Finding Ways to Improve Jury Service

* Your editorial “Jury Duty Doesn’t Have to Be an Ordeal” (April 2) misses the point. For example, the editorial states that “the trial courts in Los Angeles have had a hard time finding enough men and women to fill their jury panels.” The last time I served on jury duty (last summer), there were so many of us there and so few cases being heard that most of us never got into a jury box.

But the main problem with the current system is that it really doesn’t accomplish what we would like: to ensure that justice is served. Why not convene a jury-reform panel (analogous to the city charter reform effort now underway) to really analyze the problems in the current system and explore alternatives?

For example, why not have a corps of citizen-jurors who receive special training, who are under contract to serve a specified number of days each year. Or, perhaps, retired judges might serve as the jurors. Perhaps then we might be able to eliminate the time-consuming challenging of prospective jurors. A fresh approach to the jury system is long overdue.

GEORGE EPSTEIN

Los Angeles

* State Senate Bill 14 (Charles M. Calderon, D-Whittier) contains two disturbing flaws that ought to be removed from the legislation before it moves forward. Those portions of the bill that provide for anonymous juries and a reduction in the size of juries would profoundly damage the criminal justice system.

The notion that jurors ought to be anonymous in all cases without any showing of necessity has a rather nebulous genesis, as we have experienced negligible incidents that would warrant such a gambit. However, the message conveyed to the jurors by adopting such a mechanism would be unmistakable: There is something to fear and someone who is dangerous involved in the case you are about to judge. What more effective way to undermine the presumption of innocence and to surreptitiously shift the burden of proof from the government?

SB 14 also provides for a reduction in the size of juries hearing civil matters within the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court from 12 to 8 members. The inevitable effect of such a reduction in size would be to virtually eliminate the participation of jurors of African American and Hispanic heritage, according to a comprehensive study of the L.A. jury system by the National Center for State Courts for the California Administrative Office of the Courts released in April 1990. The report found the savings in time and financial cost would be negligible.

MICHAEL P. JUDGE

Member of Executive Board

California Public Defenders Assn.

Sacramento