well Toby have you ever served on a jury in a criminal trial
no i've always wanted to and uh but they never uh my name never seems to come up
well i'm not sure whether you're the lucky one or i am because i have done it and uh
uh
what did you think of the process
well we had a hung jury so i i came away really disappointed in the process or the least the people involved i was very frustrated about that
how hung was it i mean what was the vote
i i think it was something like oh ten to three ten to two or nine to three or something like that
uh-huh
which really means that if if we hadn't of had to have unanimous decision
we would uh
would have completed our mission if you will
yeah yeah but it's
i don't know i i've always thought that the fact the the fact that it has to be unanimous means that there wasn't any doubt in people's minds
and if it uh if in like in your case if there's two people who who weren't convinced that the fellow was guilty
then or innocent i you didn't say which way it went
i think it was ten people
no it's the funny
it can go either way if there's two people that aren't convinced one way or the other then that's
um you know i don't i think one one change that might be worthwhile would be to say that you need unanimous verdict to find somebody guilty
but but if you don't get a unanimous guilty verdict then they're innocent
because the prosecution didn't prove their case to all twelve people
yeah
um
well the the crazy thing about this trial was that the guy said yes i did this i did this armed robbery but he wanted a jury to decide his sentence
and we couldn't even agree on a sentence
huh
huh
i i mean i was ready to put the guy guy away forever but i was dealing with people who said well if it were my son i'd want him to have another chance
i know
that's ridiculous
um here in Georgia the only time that the jury gets involved in sentencing at all is in capital punishment cases
oh is that right otherwise the judge does it
the judge does all sentencing for everything except capital cases here
do you think that's appropriate or should it be changed
i think it is appropriate i think that the judge
probably has a much better uh feel for uh what sentences other people who have committed comparable punishment crimes have received and what the guidelines are and uh
i i think that by the time you get to that point all the facts have been settled the person's been convicted and the punishment should be
well a fairly objective uh thing uh i don't know if there really needs to be all that much discretion in sentencing once you've determined what crime the person is guilty of
yeah
well and i do not know if it is this way it all states or not but in Texas there are severe limitations on what the jury can know know about the the prior history of the alleged criminal
um-hum
and also what they can be told about the effects of sentencing Like if you give somebody fifteen years they'll be out in three weeks or something like that
i maybe it's not quite that radical but but those things are not those are things are kept from the jury
yeah here in Georgia when they have the jury involved in sentencing like in a capital case the prosecution is not allowed to say that if you if you give them life he'll be out in seven years that's against the rules
yeah why
uh but in with the judge making all the other sentences
uh course the judge has open to him all of the previous criminal history uh
uh and uh obviously the judge knows what all the guidelines uh or what all the effects can be of parole and things like that
uh-huh
um well i think the
the the reform of the jury process that i would like most to see
is for juries to be required to be informed of their right to judge not only the facts of the case but also the law itself
uh juries and lot of people are not aware of this but it is
it's part of the common law and it they really is in Georgia it is part of the state Constitution and it is in the Constitution of a lot of states that if the jury
uh believes that the law that someone is being tried on is unjust the law itself is unjust the jury can refuse to convict the person
uh and this is sort of the people's uh last line of defense against governments
huh
