from the SunTimes: A juror in the case involving a 16 year-old-girl and her sister robbing and killing a man in Pilsen locked herself in the bathroom during deliberations and refused to convict the young woman. Not because she thought she wasn’t guilty, but because she couldn’t understand how a 16-year-old girl could do that. Part of me wants to applaud this juror for living a life free of cynicism, a luxury few of us are ever afforded. I would love to have the feeling that people are totally inherently good and that I would go into an emotional tailspin if shown anything contradictory.
But that’s not what this is about. I am more surprised that this woman ever made her way onto the jury in the first place. I was a jury memer for a 3-week trial last year involving a Chicago cop shooting and killing an unarmed teenage boy in Cabrini Green. I sat through most of the jury selection process, which took the better part of 2 days. Jury selection is really just unchecked racism, sexism, agism, and classism running amok. In the case I sat on, because the victim was a young African American male, all African American jurors were almost IMMEDIATELY disqualified. I think the Chicago Police Department picked me because I am young, white, female and raised in the suburbs (read: the city is big and scary for a girl like me, so I have respect for officers of the law since they protect my poor, naive self) and the plaintiff picked me because I am young, urban, and liberal (read: I don’t trust overzealous cops, and relate to the age and social situation of the victim). It was horrendous for me to see this display, until I realized it was the only way to get a truly unbiased jury. The only way someone was going to make it past the selection process was if both parties saw something in them that they believed to be a benefit to them. Usually, these benefits will cancel each other out, and you have an unbiased party. Yes, I should have been on the jury I was on. I was a goldmine for both the plaintiff and the defendant because I saw both sides.
But this woman should have been apparent. I am just surprised that our judicial system failed. They are so good at discrimination.