The trials that begin after the verdict
Ontario jurors offered no counselling after hearing often horrible cases
We need to take care of our jurors.
We need to provide them with more than instructions and sandwiches at the end of a murder trial. We place on them an enormous responsibility — to bear witness to a crime and sit in judgment of their peers — and yet in most cases we do nothing to help them deal with the psychological f allout of that daunting task.
On Monday, the final jurors were chosen for the Tim Bosma murder trial. There are seven men and seven women on the jury, which comprises two extra jurors who will sit through the trial and replace any juror who needs to be excused before the verdict is rendered.
Additionally there are two alternate jurors, one man and one woman, who will step in should any of the 14 jurors be excused before the Crown opens its case on Monday.
It will be the job of those jurors to decide the guilt or innocence of Dellen Millard, 30, and Mark Smich, 28, who are charged with first-degree murder.
Justice Andrew Goodman, who is presiding over the trial, has said that jury duty “is a full-time job.” And that there are really only two duties Canadian citizens have to their country: defending their nation in times of war and serving on a jury.
While Canada is only now beginning to recognize how badly we have failed to look after the psychological needs of our soldiers, we haven’t even begun to have a national conversation about how we abandon our jurors when we’re finished with them.
“I decided when I was chosen as a juror I was going to devote everything to it and do the best job I can do,” says the man who was elected foreman of the jury at the 2013 trial that convicted Jeremy Hall of firstdegree murder. Hall abducted, shot and burned Billy Mason.
The two-month trial was covered daily in The Spectator and Hall became notorious for his menacing behaviour in the courtroom.
The foreman does not want to be named because he lives in fear of Hall, who is serving a life sentence.
“It caused a strain in my marriage,” the foreman says. “My wife was afraid. She wanted me to find a way not to serve.”
One of the rules imposed on a jury is that members cannot discuss the case with anyone other than their fellow jurors. So when the foreman went home after a tough day at court, he couldn’t discuss it with his wife, who normally would be his support system. And there were many tough days. “Billy’s f amily was there,” he says. “That emotion of sympathy really came into my body a lot, but I had to suppress it because that would hinder my judgment.”
Sometimes evidence was graphic and disturbing. A witness described Hall drinking beer while Billy’s body burned, as though he was standing around a campfire.
Other times, evidence was disturbing because it “hit close to home.” A description of Billy’s body being driven in the back of a pickup truck north on Hwy. 6 to Hall’s farm and stopping for gas became “fairly intense” for the foreman.
“I use Hwy. 6 all the time,” he says. “I started to wonder if I may have been getting gas right beside that truck without realizing it.”
The dynamic of the j ury itself was stressful for the foreman. Suddenly, he was spending his days with 11 strangers. While sequestered for deliberation, they were the only people he was allowed to speak with. Jurors cannot have access to the outside world while deliberating.
“The jury becomes your support group,” he says. “They are your family.”
When the moment came to deliver its verdict, the jury was terrified.
“The intimidation, glares and stares Mr. Hall used when I stood up to read the verdict on behalf of the jury has impacted us all and we want it erased from our memory. When the verdict was read we, the jury, all looked at Mr. Hall together, knowing that his eyes could not reach all of us at one time, and together we stood up to him.”
That jury still gets together occasionally, the foreman says. They were never offered any counselling. There was no debrief. All they’ve ever had is each other.
“The jurors should never be forgotten,” he says. “The judicial system should look at what they put a person through and ask, ‘Are you OK?’”
Even now, when contacted for this story, the mention of Hall caused the foreman to have a sleepless night.
An American report from the National Center for State Courts found that 70 per cent of all jurors feel some stress, with jurors for murder trials having the highest occurrence rate. Stress, this report says, can often manifest itself as physical ailments, including headaches, nightmares and symptoms consistent with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Other studies refer to jurors suffering “vicarious trauma” after learning the details of violent crimes from witness testimony.
A 2007 study of British jurors also cited jury room tension and arguments as a cause of stress.
The Bosma case will likely pose some added challenges for its jury.
Tim took two strangers for a test drive of the truck he was selling on May 6, 2013 and never came home. Police say his charred remains were found on Millard’s farm in Waterloo Region.
The media coverage and public scrutiny is far more intense for this trial than it was on the Hall case. Jurors may feel pressure to render a verdict that satisfies the public. And the trial will be much longer. Also, at Hall’s trial there were no autopsy photos because his body was never found. There is, however, the potential for autopsy evidence to be called in the Bosma case.
In the U.S., some state courts have started offering counselling programs and critical incident debriefing sessions to jurors. During the Boston Marathon bombing trial, the judge ordered counselling to be made available to his jury.
In Canada, crime victims are offered support as they go through the justice system. So are some witnesses. Other people in the courtroom — lawyers, judges, court staff, even media — are there in a professional capacity and ought to have access to psychological help if needed through their work.
But jurors are just plucked out of their lives, dropped into the thick of it, and expected to deal with it.
In 2009, the Canadian Department of Justice Steering Committee on Justice Efficiencies and Access to the Justice System published its recommendations. Though its report acknowledges that “psychological care for jurors” is an issue to be examined, it concludes “it would be premature to submit recommendations regarding psychological care for jurors.”
That was seven years ago and the federal government still offers no psychological care to jurors after a trial.
“The department has not funded projects related to the psychological care of jurors,” confirms Ian McLeod, senior media adviser for the Department of Justice Canada.
In Ontario, jurors are not offered any support. Maybe we can learn something from Manitoba.
There the courts “provide critical incident stress debriefing to jurors,” says Suzanne Gervais, director of court operations for the Manitoba Department of Justice.
Jurors are also provided with a pamphlet about the debriefing and information on recognizing and managing their stress after serving.
“In situations that involve especially serious crimes, we may also have an expert on critical incident stress debriefing meet with jurors collectively and provide further information and advice,” says Gervais.
Last fall, Antheia Cooke was a juror on a Hamilton murder trial that lasted three weeks. She had never set foot in a courthouse until the day she was summoned for jury duty.
“I felt it weighed heavy on my heart and I had many sleepless nights,” she says. “I am an emotional person and one that would rather not pass judgment on another ... Listening to the family members cry in the courtroom tugged at my heart.”
The autopsy photos still haunt her dreams. “I see him, his face, in that photo still.” Though she wanted to talk to her husband about the experience, she couldn’t during the trial. And now that it is over, she copes by simply not talking about it.
She wishes she had been offered counselling on the day of the verdict.
“I was really in quite an emotional state at the end,” she says. “I imagine I will think about the victim and the murder for the rest of my life.”
Cooke is following the Bosma jury selection through the media and is keeping the jurors in her thoughts.
“I will hope that they are able to sleep and laugh at times and leave what they have seen and heard in the courtroom. I hope that they have supportive f amilies and good distractions. I hope that they will find things to help them get through that time, anything that can keep them grounded and not feel fully consumed by the case.”
It caused a strain in my marriage. My wife was afraid. She wanted me to find a way not to serve.
FOREMAN IN THE FIRST-DEGREE MURDER TRIAL OF JEREMY HALL. HALL WAS CONVICTED BY THE JURY IN 2013 OF KILLING BILLY MASON.