Doodling and deliberating.

February 19, 2008 7:50 AM

The American Gallery of Juror Art. Deliberations, a blog on juries and jury trials, solicits art made by folks while on jury duty. Some dude drew a sweet bike. Another had detailed notes on his fellow jurors, divided into "knuckleheads," "reasonable people," and "who knows." (Original here.) It's a small collection at the moment, but hopefully more to come.
posted by chinston (10 comments total)

The perspective is a bit off on the chain ring, but otherwise that is a sweet bike.
posted by drezdn at 8:00 AM on February 19, 2008

The "another" link from the post brings to mind what has always worried me about the jury system.

This is a very nice sketch, and this is too.
posted by The Loch Ness Monster at 8:03 AM on February 19, 2008

Fascinating post, and a great concept.
posted by misha at 8:09 AM on February 19, 2008

Is it jury duty week or something? Maryland just sent me the questionnaire, which probably means I'll get called in in the next few months.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:00 AM on February 19, 2008

This is neat. I wonder, sometimes, about the experience of jurors on dry, but drawn-out, civil cases. I've never had to serve on a jury, although I've been called three times, which is probably for the best; I'd be a miserable juror.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:20 AM on February 19, 2008

I've served on a jury only once, and while the trial was going on another juror on my panel was drawing sketches throughout the trial (I was unaware). After the trial was over (thrown out of court before deliberations), the juror gave the judge the sketches.

Weeks later I received a letter from the judge discussing why the trial was thrown out and he included copies of all the sketches. Though the trial, a bogus medical malpractice suit, was a bunch of B.S., I was also impressed with both juror/sketcher and the judge, who clearly agonized over not allowing the trial to continue. Wish I still had those sketches...
posted by mcstayinskool at 11:54 AM on February 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

wait, mcstayinskool, was he sketching the issues of the case, like proving it was physically impossible to happen? Or was he just sketching bicycles and stuff?
posted by fermezporte at 12:14 PM on February 19, 2008

Er, yeah, I'm confused. Separate questions: Were the sketches related to the trial? And if the case was bogus to begin with, why should the judge agonize over tossing it? Seems like not agonizing would be the expected result, then.
posted by chinston at 2:04 PM on February 19, 2008

Wait, I'm confused for another reason...they took my notebook away from me after I finished jury duty, said that we didn't get to keep our notes. Of course I had sketched on a notebook that they gave me - they gave one to each juror. And it was only in the margins of the notes I took.

Oh well, it was nothing as interesting as these.
I was after all, paying attention.
(Honest! Doodles only occurred during sidebar lawyer judge chats.)
posted by batgrlHG at 9:49 PM on February 19, 2008

This was a great post -- I often forget how many valuable ways I could spend downtime, so now I am going to commit to drawing every day to see what happens.
posted by loiseau at 11:37 PM on February 19, 2008