However, there is jury duty and then there is jury duty.
Jail view from the jury room
Jury duty at Cook County Criminal Court: oh, the horror
You are lucky if you don’t live in a place where your civic pride will become a burden. For example, if you live in Cook County, Illinois there is jury service that begins when you are summoned to the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse, conveniently located next to the Cook County Jail.
The Circuit Court of Cook County is one of the largest court systems in the nation. There are many options for jury duty, criminal and civil. There are courthouses in the county that inspire a 12 Angry Men type of dedication, the kind of civic pride jury service should inspire.
Then there is the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, a place that turns the whole civic duty concept on its ear and raises a bothersome question about bias and impartiality.
Jury duty: from civic pride to civic burden
The Cook County Criminal Court Building is located in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. Potential jurors can catch a view of the jail while they wait for their number to be called, an unpleasant reminder of the warning issued during my orientation about where you can end up if you are picked for a trial and duck your obligation.
Welcome to jail
The county’s Department of Corrections complex is enormous, occupying 96 acres over an expanse of eight blocks.1 A Chicago Tribune article cited an expert who claimed the jail is one of the most dangerous in the country.2 Judging by some of the neighborhoods you pass through on your journey to the courthouse, many at the jail probably didn’t have to travel far to arrive at their new home.
Civic duty means a long cab ride to another world
I have been summoned to the Leighton Building for jury duty more than once. The first time I had no idea what to expect. The jury summons benignly gave public transit information. This seems like a less than stellar idea if it is obvious you are not part of the area’s normal fauna. There were no warnings in the summons, nothing about making sure your car is in tip-top shape if you drive. I suppose it has to be that way. If it wasn’t, who would show up?
The courthouse is inconveniently located. I worked in the Loop at the time. The cab ride cost more than the check waiting for me at the end of the day. This didn’t bother me. Civic pride being what it is, I felt I was paying my fair share. I didn’t know yet that my call for a cab to come and rescue me when the day was over would go unheeded. Do cab drivers not like to travel to that location? It’s hard to blame them. Who knows who they will be picking up?
Removing my belt and dumping my pockets into a bin as I went through a metal detector was a lot less disconcerting than looking around while trying to avoid eye contact. I remember two teenage-looking types shouting over the din, comparing their court appearance schedules so they could meet up later. I reflected that I did the same type of thing every day. The difference was that I knew I would be coming back from my meetings, not wondering where I would be spending the night.
That was the first hint that this wasn’t about judging my peers or about defendants being judged by theirs. Would my new surroundings strip away my impartiality?
We watched the obligatory civic duty video and then everything stopped. Every time my number wasn’t called I breathed a sigh of relief. Serving on a jury didn’t bother me, but coming back to this place did. When lunchtime came I chose to eat at a table next to a few jail guards. They were large and imposing. It seemed prudent.
My number never came up. The checks were issued. I called a cab. The cab never came. I finally got lucky and hopped into a taxi that was dropping someone off.
The next experience at the Leighton building was exactly the same. My number wasn’t called. I picked up my check. The cab wouldn’t come.
Criminal justice reform: can we put a dent in these numbers?
Over one million cases are filed in the Cook County court system annually.3 This seems like an impossibly huge number considering only 5.1 million people fall under the jurisdiction of the county’s courts.4 Over 30,000 felonies are handled by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office every year.5 The sheer volume of people that pass through the metal detector queues at the courthouse is stunning to witness.
The Cook County Jail has about 9,000 guests each day.6
In a speech on criminal justice reform the president pointed out that we spend $80 billion every year to keep 2.2 million people locked up.7 He observed that:
And we know that having millions of people in the criminal justice system, without any ability to find a job after release, is unsustainable. It’s bad for communities and it’s bad for our economy.8
Paying so much to keep people imprisoned also generates lots of public sector jobs. Someone has to process the paperwork. Someone has to cook the food for jail and courthouse cafeterias. Someone has to keep the bad guys safely behind bars and stop them from damaging or killing each other. Someone has to oversee the legal proceedings, prosecute, defend the indigent, and judge. Democrats calling for sentencing reform will miss those jobs, unless they are banking on change being more labor intensive than what we do now.
So many law breakers are locked up that we are finding reasons to let them go, even when their offenses fuel more crime. This brings a whole new face to jury duty when your civic duty takes place next to a jail nestled in a city supplying it with defendants. The Cook County Department of Corrections isn’t just a jail. This is a business with an inexhaustible stream of customers.
Can civic pride become bias?
Jail and prison populations have swelled along with accusations of bias in the ways we dole out justice. Pointing out that 1 out of every 3 black men will do time behind bars,9 House member John Conyers pointed out:
That is because criminal justice is meted out by human beings with real human failings, including bias. No longer does Jim Crow and overt racism rule the day, but rather coded phrases such as ‘policing high crime areas’ and ‘stop and frisk’ policies are the norm.10
During my two jury duty experiences at criminal court, neither of which involved serving on a jury, I couldn’t help but feel that I was part of a process that had nothing to do with civic duty or the luxury of living in a civil society. I didn’t feel I was there to do justice for my peers because I had so little in common with those passing through the bank of metal detectors alongside me. That doesn’t mean I would have been incapable of being fair or impartial. It does raise the question of how one can be impartial when thrown into a setting so unfamiliar, even threatening. Does the simple experience of traveling to a location like the Leighton Courthouse and seeing what goes on there cause bias against the defendants?
Those who had arrived for jury duty, or to represent or prosecute clients stood out. The jury pool seemed to lean heavily towards people who looked like they just fell off the boat into wholly foreign territory. People like me. Most probably don’t live near the courthouse. Criminals worry us. So do jails, but when summoned we show up to do our civic duty.
Is it possible to do your duty in a setting where like it or not, you are forced to make the association between a huge county jail, cattle call hordes of defendants, and the person whose fate you will decide?
Epilogue: summoned again
A few weeks ago I received another summons to the Leighton Courthouse for standby jury service. I don’t work in the Loop anymore. Now the journey is thirty miles of tough, winter highway driving. Recent expressway shootings in Chicago made driving seem unwise, but short of installing bulletproof glass it was the only option.
I had a conflict and had to reschedule. The automated system worked like a charm. Perhaps that’s the direction criminal justice in the country needs to take. Get in line. Dial a number. Plead your case and hear your sentence. If you have a lot of people to process and want real impartiality, nothing beats a computer. Computers don’t show bias. Only their programmers do.
UPDATE May 6, 2016:
As promised, my civic duty was rescheduled for almost three months to the day from the original date at the same awful location I was summoned to the first time. The tale of my experiences will be told another time.
Civic obligation fulfilled.
Lesson 1: the trip is still really unpleasant.
The 35 mile trip took two hours. That was pretty good time. I left early.
The moment I left the expressway and stopped at an intersection a woman came out of nowhere and began knocking on my car window. I have no idea what she wanted and didn’t think it wise to roll down my window to ask.
The drive to the courthouse didn’t improve after that and left me praying for two things: that my car didn’t break down on the way back and that I wouldn’t have to return the next day.
Lesson 2: lots of people don’t work.
In one of the neighborhoods I drove through there were young African American men in the park, hanging out on street corners, leaning on cars in the street, and apparently doing nothing at 9:00 in the morning. It was no different mid-afternoon. Lawn chairs had been set up on one of the sidewalks. The park was full. Was this Democratic economics at work, making sure neighborhood residents didn’t have to?
Lesson 3: police are really nice when they know you are not a criminal.
When the officers who screen people entering the building find out that you are a juror their attitude changes. They smile. They are friendly and very helpful. The officer who frisked me – apologetically, I might add – advised me to watch my things because “You are in a building full of criminals.”
My heart goes out to those who put their life on the line, deal with those criminals every day, and are rewarded by abuse from activists, pols, and the media.
Lesson 4: jury duty does create bias.
By the time I arrived at 2650 South California Ave. I felt like I had already driven past the people I would be judging if my number was called and I sat on a jury. That never happened, but the memories of the drive are still with me. Yes, just driving to jury duty creates bias. How could it not?
Lesson 5: politicians don’t value Illinois residents or their time.
Jury duty pays $25.00/day to sit and do nothing in a building full of criminals. At least the state deemed civic pride worthy of a raise since the last time I was called.
My generous employer paid me for the day and even told me to keep check I had endorsed back to the company. Hey, Springfield – how about a tax credit for businesses that pay their employees for jury duty??
UPDATE March 24, 2017:
Waiting in a jury corral is no fun. Getting caught in the crossfire is worse.
This week’s much-publicized shooting near the Criminal Court Building gave us another reason to question the sanity of our civic pride. Waiting in a jury assembly room is no fun, but it’s a screaming laugh riot compared to getting caught in the crossfire. What’s next for county jurors? Free flak jackets?
UPDATE July 21, 2018:
What do a judge and his gun tell us?
Most of us don’t carry handguns to work, but most of don’t work in a place like the Leighton Building. A video clip of a judge dropping a pistol on the courthouse premises made the rounds earlier this month. According to the Chicago Tribune11 the judge was charged with a misdemeanor for his lapse.
I can’t speak to why the judge was carrying a gun, but I don’t think anyone who has visited this courthouse even once will be surprised. Working in that environment and hearing stories every day of what some of Chicago’s worst do to people would make any sane person think about carrying a weapon. Judges assigned to this location hear things most of us don’t even want to think about. Media coverage of shootings at or near the courthouse make the walk from the parking garage a hurdle in itself
Jurors who have heard this story and are required by law to venture to this faraway place will wonder why a judge who knows a lot more about what goes on there than they do wants to carry a gun. I can’t say that those ruminations create bias, but they certainly won’t make contemplating the trip the courthouse more pleasant.
UPDATE September 16, 2018:
Civic duty vs. society’s demands: can jury duty forbid a not guilty verdict?
I can’t imagine a worse place for a juror to be than sitting in the jury box in the Leighton Building waiting for Jason Van Dyke’s trial to get underway.
Nearly four years ago the nation heard the story about a Chicago Police Officer firing 16 shots at a black youth with a knife.
Senators and representatives from Illinois spoke their peace:
Families like Laquan McDonald’s that have experienced heartbreak are no less deserving of justice than any other family, but too often they don’t get it.12
Illinois Congressman Bill Foster chastised the nation:
We should be ashamed of how our society failed Laquan McDonald.13
Then he demanded justice outright:
We should all be working to ensure that Laquan gets the justice that he has been denied for so long and to end the cycle of poverty, abuse, and injustice that shaped his life.14
Now the jurors are chosen. Protesters flocked to 26th & California. The city ruminates over what might happen if this jury fails to convict. The country is watching. No matter the decision, we can expect the outcome to weigh heavily on midterm election talking points as Democratic candidates seek to gain advantage from the race issue.
Van Dyke has already been tried and found guilty by prominent voices and the media. Society has assigned jurors the responsibility to do the right thing for black Americans and the nation. That means convicting this defendant because the consequences for a not guilty verdict are too unpleasant to contemplate.
Our society claims that every defendant has the right to a fair trial and devised the civic obligation of jury duty to make sure it happens. In this instance society has also introduced unimaginable bias and demands an outcome separate from anything that happens in the courtroom or in the minds of these jurors.
UPDATE August 29, 2019:
How can we judge these defendants not guilty?
Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley recently grouped gun violence in Chicago with the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. Quigley chose the knee jerk, simpleminded Democratic Party approach and blamed the president and Republicans:
what we lack is the moral leadership in the White House and the Senate to take decisive action.15
The congressman must believe that we’re too uninformed to sort through the details and separate a mass shooting incident from the ongoing bloodshed in Illinois’ largest city. He doesn’t bother to clarify the difference between the “terrorism fueled by white nationalism”16 with the race-centric urban violence in the Windy City.
Does anyone believe that gang members will submit to background checks so they can legally purchase handguns, or that the black market won’t supply whatever criminals seek to purchase?
Quigley’s press release doesn’t make a lot of sense, but as far as Chicago is concerned it doesn’t have to. Every night at 10:00 we hear the grief-stricken words of parents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, and grandparents after loved ones were caught in the crossfire.
Chicago is run by Democrats and has been for as long as most of us can remember. If they know how to stop the killing, they should do it now.
So back to the question of bias in the jury room. How can any juror who made the trek to 26th and California to do their civic duty judge any defendant charged with a gun crime in Chicago not guilty?
For that matter, how many really are innocent and once you’ve asked yourself that question, how can you render a verdict without bias?
UPDATE November 23, 2019:
Does horrendous violence demand retribution from the jury box?
How many times have you heard Windy City officials pronounce “enough is enough” after the newest incident of violence so horrendous that it turns our collective stomach just to think about it?
Chicago is rife with examples including last summer’s murder of a teenager during which the perpetrators cut the victim’s unborn baby from her body.
More recently, a little girl in costume was shot twice on Halloween because she was in the line of fire.
As cases like this drag through the courts we relive what happened with every news update. Worse, these incidents are not isolated. They are extreme but not uncommon. They typify the amoral climate of a city that is so familiar with extreme violence that press conferences are the answer to incidents too terrible to contemplate that happen over and over and over.
For those called to jury duty the issue is how to separate what they hear about on a daily basis from the up front and very real case they will hear when chosen to serve. Is the teen offender charged with a drive-by shooting responsible only for that shooting, or is he convicted as retribution for all the violent acts we are sick and tired of hearing about? Is he less responsible for taking out another gang member than for accidentally shooting a child?
These are difficult if not impossible questions to answer, but don’t think for a moment that a decision from a Cook County jury box is only about the defendant on trial. It’s simply not possible to erase memories of violence in a city that demands retribution for acts the ruling politicians are incapable of stopping.
UPDATE June 23, 2021:
Cook County jury trials are back and the bias will be worse than ever.
Two things happened while Cook County Criminal Court jury trials were suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, justice for systemic racism became the dominant Democrat Party issue. Second, crime in Cook County and especially Chicago became a bigger problem.
One thing the pandemic changed was going out. People had more time to sit at home and watch shocking scenes of violence unfold on their television screens. These scenes only got worse as the city reopened. How many prospective jurors have not seen the footage of a man and woman in Chicago being dragged from their car by an angry mob after last weekend’s Puerto Rican Day Parade? As NBC 5 Chicago reports the woman was beaten and shot and the man executed with a gunshot to the head.17 The nation sat back and watched.
Jury bias two ways
Bias cuts two ways in a time of permissive law enforcement policies like Illinois’ new no cash bail law and growing liberal calls to defund or at least restrict police departments. The trending anti-whiteness narrative puts the blame for practically everything squarely on skin color and begs the question of bias in Cook County’s criminal justice system where InjusticeWatch reports 75% of the defendants in custody are Black even though they only make up 23% of county residents.18
Every day law-abiding citizens learn about the horrific tragedies playing out in Chicago, suburban Cook County, and major cities across America. These good people are who we want to serve on juries. Will a society whose values are now dictated by the far left expect them to treat violence as a response to historic injustices the same way activists justified looting as reparations, or do we still expect violent crime to be punished to the fullest extent of the law?
That’s not a problem that can be solved in the jury box but it’s certainly an issue that anyone serving on a jury has to consider and respond to, especially if they are tapped for a politically-charged trial like the Derek Chauvin murder case where only one verdict would prevent massive outbreaks of violence and destruction. How many jurors want to be responsible for that?
We are not living in a time where justice means what it used to mean. The expectations of a society dominated by far left politics are much more important to our criminal justice system than right and wrong. Is jury duty compatible with the values of a society that demands redress for systemic injustices spanning centuries?
My guess is no. We’ll see how this plays out in the jury box as the gears of the Cook County criminal justice system start to grind again.
UPDATE February 8, 2022:
Thank woke criminal justice for turning civic pride into a partisan responsibility.
If a defendant’s attorney wants to know whether a prospective juror’s bias favors conviction or acquittal the first voir dire question should be which political party a potential juror favors. Even better, they can ask which candidate the juror chose in the 2020 presidential election. In this era of woke criminal justice I can’t think of better predictors of how juror bias will impact the outcome of a criminal case.
We’ve been deluged with reports of liberal DAs refusing to prosecute crimes and releasing dangerous offenders with criminal histories. That was the case with Darrell Brooks, the man charged with killing five people and injuring scores of others when he drove through the Waukesha, Wisconsin Christmas parade last November. Had the offender been white, liberal politics would have immediately decided that white supremacy and domestic terrorism were responsible. He was black, so the leftist political and media narrative was entirely different and at times left us wondering if the vehicle Brooks was driving was the real criminal.
Scores of Americans are dead or injured because of woke criminal justice policies that speak to divisive partisan politics and not the rule of law or even the simple imperative that laws are made to keep people safe. What does this mean for the men and women sitting on a jury in violent Cook County, Illinois?
Politicizing crime draws battle lines that demand juror bias.
Thanks to woke criminal justice what constitutes a crime is determined as much by politics as statute. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx showed how this conflict works in practice when she dropped charges against actor Jussie Smollett. So did Governor J.B. Pritzker, who promoted woke criminal justice reform and no cash bail legislation and now, with an election approaching, wants to talk about crime that’s exploding in Chicago, Cook County, and on Illinois expressways.
So what does this mean for juries? Does partisanship override civic duty? Politics argues that the cause of crime is either a too soft approach to criminal justice or policies that come down too hard on defendants who are best served by social services. These are not positions that can be reconciled. Either viewpoint introduces bias by redefining the notion of civic pride in jurors who must decide whether their role is to decide guilt or innocence, right the wrongs of America’s past, or crack down on America’s current crime wave.
In our age of identity politics the skin color of a defendant may be much more important to a decision to convict or acquit than the facts of a case. Our woke leaders base their judgments on precisely this calculation, so why would a juror whose civic duty may be moderated by the same partisan bias be any different?
UPDATE February 16, 2022: called again. The pandemic will not get you out of jury duty, but it will put your civic pride at risk.
The summons came three weeks ago. This time the venue was the Richard J. Daley Center in the Chicago Loop, not the dreaded Leighton Criminal Courthouse. Given Chicago’s surge in crime since my last visit to 26th and California, that was a good thing.
Unfortunately, I was still at risk. COVID-19 added a new dimension to the burden of civic pride. A “Please Read Immediately” insert accompanied my summons to inform me that jury service is “one of the most important things you can do as a citizen.” Then it promised me I would be safe.
This is what really happened.
The promise: every reasonable precaution will be taken. The truth: COVID-19 is not compatible with civic pride.
Being the cynical and suspicious type I questioned whether “Every reasonable precaution will be taken to protect the health and safety of the jurors …” It all boiled down to the definition of “reasonable.” When you are herding large numbers of people into a closed, confined space how do you keep them safe? You don’t. Given the circumstances, that’s reasonable.
The person seated in front of me on the train talked and talked and talked. He was loud. His mask was around his chin. My recollection from early in the pandemic is that loud talk spreads lots of virus. I moved. Was it already too late?
Union Station was crowded. People were packed in shoulder to shoulder.
The Daley Center was worse. There were marks on the floor to keep people 6′ apart for the security screening. They were largely ignored, which didn’t really matter because 6 feet in a crowded indoor space was declared useless long ago. The deputies barked at me. I forgot to take off my belt. So much for my civic pride. I feel like a criminal going to jail.
No one asked for my vaccination card even though it is required to enter Chicago restaurants. Apparently there is a much higher value placed on safe eating and drinking than safe jury duty.
17 floors of stairs were a bit more than I felt like dealing with. I took the elevator. There were circles to stand on in each corner to keep occupants safe, or at least the stupid ones who believe a few feet of distance is a safeguard.
Entering the jury room I stood in line again. There were lots of people. Deputies barked at us like cows entering the slaughterhouse.
I finally made it to the jury pen. They divided us into small rooms, apparently under the mistaken impression that people packed into a small room were safer than people in a large room with more air space. We were assigned seats the summons insert promised were the “recommended” 3 feet apart. 3 feet was the original World Health Organization suggestion. I’ve never heard it recommended in the U.S. until now, but it was already pretty obvious my safety was the illusion and not the point.
The guy a few feet away from me had his mask pulled down. Did it matter anymore?
They called my number, but I didn’t get picked. By 1:30 p.m. I was dismissed and handed a check for $17.20. Lucky for me I brought water, because no one offered prospective jurors so much as a sip even though the attorneys in the room appeared well supplied.
The trip back to Union Station was most of the above in reverse. I finally got off the train for the trip home at 3:35 p.m. to begin the countdown. How many days is it for Omicron – 2, maybe 3? Is my nose already running? Was that a chill, or is it just cold outside?
Now 48 hours have passed. So far, so good. My civic duty is fulfilled until one year from now.
What did I learn? If you get summoned for jury duty during this pandemic hope and pray you don’t get picked and don’t have to make a return trip to whatever hall of justice demands your presence. The state doesn’t care about your safety whether that means urban violence around the Leighton Building or COVID-19 at the Daley Center. It will crush any notion of civic pride in jury duty the moment it gets its hands on you and the courthouse deputies start barking.
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