[Verginius Rufus]

I have been on three juries. The first one involved a young black man accused of dealing drugs. He decided to take a plea bargain before we were to start deliberating. The second one involved a black man who had robbed a liquor store. The chief witness against him was a black woman who happened to be in the store at the time of the robbery. I was an alternate so did not take part in the deliberations, but I was told by someone I knew who was one of the regular jurors that a black woman on the jury was very strongly for conviction (their deliberations only took an hour).

The third time it was a civil case with only 8 jurors. The plaintiff was a black woman who had been fired from her job for incompetence. She was suing for back pay and hefty punitive damages. The employer wisely has as their lawyer a very articulate black lawyer. It only took us 45 minutes to decide for the company. At least one of the jurors was black, maybe more, but we reached a consensus quickly.

[Rockingham]

I have been on juries twice. In both instances, I was surprised at how a group of ordinary people could collectively arrive at a sound decision. If done properly, the jury system works reasonably well, most of the time.