A Trial by Jury

De: D. Graham Burnett

Narrado por: D. Graham Burnett

Jury duty happens to everyone. When the call came to Graham Burnett, a young historian, he had a shock in store. A Trial by Jury is his startling account of how performing this familiar civic duty challenged him in ways he never thought possible and turned into one of the most consuming experiences of his life.

Burnett begins with the story of the trial: a body with multiple stab wounds found in a New York apartment, intimations of cross-dressing, male prostitution, mistaken identity. And then, the unexpected drama: Burnett finds himself appointed the foreman, with the responsibility of leading the increasingly frenetic deliberations within the black box of the jury room.

Soon he is sequestered—which is to say marooned—with eleven others, a group of people who view their task, and often one another, with palpable distaste. Among his colleagues: a vacuum-cleaner repairman cum urban missionary, a young actress, and a man apparently floundering in a borderland between real life and daytime television.

As Burnett steers the contentious politics of their temporary no-exit society toward the verdict, he undergoes an unexpected awakening. Having been plucked from his cozy nest in the world of books and ideas and then plunged into the netherworld of lurid crime, he learns the limits of what intellect alone can accomplish in the real world. Above all, Burnett discovers firsthand the terrifying ultimate power of the state and the agonies of being asked to do justice within the rigid dictates of the law.

Part true crime, part political treatise, part contemplation of right, wrong, and the power of words, A Trial by Jury is a mesmerizing narrative of one man’s encounter with crime and punishment, American style. It profoundly affects one’s sense of the privileges—and the perils—of citizenship.©2001 D. Graham Burnett; (P)2001 Random House Inc., Random House AudioBooks, a Division of Random House Inc.

defense lawyer must read

confirmed all my suspicions about what really happens in that room...tremendously helpful tool. thank you

Every lawyer and attorney should read this

the incredible difficulties of being a juror and having to follow strict rules is described so succinct and with great detail and offers an alternative that I think would make jury duty more palatable

thoughtful account

Trial By Jury is a book that entertains and educates. Burnett is modest about his role as the jury foreman in a murder trial and the deep sense of responsibility he brought to the role. This should be required reading for students at the high school or college level. It is a frightening prospect of how easily the work of a jury can go awry were it not for the willingness of a few good souls willing and able to take the work seriously. Four stars only because I struggled to grasp the facts of the crime itself, but that may well be part of the message and no fault of anyone's. A quibble. This is an important work as well as fascinating. I could only imagine the disintegration that might've happened, had the jury not been able to reach a verdict after four days. Like every good and important work, this account raises more questions than it settles.

sloooooooooooow

The author was very detailed in the jury decision making process. It seemed to drag a great deal to the point you could fast forward through a great deal and the jury would be at the same place. Someone unfamiliar with the judicial system may enjoy this more than a person who is well versed in trials.

Gripping and Thought-Provoking!

I don’t think I’ve ever thought to put the adjectives “gripping,” “earnest,” and “erudite” together in describing a text, but that is manifestly what this (audio)book was for me: a fascinating behind-the-scenes legal drama and a searching inquiry into the meaning of the law, of justice, and of truth on earth and in the heavens above.

Burnett’s richly described account opens the closed doors of the jury room to present a facet of society that is surprisingly inaccessible and opaque, given its obvious importance.

The narrator is an academic used to living the life of the mind, professionally obliged to raise hard questions, and not to answer them. But as the foreman of a jury in a gruesome murder trial, he finds himself embroiled in a discussion in which answers cannot be endlessly deferred; a place where decisions of immense weight must be made once and for all.

Burnett’s detailed account of the trial is accompanied by an internal monologue in which we hear him grappling with abstractions—capital “R” Reason, the state, the law, the judicial system, the way we place justice in the hands of ordinary citizens—that take on strange and serious new meanings when instantiated in the high-stakes world of a murder trial.

The whole thing combines the suspense of a law procedural with the provocations of a deep and probing philosophical inquiry. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time.

And a final note: the performance was well-paced and entertaining. All around excellent.