Stress of jury duty often overlooked

Re: Jurors in Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting trial must manage stress of the massacre on their own

As a forensic examiner and expert witness for more than 30 years, I thank you for bringing attention to a crucial but overlooked issue in criminal justice: juror stress.

Twelve ordinary citizens must put their lives on hold. They are summoned to a courthouse, often reluctantly, interrogated on their lifestyles and beliefs and are presented, sometimes for weeks on end, with testimony and evidence that’s complex, grisly, frightening, boring or confusing — often all in the same day.

With little expertise in science or forensics, jurors are typically not allowed to take notes or ask questions during trial and must absorb and analyze testimony from witnesses under adversarial cross-examination with objections and interruptions, and can’t discuss trial matters with anyone. They must comprehend a judge’s complex legal instructions and spend hours, or days, deliberating and rendering a verdict with life-long or lifeand-death consequences for a defendant. They may endure this only to learn of a last-minute settlement or plea deal that nullifies their efforts.

For this, they get $7 to $15 a day and free parking.

Jurors report anxiety, guilt, self-doubt, fear, flashbacks, sleep disturbance, impaired family relationships and sometimes post-traumatic stress disorder, yet virtually no court systems offer mental health counseling to jurors. They are paid a fraction of minimum wage for one of the most cognitively and emotionally grueling tasks imaginable, then dismissed with a wave and a thank you. Yet anecdotal reports and empirical research show that most jurors take their task very seriously and devote their full efforts to a just verdict.

We owe it to them and the system to make this task as humane and efficient as possible. Citizens, understand that jurors struggle mightily to find the truth.

Laurence Miller,