Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Jury Duty

The SJC yesterday issued an opinion about background checks for jurors. During jury deliberations for a murder trial, the District Attorney ran background checks on the jurors, and discovered that 5 have criminal histories that they did not disclose in the questionnaire. Although at that point, the jury had returned verdicts on some of the charges, they were hung on the rest. The judge declared a mistrial, and in this decision, the SJC upheld the findings and declared that "double jeopardy does not bar retrial." The Boston Globe has more on the story.
The original trial led to a revision of the jury questionnaire.
Jury duty can be difficult, and often inconvenient, but an essential element in our society of laws. The Postal Service recently released a new Jury Duty Stamp. The artist hails from Merrimac, according to the Boston Herald.
Check out the Jury System page, and if called to serve, "serve with pride."