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Friday, August 25, 2006
Ind. Courts - "More young adults are serving on juries."
Following up on its Sunday story about the deeper jury pool (access ILB entry here), the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an editorial today on one of the results - "More young adults are serving on juries." Some quotes:
The effort to broaden jury pools in Allen County has had an apparently unintended result that should be viewed as a benefit: More young adults are serving on juries. * * *The appearance of more young adults, even high school seniors, for jury duty has several benefits, including:
• Criminal defendants tend to be younger than the overall population, and including young adults is a big step toward forming a jury of the defendant’s peers.
• A jury that includes a cross-section of the community serves justice well. Having more youths helps diversify the jury just as much as having a range of people from different races and socio-economic backgrounds.
• At a time when many people lament a supposed lack of public involvement and lessening interest in the affairs of government among youth, thrusting young adults into the court system is great exposure to both civic duty and the courts system.
Though some criminal justice officials fear youths will be more liberal in judging accused offenders, there is really no reason to believe young adults will set a lower level of standards than their older colleagues on a jury.
Getting more young adults on juries was not the primary goal of the jury reform effort, but it is a positive benefit.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 25, 2006 11:03 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts