Jury Stress Is Inevitable, but Little Improvements Might Help a Lot

Think of the sequestered O.J. Simpson jury as a group of complete strangers set adrift without a captain or a navigator.

They’re like the thirsty and starving survivors in the old Alfred Hitchcock movie “Lifeboat.” But instead of fighting over scraps of food and drops of water, they battle over what television programs to watch, or how long they are permitted to shop at Ross Dress for Less.

Race, occupation, age and outlook on life mark sharp divisions among the 12 jurors and six alternates. Imagine the silences and strained conversation as they stare at one another meal after meal. If they had not accepted the call to serve on the Simpson jury, it’s improbable they would have chosen to live together for more than half a year, which is longer than many marriages survive. But they chose the life of sequestered jurors and are stuck with it.

Now after more than three months, they are realizing the depth of their commitment. No wonder they are showing signs of juror stress, an ailment with such symptoms as sleeplessness, irritability, nightmares, mood swings, heart palpitation, crying and sexual dysfunction.

I thought about the mental state of the Simpson jurors while watching the televised interview of bounced panelist Jeanette Harris, who on Wednesday met privately with Judge Lance A. Ito.

In her KCAL-TV Channel 9 interview, Harris spoke of racial divisions. But she also talked about bad working and living conditions that exacerbated racial tension.

“It had gotten to the point where mornings were difficult,” she said. “You’d wake up and say, ‘I can’t go another day.’ It’s really exhausting. I wanted to go through to the end but I’ve heard rumors it will be November, October. I don’t think I could have lasted that long.”

She remembered “the stress of sitting in the courtroom with people staring at you all day, so you don’t want to have a reaction. Then you’re trying to listen to this information. . . . A lot of things have occurred during sequestration and if we were machines we could go into the courtroom and say, ‘I’m going to block that out of my mind.’ ”

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Thomas L. Hafemeister, senior research associate with the National Center for the State Courts, says jury stress is “a relatively new phenomenon” that has cropped up in big trials in the past decade. It was first noticed by reporters covering especially brutal and sensational trials, and is now being followed up by researchers such as Hafemeister, who is an attorney and psychologist.

Jury stress, Hafemeister says, may be occurring because “trials are becoming more violent, crimes are more violent, the events being described to jurors are more violent.”

And, he says, today’s lawyers have “an increased ability to represent events. Before, there was just testimony, which left you one step removed from the events. Now there is videotape, computer simulation. Attorneys are taught to make their presentation more exciting. They try to put the jurors into the shoes of the victim or the defendant or the litigant. This makes it more difficult for jurors to distance themselves. They are asked to relive events.”

After the first Rodney G. King beating trial, jurors reported experiencing insomnia, weight loss, nervousness and a disruption of family relationships during the deliberations.

Another example of jury stress occurred during a trial resulting from the deaths of 27 Kentucky students who were killed when their school bus overturned in an alcohol-related crash. A National Center for the Study of State Courts paper told how the trial was held in a small community and many of the jurors knew the defendant or his family, a situation researchers said was not uncommon in small-town trials.

The study reported that jurors were given frequent recesses during the trial to regain their composure. “Many of them appeared visibly shaken and emotionally distraught by the evidence and testimony,” the study said. “The jurors expressed frustration at being forced to make a decision that could not make the parties whole again and being caught in the middle of an intercommunity conflict in which someone would be upset with them no matter what they decided.”

The last thought has a familiar ring to anyone following the Simpson trial.

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After Harris went public with her jury tales, Ito initiated an investigation into her remarks. Undoubtedly, he’ll try to find ways of easing tension.

He might start with the sheriff’s deputies who guard the jurors. We reporters deal with deputies who guard the courtroom, members of the same bailiffs’ detail that supervises the jury. If they handle the jurors like they handle the press, no wonder the jury is tense.

I’ve known a lot of cops, but none who have seemed to take more pleasure in wielding their authority. It wasn’t surprising to hear ex-juror Harris complain about the deputies’ behavior.

Jury researcher Hafemeister said the judge could also improve conditions in small ways. “Maybe get them two TV sets, don’t make them feel like prisoners, let them feel they have more control over their lives, try to provide them with options,” he said.

The jurors are serving a long sentence. But they’re not supposed to be in jail.