Replies

I agree with your view that it makes little difference as to whether jurors are male or female.

I had jury duty this week. It was a child molesting case. The girl was 7 to 9 years old when abused by her uncle. The guy and his wife were into S & M.

When the kid was finally able to spill the beans (at age 9) she described exactly what happened to her with too much detail to be explained away by an over active imagination. Besides the acts done to her she described in detail porno, ropes, locking wrist straps, vibrators, and other sex toys and what was done to her with them. The police found everything. A doctor's exam showed hymen damage, which the doctor said could only be caused by penetration.

I thought it was slam dunk, he's guilty. But others (mostly men) thought not and maybe 3 jurors weren't sure. One man said that as a former teacher he knows that even little kids know all about this stuff and accusing people of child abuse is common. He complained the man's life would be ruined, but even there is some truth to the allegations kids are resilient and she'll get over it. No big deal. Men and women agreed with him.

Oh, and the jury thought it was really funny that one of the jurors had the same porno in his collection.

We let a child molester go free. Male /female made no difference in the jury room.

How awful! What a discouraging story! I was on a jury in a criminal case, but it was, thankfully, unrelated to child molestation. But it did have a man abusing his girlfriend and there was a child around. We had one woman who wanted to right all the past wrongs by convicting the man, but the rest of us just overruled her. We weren't convinced he was innocent, but the prosecutor just didn't make the case. Presumption of innocence really means something. But the women on our jury were just as concerned to see justice done in THIS case as the men. No difference except the one, and we took care of her.