From: Eton Ben-Ami <ebenami@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.religion.quaker
Date: 19 Nov 92 05:57 PST
Subject: CO to jury duty?  150 lines
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1744600034:000:8345
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!ebenami    Nov 19 05:57:00 1992


Dear Friends:

	Reading the recent articles on judicial oaths and
experiences with courts has encouraged me to speak from my own
condition.  My belief in the peace testimony makes me quite
radical in comparison to the meeting I attend.  Some months ago, I
considered putting in a letter requesting membership, but this
issue has led me to hesitate.  I have become quite alienated from
nice, liberal Friends, who proclaim the peace testimony but use
the police and the courts, dismissing peace for what they view to
be justice.  At FGC this summer, I heard the slogan, "If you want
peace, work for justice."  I think they have the terms of the
equation inverted.  We will probably never see justice in our
lives, but we can hope to come to peace with ourselves and every
other person -- though they may not always be in a condition to
know or sense that our peace with them.

	Here are the circumstances under which these differences
became apparent.  Last summer I received my first jury call in
many years.  It brought the matter to my conscience, and I decided
that I could not participate and feel comfortable in my heart.
Unfortunatly, there was no conscientious objector box to check off
on this screening card and I did not fall into any category of
exemption.  In speaking about it with more experienced Friends
from my meeting, I felt they regarded jury duty as similar to
taxation, rather than similar to service in the armed forces.  The
meeting has been strained in the support of its members, two of
whom are quite ill and require frequent attention.  I got the
clear impression that if I wanted to pursue this witness, now was
not a particularly good time to ask for clearness!

	Under these conditions, I prepared a letter to the county
clerk, to be delivered at the time when I would have to appear to
ask for an exemption or postponement of duty.  Unfortunatly, when
I appeared, no one was willing to look at my letter.  The people
behind the counter only wanted to know how long a postponement I
was asking for.  "Forever," was not an answer they would hear.
They were not allowed to handle letters and they didn't want to
know anything about my conscience.  At one point they offered to
take my letter, but insisted that it would only be put in the
trash once when they processed my card. Throughout this discussion
I managed to at least keep a civil tongue and a sense of humor.
Though I was shocked and a bit confused by their impersonal
procedure, I tried to approach the matter in terms of how we could
accomodate each other.  After finally accepting a six month
postponement (to decide how to handle the situation), I tried to
get the letter notarized to show that I had attempted to deliver
it.  This resulted in confusion at the New York County Clerk's
Office.  They could only notarize a statement made as an affidavit
to the County Clerk and not my letter.  I could not attach the
letter or write the affidavit on the bottom or back of it.  I
wrote out a statement that I had attempted to deliver a letter the
Office of the County Clerk regarding conscientious objection to
participation in a jury and had it notarized.  I then tried to
deliver that affidavit to the county clerk, which was also
impossible.  That's where the matter stands.  In March, I'll have
to appear for the jury pool and go through some further
run-around, or maybe use it as an opportunity to preach peace.  It
does seem (from the length of this posting) that I have the wind,
and New York County seems to be supplying the call.

	I've attached the letter to the clerk of New York County
to this article.  Since I wrote it, I've had time to become
clearer in my view of juries and courts.  To my mind any
involvement with a court is necessarily an involvement with
coercion and violence.  Criminal court is based on the idea of
just punishment.  The "Department of Correction" aside, we know
that locking a man up is no correction, but a vengeance and a
threat of further vengeance.  In civil court, assets are seized
either as compensation for injury or as punishment.  Monetary
compensation for a non-monetary injury seems to actually be a form
of punishment and not truly a restorative act.  Even when the
matter is a suit for money over an issue of money, seizing assets
seems and feels violent.  In the end, one party walks away feeling
a victim and the other a victor.  Too many human conflicts have
ended this way.  I don't wish to be a part of another.

	There are other issues in participating in jury duty.  All
persons present in a courtroom are asked to stand when the judge
enters or leaves.  This is equivalent to the "hat honor", which so
many seventeenth century Friends went to prison for refusing.  And
what is the difference between a judicial oath and affirmation.
They both posit two standards of truth.

	I would really like to hear Friends' experiences, leadings
and concerns regarding service as jurors.  I am open to queries
and advice.  I don't plan on being perfect anytime soon.

	-- Etan Ben-Ami

****************************************************************************

						 Etan Ben-Ami 100
						 Overlook Terrace,
						 45 New York, N.Y.
						 10040 September
						 1, 1992

Norman Goodman County Clerk, New York County 60 Center Street,
Room 140 New York, N.Y.  10007

Dear Mr. Goodman:

	I wish to be excused from jury duty in New York County
based on principles of conscience founded in religious belief.  I
do not believe that I could serve as a juror in either a civil or
criminal case and hold to the standards of conscience I feel
required of me.  Since May of 1990, I have regularly attended
Morningside Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
Though Friends do not have a rule against serving as jurors, and
though most Friends participate fully, our belief is that
individuals must test their own consciences with regard to their
actions: to judge for themselves whether their actions are
consistent with principles of love and the leadings of the Light
within.
	I believe there are fundamental injustices in the legal
system, as presently constituted, which jurors are routinely
instructed to ignore.  Jurors must vote based on testimony and on
the law without exercise of conscience regarding such factors as
(a) the relative adequacy of representation for both parties, (b)
statements which have been stricken from the record, though
clearly witnessed by the juror, (c) important questions which have
been overlooked or avoided during testimony, and (d) the morality
of the law itself.
	I have a religious belief in non-violence, and I cannot
participate in an action which would lead to the punishment by
incarceration of any person or to the seizure of property under
threat.  (The latter applies to both civil and criminal law.)
Though I passively support this system of law when I pay taxes, by
participating in a jury I would be actively participating in the
resolution of conflict by means which are fundamentally based in
society's ability to inflict violence.
	On Sunday, 21 June 1992, I attended a meeting for worship
in Sing Sing prison.  (Previously, I had visited conscientious
objectors to the Gulf War imprisoned in the Marine brig at Camp
Lejeune, N.C.)  Quaker meetings are held regularly in Sing Sing
and in Greenhaven.  I believe that Friends perform a valuable
function by visiting prison meetings and encouraging the prisoners
to take a religious view of life.  I intend to become more
involved in this work.  I am concerned that participation as a
juror in a criminal case would compromise my ability to do so.

	I do not wish to present my view of the world and
conscience as the only one possible for an active Quaker.  What is
important is that we all rely on a single test of conscience,
which we believe to be divinely inspired.  That test can only be
performed by an individual, and only for his or her own condition.
Subject to my own conscience, I do not believe that I could
actively participate in the legal system as a juror.
	I hope that this statement will not be viewed as
contemptuous of those with whom I disagree, especially those who
have made it their life's work to pursue justice through law.  I
hope that your office will recognize this disagreement and honor
my request to be excused from jury duty.

				 Sincerely, Etan Ben-Ami