From my recollection, I’ve never entered a criminal courtroom. In fact, it’s very rare that I’ve actually been to a courthouse. The three times I remember going are:

  • Boy Scouts – I went with my troop to see a courtroom and talk about law and what goes on in the judicial system
  • Speeding Ticket – I decided to actually fight a speeding ticket I got when I was driving on the Beltway 8 ramp coming onto I-45 on the Gulf Freeway. I was blatantly guilty and the court charged me an extra $50 for the 10 minutes it took for me to fight the ticket. What a waste of my time and money.
  • Family Court – My dad brought my brother and me to the courthouse when my parents were getting a divorce. We really didn’t need to be there but he felt it was appropriate for us to attend and see what was going on. I’m sure part of it was that we were symbolism of what would be lost if it was finalized.

Yesterday afternoon I finally entered into my first criminal courtroom. In fact, I sat on my first panel as a potential jury member for a criminal court case. I am one of about 90 potential jurors to be chosen for this specific case. Best of all, even if I do get picked, the longest this case should last is about a week. I don’t have a choice either way of if I’m picked or not, but I might as well make the best of it.

We received a one page questionnaire with a list of information to fill out including our biases and history into law. I finished every item, but one question said the following (paraphrased):

“Will age, race, or religious preference affect the outcome of your decision?”

This question bothers me for several reasons. If I say no, can I objectively say that none of these variables will influence or affect what i think of the defendant(s) when decision time is on hand? I try to be very practical when it comes to making decisions. I’ve always felt my rationalizations are logical, even more so than others in their rationalizations. But during a recent discussion I had a few months ago, I came to realize that complete objectiveness in decisions is virtually impossible unless you are a robot. Many factors, including nurture and subliminal messages amongst many others, can influence how you think or feel about any subject. There is plenty of evidence that bias and subjectiveness influence our decisions, especially during arguments.

Will these factors influence my decision? Of course they will in an open setting where I see and hear the defendant(s) and testimony. I am human after all. But I will try very hard to be practical and logical about these decisions.

When I decided to change the answer to that question, my answer was “maybe” with the note, “it depends on how fundamentalist they are”.