Name: THURSDAY CLUB MEETING - SCREENING AND DISCUSSION OF JUDGING JURIES
Start: 2024-07-25T12:30:00-07:00
End: 2024-07-25T13:30:00-07:00
Location: Oakstop - California Ballroom

THURSDAY CLUB MEETING - SCREENING AND DISCUSSION OF JUDGING JURIES

Judging Juries, a new documentary by Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Abby Ginzberg, reveals some of the barriers to representative juries
About this Event
<h4>Judging Juries reveals the barriers to jury service which deprive defendants in criminal cases of juries which represents a cross-section of the community. While there are many issues contributing to the lack of diversity in the jury pool, juror pay is at the top of the list. In California, jurors receive $15 per day for jury duty. In Mississippi, they receive $5 per day and in New York state they receive $40 per day. Clearly, this payment schedule needs to be revised, particularly if jury duty requires the possibility of missed weeks of work without compensation.</h4>

<h4>Many prospective jurors are not paid by their employers for jury service and therefore face real financial hardship if forced to serve for $15 per day. An innovative program in San Francisco called Be the Jury, which pays jurors $100 per day, has discovered that many more working people and people of color are able to serve as a result of this increase in compensation.</h4>

<h4>The film looks at the issue of juror pay, the use of peremptory challenges which permit the dismissal of potential jurors for no stated reason and the use of former felony convictions as a bar to jury service. Recent legislation in California is seeking to minimize the negative impact of these obstacles to jury service.</h4>

<h4>The right to be judged by a jury which reflects a cross-section of the community is a fundamental right, but it requires an understanding by the citizens who are called to serve that this is a duty they should be willing to fulfill. It is our hope that this film will help encourage community members throughout the Bay Area and the State of California to see jury service in a new light—to welcome the call to jury duty and to participate enthusiastically in this very unique experience that has important consequences for the individual on trial and provides jurors with the opportunity to learn from each other as they determine the outcome of the case. Similarly, we hope that other jurisdictions will be motivated by the experience of San Francisco and consider ways to increase juror pay so that more people can afford to serve.</h4>