Court, college leaders encourage jury duty

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Juries must reflect the demographic of defendants to assure a fair trial.

To ensure more minorities participate in serving on juries, judges and other legal professionals addressed students at Monroe Community College on Monday, encouraging them to vote and serve on a jury.

Among the speakers at a variety of Democracy Commitment programs was New York State Court of Appeals Judge Theodore T. Jones, who said as long as jury panels are lopsided, people will lose confidence in the court system’s ability to deliver justice.

He told students at the Brighton campus during a Democracy Commitment Rally, if they were ever accused of a crime, they would want to have a jury with people who look and think like them, whether women, white, black or young people. He said it is important for the court system to operate with representatives from defendants’ communities for defendants to receive appropriate consideration.

“Every single day presents you with an opportunity to become involved in your community,” said MCC President Anne M. Kress.

Judge Craig J. Doran, administrative judge of the Seventh Judicial District, said when he was a student at State University of New York at Albany, he wanted to be president of the United States.

Judge Doran, who served as a state assemblyman before becoming a judge, said he remembered when he wanted to get involved in politics, being told to wait his turn, lick envelopes and put up lawn signs for other candidates. He told the students they do not have to wait; it is vitally important go get involved.

“It is your turn,” Judge Doran said. “Today is your turn.”

Brighton Town Justice Karen L. Morris, who also teaches legal courses at MCC, talked about the importance of voting and how every single vote counts. She pointed to Livingston County where two Republican candidates ended up in court to settle a primary tie. She said their supporters could have made a difference if they had voted that day.

“Democracy is that concept of government where we all participate,” Justice Morris said. “Everyone has a place and everybody can contribute.”

She noted the power of a vote is particularly true on juries where criminal cases in New York require an unanimous verdict for a conviction so if someone does not believe a defendant received a fair trial, they have the power to right that wrong with their vote.

“Every person on that jury plays an absolute and critical role,” Justice Morris said, adding that when people receive jury duty questionnaires, they should not think about how to get out of jury duty, but how they can have a major chance to do justice.

Passing out voluntary juror qualification questionnaires was Charles G. Perreaud, Monroe County commissioner of jurors. Several students filled them out and turned them in. People who receive questionnaires in the mail are legally required to respond.

The questionnaires are used by the commission to form a pool of prospective jurors who are randomly drawn to serve within the county.

Other speakers included Brighton Supervisor William W. Moehle, who also served as the town’s attorney for several years; Louis Andolino, an MCC instructor of anthropology, history, political science and sociology; Elizabeth “Betsy” Clifford, criminal justice instructor and director of the paralegal program; and Scott Blue, president of the Student Government Association.

Earlier, Judge Jones addressed criminal justice students at the Damon Campus during the “Democracy Beyond Voting: Jury Recruitment and Diversity” program, at which Verdis Robinson, an instructor of history and African-American studies and campus coordinator of the Democracy Commitment initiative, welcomed everyone to the first Democracy Day.

Judge Jones, a native of Brooklyn, told more than 50 students at the downtown campus that prior to becoming a judge, he served as a criminal defense lawyer for 17 years all over New York City, seeing juries made up of people entirely different than the defendants they were judging.

He said receiving a fair trial depends a great deal on jury selection and that he saw juries composed of people ages 55 and older who had very little understanding of the young people they were judging in the Youth Part where he was assigned. Judge Jones said some people have built-in prejudices against young people, women and minorities.

He also co-chairs a state Task Force on Wrongful Convictions, which is studying how wrongful convictions happen and to make recommendations to the Legislature.

Judge Jones said members are finding almost every wrongful conviction is coming from a jury trial where the jury was not representative of the demographics of the defendant, emphasizing that is why it is so important to have more minorities participate in the jury system.

Judge Jones said when he started trying cases in 1972, there was a never a black juror because attorneys would use their peremptory charges to eliminate them, but that was outlawed in 1986 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79.

Judge Doran said as a lawmaker, he supported the Republican Conference’s law-and-order legislation that called for harsher treatment of criminals, including voting for the death penalty. He said when he became a judge in 2000, his perspective and role changed to being a protector of the rights of the accused.

Judge Doran talked about a state study showing minorities in Monroe County are underrepresented on juries and the county has resorted to fining people who ignore the juror questionnaires in an attempt to increase the response rate.

“This is tough territory to navigate through,” Judge Doran said. “This is very controversial.”

He noted the county has taken a two-pronged approach to increasing jury diversity, beginning with outreach programs such as the Democracy Commitment initiative. He said the second is compliance.

“That’s a nice way of saying bringing down the hammer on the people who are blowing us off,” Judge Doran said, noting the county is going after about 250 people who did not respond to the questionnaires and repeated attempts to enforce compliance. A total of 10,000 questionnaires were sent out.

“We need to hear from you folks,” Judge Doran said. “What are we not saying that we should be saying? Are we getting through?”

Perreaud said forms are available at www.nyjuror.gov or by calling his office at (585) 371-3833.