interview a person who has either (a) actively sought to be excused from jury service or (b) served on a jury.

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Interview a Juror Assignment

For this assignment, you will interview a person who has either (a) actively sought to be excused from jury service or (b) served on a jury. If you can’t find someone who meets either one of these criteria you may interview someone who was excused (simply not picked for a jury, but did not actively try to get out of jury service) or someone who has never been called for jury duty. You will conduct a short interview of someone matching one of these descriptions, no more than 1 hour in length. You only need to interview 1 individual. You may not “interview” yourself or someone currently enrolled in this course.

After conducting your interview, write a summary of their responses. Use the label “Person A” to discuss your interviewee. Give descriptive information about them (such as age or education) only if you think it is relevant. Do not identify them by name or discuss your relationship with them (this could reveal their identity). Be careful not to influence their answers by giving your opinion or leading them to answer in any particular way.

Address the following components in your response. But, feel free to include any additional information from your interview that you believe is relevant and important.

Interview Part 1 (Views of the Jury System)

Questions to address: • What is their opinion of jury service and the jury system in the United States?

Interview Part 2 (Jury Service Experience)

Questions to address: • What was their general jury service experience (e.g. how long)? • What was the voir dire process like? Were they picked for a trial? • Describe their general feeling/attitude regarding the trial. Do not go too specific here; no

identifying information should be included. This is just a general reaction to the trial process.

• How could their experience have been improved (if possible)? • Did their experience affect/change their opinion of juries and jury service? If so, how?

* If the individual actively sought to be excused:

• Why did they want to be excused from jury service? • Have they ever served? Did that experience change their opinion of jury service? • Would they serve in the future?

* If the individual was excused:

• Have they ever served? Did that experience change their opinion of jury service? • Would they serve in the future?

*If the individual has never been called for jury duty:

• If called, would the individual wish to serve on a jury? Why or why not?

• What do they expect the process would entail? • If they had the opportunity to serve, do they think their perception of jury service

would change?

Application of Course Material

In this section, you should tie content from your interview to course material (e.g. readings, media, lectures, etc.). That is, view your interviewee’s responses through the lens of what you’ve learned about juries in the United States. Make sure to cite in-text and provide a reference list (information regarding how to cite material included below).

What Did You Learn?

Some individuals have never experienced serving on a jury before, either they’ve never had the opportunity or they were dismissed from service. This assignment gave you the opportunity to hear from someone who has either had the opportunity of serving on a jury or actively sought to be excused from jury service.

• What did you learn from your interview? What did you learn about public sentiment and opinion regarding the jury system? Explain.

• The jury system is guaranteed in 3 of the first 10 Amendments. It’s an important landmark of our democracy and provides citizens a civic engagement opportunity. Why do you think some individuals try so hard to be excused?

Grading rubric for the paper: Interview Part 1 6 points Interview Part 2 6 points Application of Course Material 6 points What Did You Learn? 6 points Grammar, punctuation, organization, citations (in text and reference list)

6 points

Total = 30 This assignment is to be submitted ONLINE to the corresponding assignment folder (under Activities tab). See the syllabus for my late policy. Pay careful attention to spelling, sentence construction, and punctuation. For full credit, this paper MUST be typed, double-spaced, between 2 and 3 pages in length, 12-point font, and 1-inch margins. Please know: The university uses electronic systems for the purposes of detecting plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. In this particular class, your assignments will be run through Turnitin to detect for any possible plagiarism from other sources. Finding Academic Articles: PSU’s Criminology and Criminal Justice Reference Page: http://guides.library.pdx.edu/ccj

Citations:

All information that is not your own must be cited; quotes, summaries, and paraphrasing should be used effectively (see this website for help; https://www.pdx.edu/writing-center/guided-tour- step-one-understanding-an-assignment). The majority of your assignment should be written using your own thoughts, words, reactions, and writing (i.e. not direct quotes from resources). The Purdue Owl website is a helpful tool when considering how to cite information that is not your own (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/). You can also find information on citing sources at the PSU library website (http://library.pdx.edu/research/citing-sources/). Information on how to cite legal cases can be found here (http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/10/citing-court-decisions-in-apa-style.html).