Every year, millions of Americans receive a jury summons, but how many of us truly understand the responsibility that comes with deciding another person’s fate?
In this episode, we explore one of the foundations of American democracy: trial by jury. We’ll hear from a juror who struggled with the weight of a guilty verdict, a man who was wrongfully convicted and sent to death row, and a former felon who argues that America’s jury system excludes crucial voices.
GUESTS
Kristin Campbell, Senior Fellow, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) (https://www.pacefunders.org/).
Herman Lindsey, Executive Director of Witness to Innocence and a former death row prisoner (https://www.witnesstoinnocence.org/).
James Binnall, attorney, professor at California State University Long Beach, and author of “Twenty Million Angry Men: The Case for Including Convicted Felons in Our Jury System” (https://www.ucpress.edu/books/twenty-million-angry-men/paper).
Valerie Hans, Professor of Law at Cornell University and one of the nation’s leading jury researchers (https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/valerie-hans/).
CHAPTERS
(0:00) Introduction
(1:05) Kristin Campbell Jury Shock
(3:55) Who Counts as a Peer
(5:42) Deliberating the Gun Charge
(7:32) Verdict Weight and Aftermath
(10:35) Defendant Perspective Herman Lindsey
(16:57) How Juries Get Skewed
(20:27) Felons Banned from Juries
(25:32) Binnall Research on Inclusion
(34:43) Host Jury Story and Fixes
(49:47) Rebuilding Trust in Juries
