Exorcising Presumptions? Judges and Attorneys Contemplate “Felon-Juror Inclusion” in Maine

Abstract

This exploratory study is the first to examine how courtroom personnel conceive of and navigate Maine’s unique policy of felon-juror inclusion. Findings derived from interviews with trial judges and trial attorneys in Maine, the only U.S. jurisdiction that does not restrict a convicted felon’s opportunity to serve as a juror, reveal that participants ostensibly reject the criminology of the other, instead viewing former offenders as individual fellow citizens who contribute to and benefit from their inclusion in the jury process. These views also tend to shape jury selection in Maine, as participants reported taking a case-specific, personalized approach to the screening of felon-jurors. For felon-jurors with a sexual offense, however, some participants refused to acknowledge the possibility of reformation, intimating that all such offenders lack the character to engage in the jury process. In sum, this study suggests that among courtroom personnel in Maine, the criminology of the other has little influence on their conceptualizations and treatment of almost all potential felon-jurors.

KEYWORDS:

• Convicted felon
• juror
• jury selection
• criminology of the other

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Mona Lynch and Dr. William Thompson for encouraging me to pursue this project and reviewing multiple drafts of my work. They are both remarkable scholars and even better mentors. I would also like to thank Professor James Burke, who was instrumental in making this research possible in Maine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Arizona: first-time offenders from repeat offenders; Colorado: grand juries from petit juries; Nevada: violent offenders from nonviolent offenders; Oregon: civil cases from criminal cases.

2 From 1821 to 1954, Maine law mandatorily excluded convicted felons from jury service (see Maine Revised Statutes, 1840, Chapter X.

3 Title 21 of the 1987 Maine Revised Statutes § 112. In an email on November 11, 2011, Sue Wright, reference librarian for the Maine State Law and Legislature Reference Library, confirmed that Maine has never taken away convicted felons’ right to vote.

4 One county in Maine has two Superior Courts: Aroostook County.

5 The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is the final court of appeal in Maine and hears appeals from Maine’s Superior Courts.

6 Maine’s Federal District Court consists of six District Court (trial court) judges and two magistrates. District Court judges oversee federal trials in Maine.

7 For purposes of anonymity, I used pseudonyms for all interviewees when reporting results.

Additional information

Funding

The American Bar Association (No. 01-2010) and the National Science Foundation (No. SES-1228653) funded this project (IRB No. 2010-7558).