Sheldon Whitehouse Questions Judicial Nominees About The Importance Of Juries In Judicial System

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At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) questioned nominees about the importance of juries.

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Transcript

00:00Thanks.

00:06Can I first of all welcome, glad you're here, wish you well.

00:13This is a bit of an ordeal that you have to go through as part of the process.

00:19Let me ask you a little bit about juries, if I may, because I think we've had a concerted

00:27assault on the jury process by the Supreme Court across a whole variety of ways that

00:40has the effect of helping to immunize particularly big corporations from accountability to juries.

00:51If you're a big corporation and you can come into a president's office, to the Oval Office

00:57of a president who you helped get elected, you have very considerable clout to have your way.

01:05And if you can come here to Congress to a party that takes gobs of your dark money into

01:12its super PACs, you have very significant clout to have your way.

01:19But when you show up in a courtroom in front of a jury who it would be a criminal act to

01:26try to tamper with, it's a whole different battlefield in which you don't have those

01:34massive advantages of influence from money that you've spent.

01:42And going all the way back to the very founding and even before, people described the jury

01:50as an essential part of the governance process of our country.

01:57And the interference with trial by jury by the Crown was one of the causes of the revolution.

02:04So it's a pretty big deal, I think, that we have a healthy jury system.

02:12And we've seen some pretty impressive results recently from, you know, honest courtrooms

02:18that have stood up against the tide of bullying and propaganda that has consumed our nation.

02:24So I'd like to have each of you take a moment and describe your thoughts about the importance

02:30of the jury process and how you view it not just as a fact-finding appendage of the trial

02:42court, but as an institution in the Constitution in its own right.

02:48Ms. Campbell, why don't you go first, and then we'll turn to Judge Lipas.

02:56Senator, I share your beliefs about the importance of the jury system in our judiciary.

03:08The right to a jury is enshrined in both the Sixth and Seventh Amendments in the criminal

03:13and civil side.

03:16I believe that juries are underutilized in civil litigation.

03:22Thank you.

03:27Thank you, Senator.

03:28I agree with you that the right to a jury trial is a fundamental component of our democracy.

03:35One of the best parts of my current job as a trial court judge is working with juries.

03:40I love jury selection, and I love presiding over jury trials.

03:44And at the end of every jury trial, I do go back and speak with jurors.

03:48And what they tell me uniformly is that they found that it was an inspiring process, that

03:53they enjoyed being able to come into the justice system and see how it really works, and that

03:58they always take their oath to render a fair and impartial verdict very seriously.

04:05And so I agree with you.

04:06It's a critical component of what we do in the justice system.

04:09Well, thank you.

04:11In my role as U.S. Attorney and as State Attorney General, I did the same thing.

04:17I made it a practice to speak with juries as they were after they had delivered their

04:25verdict and also grand juries after they had concluded their term of service.

04:33And even where the substance of what they'd had to listen to was pretty horrifying, which

04:39sometimes was in, you know, child predator cases and so forth, as you said, they've inevitably

04:47felt inspired by the opportunity to serve, even in a kind of dingy jury room, even with

04:53snacks out of a coin machine, even with, you know, some of the ways in which we don't

04:57make them feel important.

04:59So I just hope you'll keep that spirit with you in the decisions that you make.

05:03It is founded bang on in the Constitution and also in the key documents that surrounded

05:10the revolutionary era.

05:12So thanks very much.

05:14And I will yield back to Chairman.

05:17Thank you, Senator Whitehouse.

05:18Senator Cruz.

05:20Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:22Judge Lopez, I'm going to quickly note there's a reason the Democrats have scheduled you

05:25on this panel, because you have a long pattern of sentencing criminal defendants to egregiously

05:31light sentences, including one child molester who molested a four-year-old and nine-year-old

05:37and you sentenced him to

Sheldon Whitehouse Questions Judicial Nominees About The Importance Of Juries In Judicial System

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