Often
those who have to attend at a term of court sit about with nothing to
do until they are actually drawn on a case, although they receive
their fees for attendance. There is the story of the ignorant workman
who was serving his first time on a panel.
"Why," he said, "I was sitting around all day worryin' about my lost
working day. If I'd known I was getting two dollars for doing nothing
I might have been enjoying myself."
The clerk puts his hand into the wooden wheel after the names have
been well mixed and draws out one card after another, calling the
names aloud until twelve jurors have been called to the box.
To the entirely new spectator there is a certain mystification about
this drawing of the jury from the wooden drum with the handle for
turning. To the initiated it may seem rather humorous, like the
shuffling of the cards of justice, the drawing from a hat, or the
turning of a roulette wheel. It is, however, significant of one of the
great principles of Anglo-Saxon law, and that is a trial by a court of
average men selected from among the ordinary citizens and drawn on the
particular case by chance.
As each juror's name is called he comes forward and his appearance is
not lost by counsel.
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