Canary in the Coal Mine: the Importance of the Trial Jury

• Publication year: 2002
• Citation: Vol. 26 No. 02

SEATTLE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEWVolume 26, No. 3WINTER 2003

CANARY IN THE COAL MINE: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRIAL JURY

Dedication

Hon. Barbara Jacobs Rothstein* and Fredric C. Tausend(fn*)

If the two of us, a trial judge and a trial lawyer, were somehow able to ask Judge William L. Dwyer what he would have us do to pay tribute to his life and to continue his unfinished work, his response would likely be the following: "Do all that you can to strengthen our society's commitment to the jury trial, especially the oft-challenged civil trial, and to advance the indispensable role the American trial jury has played, and must continue to play, in the preservation of liberty and the pursuit of justice in this land."

Bill Dwyer had a passion for reading, analytical and creative thinking, and expressing his thoughts in clear, cogent, and convincing English. This is beautifully exemplified in his writing, especially in his book, In the Hands of the Peopled (fn1) The subtitle-The Trial Jury's Origins, Triumphs, Troubles and Future in American Democracy indicates the scope of the work; the thirty-three pages of endnotes sketch "the vast landscape glimpsed in this book." Bill was justifiably proud of those notes and he beamed whenever he was told that someone had actually read them. Do yourself a favor-read the book notes and all before, after, or while you peruse this Symposium of the Seattle University Law Review.

Trial Judge (TJ): Bill truly believed in the title of his book, "In the Hands of the People." When the publisher sent him a copy of the proposed dust jacket cover, then an austere illustration of the marble Doric columns characteristic of many American courthouses, Bill rejected it emphatically, insisting instead on a portion of Thomas Hart Benton's painting entitled, Trial by Jury, depicting the jury box during trial by a jury of men and women, black and white, old and young, listening intently to the evidence.

Trial Lawyer (TL): Bill's hard-headed optimism about the future never failed. On more than one occasion when he was discussing his draft with the several judges, lawyers, professors, and professional writers whom he asked to review the prepublication manuscript, some of us would focus on the adequacy of the trial jury as we know it today to address the challenges our nation faces in the...