A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : Platform : Does a Jury or a Judge Dispense Better Justice?

I was the jury foreman on a famous case, the Jello Biafra case. He was the lead singer with (the punk band) the Dead Kennedys, and he and his manager were charged with distributing pornography because of a poster in one of his albums.

At the very beginning of our deliberations, several jurors on both sides had obviously already made up their minds and weren’t going to budge. But we tried to be conscientious. One woman juror threatened to go sit in the bathroom if she had to keep listening to the album, so we turned down the volume. We had some pretty heated arguments.

After two days, we were split 7 to 5. The judge dismissed the case.

I also served on a federal jury that found a woman guilty of being a drug courier. In that case, I saw that almost every person waiting to be tried was a minority. But among the prospective jurors there were very few Asians, blacks or Latinos.

If I were to be tried by a jury rather than a judge in some conservative white place, like Rodney King was, I’d have to think it over.