“It’s a shame that there aren’t more females on the jury”

Excerpt from an interview with Annie, who served on a jury involving sexual assault at the Hall of Justice in San Jose, CA in Fall 2021.

Annie: Um, I think that given the particular case, um, you know, it was a very, umm, it was a -- it was a tough case because it had to do with a child molestation case.

Interviewer: Mm hmm.

Annie: And I think that, in terms of the jury selection process, um, you know, they had already selected the 12 jury members, um, the weeks -- well, they already started the process weeks ago, and I think they had gone through a process, you know, it took, like, maybe three -- three more weeks to actually select the 12 jury members. So, by the time they got to me, it was more or less selecting the alternate jurors, and they selected four. And because it was -- I think, just because of the nature of the case.

Interviewer: Mm hm.

Annie: Um, I think it's unfortunate, and I think it's just kind of how...you know, because of the nature of the case, they ended up with getting nine males and three females as a 12-jury member, and then all the alternate jurors, you know, there were three males and myself as the only female. And I think that, you know, in most cases, you know, you want -- you want a...a good mix, you know, six males and six females to give it more of a balanced jury. But I think in this particular case, um, you know, they weeded out and, uh, most of the females were excused for the jury member just because they had been directly impacted -- you know, they had a previous experience where they were sexually assaulted or molested or -- or knew someone that were impacted, or they were -- they worked with children, and it would be tough for them to be, um, not as biased towards, you know, and more lenient towards the prosecutor. And I think that that's unfortunate that that was the case because of those experiences. It was because of the type of the case that they were excused. And I think it's unfortunate because I think, you know, you need to have a good balance, a good mix of males and females on the jury. I think in this particular case, because a lot of, you know, the, um, sexual assaults happen to females and not males. And I think that because it happens to a lot more females, you know, the females were excused or because they work directly with children -- they were social workers or elementary school teachers, you know, they worked directly with kids. And so, they, more or less, were -- had more of an emotional attachment to young kids.

Interviewer: Right.

Annie: And I think that's kind of unfortunate that they had to be excused because, you know, even when -- after the case is over, and I talked to one of the jury members about the deliberation process for them. And they -- and she said, you know that two of the females actually had to explain to some of the males about, you know, just the minds of how a, you know, young females think and what their experiences are like. And you know, they give color to the experiences and to the thought processes which, you know, males don't think about in that way.

Interviewer: Right.

Annie: And so, you know, when males think about in the court case, it's like -- or in many things in life, it's more -- not to dimi -- not to minimize how -- how males think, but more, you know, the way that our minds are biologically, you know, how we are --

Interviewer: Mm hm.

Annie: Males tend to think more black and white, and females more -- we tend to think more in relational terms. I think there's more, I guess, more the depth and breadth in how we think, right?

Interviewer: Mm hmm.

Annie: And I think it's a shame that there aren't more females on the jury because it would lend, you know, a different lens. And, you know, thank goodness that there were, you know, three females on the jury member or at least two really good ones where, you know, they talk through the processes and kind of, you know, almost pretty much convince one of the -- one of the males who had a lot of doubts in one of the testimonies.

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Related research:

Clair, Matthew, and Alix S. Winter. Forthcoming. “The collateral consequences of criminal legal association during jury selection.” Law & Society Review.