12-26-2007
Deaf/HOH and Jury Duty
I received a Jury Questionnaire from my County last fall. “Pah”, I thought to myself. Many people I know served on a jury. Many HEARING people, that is. Most have served at least two or three times in the past 20 years. I have always wondered why is it that I’m already 4 decades old and not once have I ever received a Jury Questionnaire nor summons to serve on a jury. I’ve lived in my state for 15 years and have lived in the same county for 12 years. Surely, something was amiss?! So, you see, I was thrilled to get this questionnaire. I have always enjoyed law and courts. Many of my favorite TV shows in the past have been about law and courts. I know, I should have been a lawyer or worked in the legal field. Of course I know that the real court system does not necessarily mimic what you see on TV. I’ve seen that first hand.
Anyway, I mailed out the questionnaire in anticipation of getting a summons! lo and behold, I finally got a letter from my county court system. I was shocked. It was a template letter than began with “Dear Prospective Juror”.
_______
Dear Prospective Juror:
You have indicated on your questionnaire that you have a disability that could excuse you from participating in jury service in xxxxx county. Please submit, to the address or fax number below, a letter from your doctor indicating if your condition is temporary or permanent. This information will assist us in determining if we will be able to delete you from our jury pool.
Please provide a daytime telephone number so we may contact you after the Judge has determined if you may be excused.
Thank you in advance for your consideration. If you have any questions, please call me upon receipt of this letter.
Sincerely,
XXXXX
XXXXXX Clerk of Courts
________
I had put down that I am hard of hearing in the questionnaire. I also wrote down on the questionnaire that I would need an interpreter or CART. I can’t help but get this awful taste in my mouth after reading that last sentence in the first paragraph and the whole second paragraph. Doesn’t it look like they pretty much have already assumed what the final decision would be?
I decided not to go to my family doctor because he is not qualified to determine whether I am hoh or deaf! I’m supposed to pay for a doctors office visit just to get a letter from him that says my hearing impairment is permanent? Forget my audiologist. I don’t’ see one often, I see one, only when I need a new hearing aid. I decided to ignore that request. Whether that would hurt my chances, I don’t know. The way I see it is. my chances have reduced to almost zero the day I received that letter!
I decided to respond by writing a letter to the court clerk and state that I am willing and able to serve on a jury. I explained that the accommodation I would need would be an interpreter and/or CART services. (I did contact NAD to get their feedback on the best way to deal with this and used their suggestion in the interim. That was, to write and call the clerk to let them know that I am willing and able to serve on a jury.)
I checked online for information about deaf/hoh serving on a jury. I found plenty of references to that topic. Apparently there are many deaf people that don’t want to serve on a jury and have used their deafness to get out of it. Shame on you! And apparently there are many courts out there that think deaf people should not serve on a jury because they are deaf (and dumb?), shame on them! Fact is ADA says a court cannot excuse one from jury duty due to a person being deaf or HOH. The courts are supposed to provide accomodation without cost to the juror in question.
I have not heard anything back from my county clerk, yet. It’s only been a week or so since I snailed mailed my letter to them. Have you ever been called to Jury Duty? Were you able to serve on a Jury? Were you ever excused because you are deaf or HOH?
I would love to hear more from many of you that have received a questionnaire and/or summons to serve on a Jury Duty.
If courts say that deaf people should not be treated any different from hearing people when they are being charged with a crime and forced to face consequences by going through the court system. Then deaf people should not be excused from Jury Duty at all!!!! I’m sure some exceptions apply such as if a person has a learning disability or has a mental function of a child. Most deaf are capable of serving on a Jury, don’t you agree?
Bring it on!!!
Posted by critic in Deaf Issues | RSS 2.0
It brings one memory that I have….I was once selected as a juror in Illinois. I was to show up on a Thursday and to sit in the lobby…waiting to be called. If I remember correctly, I was in the Group C.
Unfortunately they never get to my group and told all of us to go home for good. So I don’t think I was thrown out because of my profound deafness and my need for an American Sign Language interpreter merely because there are others in my group that are hearing and that all of us are let off.
I know a lot of hearing people that got to serve their civic duty including my parents as well. I hope I would get to do that someday!
Yes, I served on a jury in Rochester, NY, for a week… it has been a positive experience for me… I had two interpreters and all the jurors really included me and I was rather loud, reminding them to talk at one time so that the interpreters would not get lost (especially during the deliberations.)
You blog surprised me… I had no idea that the courts could request for the formal proof of one’s disability. Sounds like the courts view the people with disabilities as a cost to the judical system (providing interpreters, accessbilities, etc.) Isn’t it a violation of ADA? I wonder for the reason… could it be that many potential jurors use the imagined disabilities as the reason for their not being able to serve on the jury?
Karen’s right. Many deaf people have served as jurors, and I have been called a few times, but only reached the panel level before being dismissed in the selection. The staff, judge and interpreters were very nice and interested in the deaf people that came.
You might want to use Rochester as an example of deaf people routinely serving on juries. However, they do give them an option to be excused permanently if they do not want to serve.
I have been called to serve Jury in the DC and Federal courtalmost each three years. Due to problem at DC Court, I never served in the court room (sat in the jury section), always send me home due to leak of interperters. I think they are avoided to provide interperters, save money by send me know early.
i wonder how a lawyer would think seeing this kind of discussion; and perhaps it can be used in several ways to influence the outcome:
1: slows down the court proceeds due to interruptions from the jury for clear communication.
2: chance to repeat certain remarks or emphasize a point (by use of #1)
3: We face discrimation frequently; we’re automatically able to side with anyone who suspects that ill has been done angst them for what they are not who they are.
I’m moreso interested in knowing whether there has ever been a court case with at least even :one: of the jury members are deaf and if any of the plantiff or defendants are deaf as well. if there has never been one, then i rest my case that we’re not pawns in a court game, but rather rooks or bishops and are treated accordingly by the system and its players.
I got summoned when I was 18, and it was difficult to work out when I could go for jury duty because I was a full-time student and I wasn’t able to be excused by classes plus the city hall could not find an available interpreter until months later so my jury duty got postponed over and over…
Until I graduated and got a real job and when they finally found an interpreter and was about to establish the appointment, BUT at that time, I was not excused from my work (the city hall said the jury duty might take two weeks– my job only allowed up to one sick day and the rest, I have to find a sub and at that time everybody else in the department was very busy with their own workload) so at that point, I think they gave up on me. I don’t blame them– it took 3 years.
[…] Read the rest… […]
Yes, I have been served on the jury in Minnesota for 2 weeks at mere 30 dollars a day plus parking fees. Nice, ain’t it? California jury pays 5 bucks a day! Whoa- back in old days in 1990’s.
I had two interpreters, best interpreters. Neat- Minnesota had their own legal team for interpreters. Cool, ain’t it?
Speak of devil, I just got summoned for jury duty this week! LOL Now I’m writing to say I’m willing to be on a jury. LOL
I was summoned twice in Illinois. I wanted to participate, and like you, liked courts and the art lawyering. They simply dismissed me the first time, and I informed the court that I wanted to be placed back in the pool for the next time. Few years later, I was summoned again, only to be dismissed by the judge, not because they thought it would inconvinence ME, but that it would inconvience THEM. They said that case would take a week, and I saw that scaring off other potential jurors. I was pissed.
I went to jury in maryland when i was moved first time in maryland and one year later they pick me up and go to court jury and been all day wait and wait finally and i went inside and lawyer ask me about jury well i never been jury in my life first time and lawyer said if you intresting being jury and gulp i told i dont know about it is my first time never been in and lawyer said ok you can go there sit and they look at people move around and i sit in left front corner with interpeter and i got the nerves because it is murder case. it scared to me if i am watch them and later lawyer said remove me, and i said whew because i never experince in murder case, i talk to my deaf freind and she said she like it to hear lots of them due can tell in our commonsense watch them. for me gulp and now it is my first time. no thanks due hear awful story.
I have been called up twice and both times I insisted on following through.
The first time I had CART and the 2nd time I had 2 male interpreters imported fromTacoma,Wa.
I was not chosen either time, but I would like to have been! I was all for it.
Let’s push for allowing the deaf to serve on a jury!
Thanks so much for responding, I really enjoyed reading about your experiences.
Joseph, you’re right, if everyone got dismissed including you, it couldn’t have had anything to do with your being deaf.
Karen, it is a violation of the ADA. That form letter needs to be trashed and never used again. They need to come up with a better template letter.
Dianerez, as I am finding out that to be true that many deaf have served on a jury. Rochester seems to be a deaf friendly town.
Drew, I wonder if “lack of interpreter” is a violation. I should look into it.
Dog food, as I understand it based on my research on guidelines that interpreter and court agrees to, answer to your question 1) no. 2) no. 3) not to my knowledge. I will do another blog I hope that goes into detail what I found out in my quest to be armed if I ever need to be. These will answer in detail to question 1 and 2.
Gnarlydorkette, wow! three years! amazing! At least they made an effort, eh?
Kat, lol. Some company actually pay the full day’s pay to a person that serves on a Jury Duty. Company then gets reimbursed for what court pays a juror minus parking and mileage (juror gets to keep that). I know US Govt employees get their normal day’s pay from Govt.
Jay, that s**ks. I’d be pissed too. You seemed to have some basis for filing a DOJ claim, did you?
Deaf Navy, well, it is supposed to be our “civil duty” to serve on a Jury. I imagine a murder case is probably not easy for any juror.
Lantana, yeah, I hope to be selected..not just called to show up but SELECTED. I think this is an issue worth pushing for.
I plan to do another blog with some more information I found. I will let you guys know if I get a summons or not.
You will see in my next blog that it is very clear that we deaf have a right to serve on a jury and we cannot be let go because we are deaf.
Also some more information about other deaf jurors.
DO any of you remember a BIG case about a deaf juror that fought to be on a jury and won? I remember it but cannot recall what year nor the persons name. If anyone does remember, please share it with me. Thanks~
Yeah, I remember one person from St. Louis, MO who fought for the right to serve on the jury… William (Bill) Sheldon (in 1980’s). Yup, Rochester, NY is a more deaf friendly town (diversity among deaf people in Rochester is more accepted by other deaf people and there is a heightened awareness by hearing people toward deaf people) and I know a few deaf people who have served on the jury. The case I sat in was about 2nd degree battery and robbery… the plaintiff was a colorful character, with a crime rap sheet as long as the arm length, plus he changed stories many times on the stand so we the jury passed down the verdict declaring the defendant (he was the son of one of the former Rochester mayor William Johnson Jr’s advisors–innocent. The defendant was relieved… he was a honors freshman at a university somewhere in VA at that time and I am sure he learned a big lesson from the ordeal.
http://grantlairdjr.com/wp/2005/05/06/a_day_at_courthouse_in_downtown_dallas/
I wrote about my jury duty experience in Dallas about two years ago on my blog.
gwlj
Thanks Grant, that must have been interesting day in court to have two different interpreters. Thanks for sending the link. I wasn’t reading deafread two years ago.
I have been served as a juror several times. I really enjoyed every minute of it. I remember the judge asked me if I want to be excused. I said no. Only problem I had was at the last trial the interpreter would make decisions for me without me saying anything and I was really furious with her because I did not want her to make decisions for me. Now that interpreter is no longer qualified to be in the courtroom. I hope that I’ll serve as a juror again in the near future.
Ziggy, I’m opening my mouth ajar “suprised”. Seriously, I”m surprised that there wasn’t a mistrial. That terp got what was coming eh? wow. I hope you get to serve again too.
To the people that are discriminating the deaf, I would have to say that deaf people are above “normal” or “average.” I have two older siblings that are deaf. One right now is studying bc calculus and my sister studies with me at Juilliard as a dancer.
I have been summoned twice in Los Angeles County and indicated that I wanted to serve but would need an interpreter.
The first time I got the interpreter, but didn’t make it onto a case. It seemed that they had summoned lots of jurors for that day, but when the day came they only had a few cases. No noticeable discrimination there.
Second time, after I notified them about my handicap, they said they would get back to me. And they never did. Hmmm…