Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 718, Serving on a Jury.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 718.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
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This episode is a dialogue between Samantha and Jin Ho.
It is talking about being on a jury, a group of people in a courtroom who decide whether someone is innocent or guilty.
Let's get started.
It was okay.
The judge swore us in, and then we listened to the beginning of the prosecutor's case.
Two witnesses testified.
That sounds exciting.
I'd love to be on a jury.
Why didn't they sequester you?
That's what they do on TV.
We didn't need to be sequestered.
This isn't a high profile case.
Hey, guess what?
I was selected as foreman.
Wow, that's a lot of responsibility.
It's no big deal.
I think I was selected because nobody else wanted the job.
What'll happen tomorrow?
We'll hear the rest of the prosecutor's case and then the defense attorney will put on her case.
I'm sure the entire thing will be over in three or four days.
Were there any interesting exhibits?
Will the defendant take the stand?
No, no interesting exhibit so far, and I'm not sure if the defendant will take the stand.
You're supposed to be impartial when you're on a jury, remember?
Sure.
Oh, sure.
I'd only convict the guilty defendants.
Just like on TV.
Samantha begins by asking Jin Ho, How was your first day on a jury?
A jury, J-U-R-Y is is a group of people in a courtroom in a legal case who decide whether someone is innocent or guilty, whether they did the crime or did not do the crime.
Juries can also be used to decide whether one person has wronged another person and has to pay them money.
Juries can be used for both criminal cases cases involving someone breaking the law as well as civil cases cases involving people who have damaged or done damage to someone else and that person is trying to get money back from them.
Jinho says it was okay.
The judge swore us in, and then we listened to the beginning of the prosecutor's case.
The judge is the man or woman who is sort of the boss of the courtroom.
When you go to a court, there'll be one person who is in charge, who decides who talks or who can say what.
This person sometimes makes a decision about whether someone is guilty or innocent in some courtrooms.
But for most cases there is a group of citizens what we call the jury, typically 12 of them who make the decision.
So the judge swore the jury in.
Swore is the past tense of the verb swear.
To swear in someone or to swear someone in means to make them repeat a statement, a sentence or two where they promise to do something.
For a jury.
They promise to listen to the facts of the case and make an honest determination, an honest decision about whether the person is guilty or not.
For someone who is a witness, someone who is going to be giving evidence in the case that person is sworn in to tell the truth.
The traditional phrase is, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
That is, only the truth.
So the judge swore in the jury...
And then we listened to the beginning of the prosecutor's case, Jinho says.
I should mention that swear has a couple of other meanings in English as well.
Some important meanings.
Take a look at the learning guide for those.
The prosecutor is the lawyer, the attorney, who works for the government.
And his or her job is to show that this person is guilty.
The person who works for and defends the person who is being accused of a crime, that is, the person that they are trying to put in jail.
That attorney is called the defense attorney.
So you have a defense attorney and a prosecuting attorney in a criminal case.
In a civil case, you have a plaintiff someone who's making a complaint and a defendant someone who is defending themselves against this complaint.
Well, in this case, we have a criminal case, so there's a prosecutor from the government.
After they were sworn in, Jin Ho says that two witnesses testified.
A witness is a person who has some knowledge about the event, or in this case, the crime.
To testify means to formally make a statement, to go in front of the judge and the jury and to say what you think happened or what you know about a certain case.
Samantha says, To sequester, S-E-Q-U-E-S-T-E-R, means to isolate.
Sometimes, when there is a very important case, the judge doesn't want the jury to become influenced by the newspapers and other people talking about the case.
So they will sequester the jury.
They'll put them in a hotel, take away their televisions, not allow them to read the newspaper until the trial is over.
This is not a common procedure.
It's not done very often.
It's only done for very famous cases cases, that is, that are getting a lot of publicity, a lot of newspaper coverage.
Here in Los Angeles, the O.J.
Simpson murder trial 20 years ago was a case where they had a sequestered jury.
Samantha says that's what they do on TV meaning well, that's what television shows show happening, but of course that's not reality.
Jinho says we didn't need to be sequestered.
This isn't a high profile case.
Something that is high profile is is something that is receiving a lot of attention because it is important or involves someone famous.
Celebrities, famous people here in Los Angeles are always getting into trouble with drugs or alcohol, and sometimes they get caught by the police and they have to go to court, for That would be an example of a high-profile case, something that everyone is paying attention to.
Gene Ho says, hey, guess what?
I was selected as foreman.
The foreman, F-O-R-E-M-A-N, is the leader of the jury.
He or she is the person who is in charge of the jury, helping the jury make a decision.
They still just have one vote, but the jury selects a leader so that you can have one person leading the discussion during the time when they discuss whether the person is guilty or innocent.
After the end of all the testimony, of all the evidence.
That period is called deliberations, when they sit around in a group by themselves to decide whether the person was guilty or not.
Samantha says, wow, that's a lot of responsibility.
Jin Ho says, it's no big deal, meaning it wasn't that important.
Samantha says, Jin-ho says, And then the defense attorney will put on her case.
Remember, the defense attorney is the person defending the person who is being accused of the crime.
Jinho says, Samantha says, were there any interesting exhibits?
Exhibits in a courtroom case are objects or documents related to the case that are brought in and shown to the jury and discussed by the attorneys.
Exhibit has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some more of those.
Samantha asks if there were any interesting exhibits.
She then asks The defendant is the person who is being defended by the defense attorney, the person being accused of the crime that the government wants to put in jail?
To take the stand means to stand up, actually to go into a chair and sit and give an official statement about what happened.
You can take the stand as a witness.
You know something, and so you go and you tell what you know.
Or you could take the stand as the defendant, the person who is being accused of the crime.
Jinho says no, no interesting exhibits so far and I'm not sure if the defendant will take the stand.
Samantha says To put a criminal behind bars means to punish someone who has broken the law by putting them in jail.
Of course, that's what a jury does.
If they decide the person is guilty, they are putting him or her behind bars, that is, in a prison, in a jail.
Jinho says, you're supposed to be impartial when you're on a jury, remember?
To be impartial, I-M-P-A-R-T-I-A-L, means to be able to listen to what other people say and make a fair decision, not one based on your own ideas, not biased.
We might also say to make an objective decision.
Samantha says, oh sure, I'd only convict the guilty defendants, just like on TV.
To convict means to find someone guilty in a courtroom trial.
To be guilty, as you probably know, is the opposite of innocent, meaning you've done something wrong, you've broken the law.
On the television shows we watch, of course, only the bad people.
The guilty people are convicted, are put behind bars.
In the real world, it's not quite that easy.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
How was your first day on a jury?
It was okay.
The judge swore us in, and then we listened to the beginning of the prosecutor's case.
Two witnesses testified.
That sounds exciting.
I'd love to be on a jury.
Why didn't they sequester you?
That's what they do on TV.
We didn't need to be sequestered.
This isn't a high-profile case.
Hey, guess what?
I was selected as foreman.
Wow, that's a lot of responsibility.
It's no big deal.
I think I was selected because nobody else wanted the job.
What'll happen tomorrow?
We'll hear the rest of the prosecutor's case, and then the defense attorney will put on her case.
I'm sure the entire thing will be over in three or four days.
Were there any interesting exhibits?
Will the defendant take the stand?
No, no interesting exhibits so far, and I'm not sure if the defendant will take the stand.
I wish I were in your place.
I'd love to put a criminal behind bars.
You're supposed to be impartial when you're on a jury, remember?
Oh, sure.
I'd only convict the guilty defendants, just like on TV.
I'm not impartial when it comes to scriptwriters.
I really like our scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say.
Thanks, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Education and Development.
