We the people.

• Author: Bookman, Alan B.
• Position: Right to trial by jury - Florida - President's page

The American Revolution was sparked, in part, because the right to trial by jury had been snatched away.

As founding father John Adams declared more than two centuries ago: "Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty. Without them we have no other fortification against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and clothed like swine and hounds."

Yet, today, too many Americans are plagued with ho-hum attitudes when a jury duty summons arrives in the mail. Many concoct excuses to get out of it. Most don't even bother to show up at the courthouse.

Consider these numbers from the final report of the Florida Supreme Court Work Group on Standards for Jury Panel Sizes: Of nearly 1.7 million Floridians summoned for jury duty last year, the statewide average "summoning yield" (calculated by dividing the number of prospective jurors available to serve by the number of prospective jurors summoned) was about 30 percent. That's 10 percent below the national average. Florida's counties range from a low of about 12 percent to a high of about 50 percent.

It's frustrating to judges, like 18th Circuit Judge Charles Holcomb in Titusville, who had to postpone a trial because not enough jurors reported for duty. He was driven to institute a policy of ordering jury skippers to appear before him to explain themselves and possibly be fined, something most judges are reluctant to do.

Grappling with what to do about juror no-shows, the Supreme Court's work group, chaired by Second Judicial Circuit Judge Thomas Bateman, noted, "Indifferent enforcement damages the legitimacy of the jury process. Moreover, those who do not report for service often realize that there are no consequences for their behavior."

Rather than taking an initial hard line of contempt of court and fines, the court's work group recommends giving second chances for Floridians to carry out this crucial civic duty. One suggestion, authorized by Florida law, is to allow jurors to pick a backup date, if the first one is inconvenient. This postponement policy has worked well in Leon County, where Judge Bateman presides, helping boost the compliance rate to 90 percent.

For those jurors who repeatedly ignore summons, the work group urges judges to lower the boom by imposing at least $100 fines and holding no-shows in contempt. Second summons no-shows should be ordered to serve as many as eight hours of community service, spending a...