A Trial by Jury - Softcover

Burnett, D. Graham

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747561680 ISBN 13: 9780747561682

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2003

Synopsis

1st trade edition paperback fine In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

About this title

Review:

Historian D. Graham Burnett writes about his experience as the foreman of the jury in a murder trial in New York City, what he calls "the most intense sixty-six hours of my life." There was nothing especially spectacular about the case; it was not a famous one, and while A Trial by Jury holds interest, it's not a John Grisham potboiler. Yet Burnett uses the experience to illuminate the heavy responsibilities of jury duty and all the maddening frustrations associated with determining something as deceptively simple as reasonable doubt.

"The jury room is a remarkable--and largely inaccessible--space in our society, a space where ideas, memories, virtues, and prejudices clash with the messy stuff of the big, bad world," Burnett writes in this elegant chronicle. His primary characters--his fellow jury members--come alive on these pages: "a clutch of strangers yelled, cursed, rolled on the floor, vomited, whispered, embraced, sobbed, and invoked both God and necromancy." He grows to like some, and "loathe" others. ("Are there some citizens not clearly able to distinguish daytime television from daily life?" he asks at one point.) Parts of the book are funny, as when he describes the small steps he took to encourage the trial lawyers to strike him out of the jury pool: "I promised to give any healthy prosecutor hives. I brought along a copy of The New York Review of Books just in case." Alas, Burnett found himself in the courtroom, and eventually he became foreman. This allows him to wrestle through the contradictory evidence presented by both sides--and forces him to conclude that even the truth can resemble a muddle when presented in court. He has trouble making up his own mind about the case--this is no Twelve Angry Men update, though its insights on jury-room dynamics are just as instructive. Burnett also ruminates on his own profession: "I realize now that for me--a humanist, an academic, a poetaster--the primary aim of sustained thinking and talking had always been, in a way, more thinking and talking. Cycles of reading, interpreting, and discussing were always exactly that: cycles. One never 'solved' a poem, one read it, and then read it again--each reading emerging from earlier efforts and preparing the mind for future readings." Jury duty, of course, demands an awesome finality--and the conclusion to the trial involving Burnett is one that haunts the author after the gavel falls. --John Miller

From the Back Cover:

"As fascinating as any fictional courtroom thriller and a lot more thought-provoking than most . . . Burnett has a keen intelligence and he's a gifted writer--the book holds you in its grip."
--Charles Matthews, Mercury News

"A minor masterpiece, a mesmerizing story of a system that would be right at home in a Franz Kafka story. In many ways, [A Trial by Jury is] downright chilling . . . It opens a window on a closed, substantially flawed process . . . Burnett's prose is crystal clear. . . . This is a fascinating story."
--Leo Irwin, Sunday News Journal (Wilmington, DE)

"[Burnett illustrates] what a remarkable and sometimes remarkably strange duty serving on a jury can be . . . A riveting look at citizen jurors at work."
--Seth Stern, The Christian Science Monitor

"A drama both human and metaphysical . . . a report from the trenches . . . It's not just the defendant who is on trial in A Trial by Jury, but the jury system and the jurors themselves."
--James Traub, The New York Review of Books

"The heavy machine is what Burnett calls the criminal justice system; his close encounter with its well-greased wheels and levers is the subject of his immensely readable new book."
--Jabari Asim, Washington Post

"By turns humorous and dramatic, "A Trial by Jury" speeds along; it can be devoured in a single sitting. Burnett is a graceful, economical writer, with a sharp eye for detail and a nuanced feel for character. He never loses his sense of the ridiculous . . . An irresistible book."
--Barry Gewen, The New York Times Book Review

"The author, a historian of science, also proves himself an excellent student of human nature in this first-person account of serving as the jury foreman in a New York City murder trial. Though the entire case, from opening gavel to final decision, takes only a few weeks, Burnett manages to paint vivid portraits of his fellow-jurors and examine the knottier issues of class, race, and gender that complicate the justice system's search for objective truth. Until now, the standard-bearer for jury-room dynamics has been "Twelve Angry Men"; Burnett's narrative, while significantly more understated, is no less illuminating."
--The New Yorker


"A slender, finely wrought book . . . unfailingly astute . . . That A Trial by Jury can be read in a few engrossing hours is an unexpected treat for busy professionals. That it is written with a grace and eloquence all too rare in contemporary nonfiction is icing on the cake. That it may actually make us better and more thoughtful lawyers and citzens is the kind of marvelous prestidigitation worthy of our best teachers."
--Peter H. Schuck, New York Law Journal

This book is a journey down into the grim boiler room of justice. Those who make this journey never forget the experience. They emerge seeing the world in a different
way, and you'll understand why after reading this book.

--Jonathan Harr, author of A Civil Action

"D. Graham Burnett's A Trial By Jury is the passionate, honest and humane true story of a murder trial and the torments of the jurors as they try to decide guilt or innocence. This jewel of a book describing a brutal, quirky killing tells us as much about the pain suffered by people having to make overwhelming decisions as it does about the good and bad of the American criminal justice system. Not since 12 Angry Men have we been so vividly brought inside the jury room and shown how 12 people--including the author--ultimately choose between justice and the law."
--Martin Garbus, author of Tough Talk

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0747561680
• ISBN 13: 9780747561682
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224