by Tim Daughtry

Created on: June 21, 2010   Last Updated: June 22, 2010

How to Be a Good Juror 

Before you ever consider going to trial for anything, before you tell the world you are going to sue McDonald’s for hot coffee, before you think about suing someone who dissed you, read this article about “how to be a good juror.”  What you reap you will surely sow.  Anything you do when you serve on a jury just remember can come back to haunt you.  The same false sense of temporary power we feel as a juror, is felt by those who could someday be sitting in judgment of us. 

I’ve served on a jury twice and done it wrong both times.  In both cases, I became attorney-like, I became a judge, I all of a sudden knew these people whom I had never met before, I knew what was best for them and I judged them as if I knew what I was doing.  I became a big shot.  That happens when you serve on a jury.  Forget about how I was able to judge whether or not the attorneys were doing a good job, whether or the not the judge was the best one for this case or whether or not the witnesses had their stories straight.  

Even though I had not gone to school all those years to learn how to practice law, I had a few minutes of fame, I was the supreme judge over people lives and I quickly forgot how unqualified I was for the job.  My role was not to become an attorney nor to become a judge.  I was not being asked to get into the heads of the victim nor the suspect.  I was not getting paid to render the best judgment handed down in the history of justice. 

I was being asked to listen, to not assume things that were not presented, to not make character judgments about people who I did not know and would not have enough time to get to know in the brief time we would spend together in the courtroom.  This was  not CSI.  I was not going to be going to the scene of the crime.  I would not see evidence nor have time to get into the psyches of the witnesses or the suspect.  I didn’t even have time to make eye contact with the attorneys.  And in most cases, the crime was a minor crime, but I was acting as if I was on the OJ jury.  

So here are my suggestions for how to be a good juror:

1) Decide the case based on your initial gut feeling about guilt or innocence

2) Don’t go with what the other jurors decide just so you can all go home early

3) ALWAYS IMAGINE THAT YOU ARE ON TRIAL, THAT IT’S YOU WHO

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