Jurors see it as unlucky deed to do the state some service
THE language may be archaic but the sentiments expressed during a 1927 Dáil debate on proposed changes to jury service arguably still hold true today.
“This duty of citizenship, serving on a jury, is very unpleasant,” said William Magennis. “Service on a jury is like much study, a weariness to the flesh.”
At the time, the Dáil was discussing whether to drop the requirement that jurors had to be property owners, whether service should be optional, and whether women should serve.
Then justice minister Kevin O’Higgins considered a proposal to amend the law to provide that, where the wife in a marriage was the wealthy partner, her husband should serve in her place.
“In that way, we propose to put an end to the practice of putting property in the wife’s name so that the husband may be relieved from jury service,” he explained in a telling illustration of the lengths some men would go to in order to avoid service.
And while women had fought successfully for the right to vote nine years earlier, it seems they were in no hurry to push for equality in this area, with O’Higgins advising that: “It is a minority demand so far as the women themselves are concerned.
“If a woman were obliged to serve in law, she would not serve in practice; she would say that she was ill, or has children to mind, or that her husband’s dinner would not be cooked.”
It would be almost 50 years before women finally got full equality in jury service but some things have yet to change. In 1927, it was estimated that, if men were allowed seek exemptions from service, about 40% would opt out.
The Courts Service today estimates that about 33% of summoned jurors ask to be exempted for a variety of reasons, while a further unquantified percentage simply don’t turn up.
The Courts Service says these absentees are a small minority although, in the trial of the Anglo Irish Bank executives last year, 1,500 jury summons were issued and only 350 potential jurors turned up.
A situation also arose at Ennis Circuit Court a few years ago when all the day’s cases had to be adjourned because just 35 of the 250 people summoned showed up.
Roughly another third of people called are exempted by regulation because of criminal records or because they are in excluded professions, and only about one third make themselves available to be empanelled.
It seems this “duty of citizenship” is held in no higher esteem today than it was 88 years ago and social media is full of the groans and gripes of people the world over who have found a summons in their post, along with many mischievous tips for getting out of the “unpleasant” business.
“I’d say they’re going for their money,” a woman at the back of the courtroom whispered loudly to a companion as several members of the jury in the Ian Bailey hearing were escorted from the jury room to the judge’s chamber shortly before they returned with their verdict this week.
She was wildly incorrect. There is no payment for jury service, nor expenses — not even for the likes of the Bailey jury who gave five and a half months of their life to the case.
The Courts Service information guide for potential jurors is at pains to point out that they’d better take public transport as “the County Registrar has no discretion in the matter of parking fines.”.
If you’re employed, your employer has to keep paying your wages, but if you’re self-employed or a jobseeker there is no recompense for loss or potential loss of earnings.
And if you have something special planned — a trip, study course, or family event — you’ll be relying on the mercy of the judge to exempt you, or on the smooth running of the case so that it finishes within the expected time frame.
Besides all that, you’ll be asked to make a decision at the end of it all that will change at least one other person’s life forever. And if that person happens to a murderer, rapist, or otherwise dangerous criminal, the experience can be intimidating.
It is little wonder that the pressure and practical difficulties get to some jurors. And while Irish juries have generally exhibited exemplary behaviour, there are numerous examples in Britain of jurors disappearing on holidays mid-trial, sleeping in, “forgetting” to show up, and even smoking cannabis in the toilets.
It is an offence in this country to fail to show for jury service, but the numbers fined are minuscule and plans are being made jointly by the Courts Service and gardaí to take a much tougher approach.
If that still doesn’t provide incentive to fulfill this unpleasant weariness to the flesh, then maybe the following thought will.
According to the Law Reform Commission, jury service dates back to about the year 1000 and none of the great minds in all the great civilisations since have found a better way of doing business.
Judges here also have a tendency to exempt forevermore those jurors who have been involved in lengthy or difficult trials so, for good or for bad, it will truly be a once in a lifetime experience.
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