Radiolab - Null and Void

Today, a hidden power that is either the cornerstone of our democracy or a trapdoor to anarchy. Should a juror be able to ignore the law? From a Quaker prayer meeting in the streets of London, to riots in the streets of LA, we trace the history of a quiet act of rebellion and struggle with how much power “we the people” should really have. Produced by Matt Kielty and Tracie Hunte Special thanks to Darryl K. Brown, professor of law at the University of Virginia, Andrew Leipold, professor of law at the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign, Nancy King, professor of law at Vanderbilt University, Buzz Scherr law professor at University of New Hampshire, Eric Verlo and attorneys David Lane, Mark Sisto, David Kallman and Paul Grant. Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Duration: 51m
Broadcast on: 12 May 2017
Audio Format: other

Produced by Matt Kielty and Tracie Hunte

Special thanks to Darryl K. Brown, professor of law at the University of Virginia, Andrew Leipold, professor of law at the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign, Nancy King, professor of law at Vanderbilt University, Buzz Scherr law professor at University of New Hampshire, Eric Verlo and attorneys David Lane, Mark Sisto, David Kallman and Paul Grant.

Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.

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Hey folks, just a quick note. This story that you're about to hear has in it an interview that contains some threats of violence might not be appropriate for sensitive listeners or young children. Wait, you're listening to Radio Lab from WNYC. Now for some reason this speakerphone doesn't ever want to go off. Can you guys call me right back and I won't put it on? Okay, all right, sorry about that. Hey, I'm Jad Abumran. I'm Robert Krollich. This is Radio Lab and today... Today we have a story about something that you might not know that you have, but you definitely do have it. Yeah, it's sort of a crazy... Maybe even scary. Maybe scary. Even secret. A crazy, scary, secret. Hello. Hello. Power. Hey, Saren. And it comes to us from our producers, Tracy Hunt. Are you there? And Soren Wheeler. Yeah, I'm here. Okay, no speakerphone now. Okay. So this story for us got started with this woman, Laura Creehoe. I am a freelance internet marketer. She's from Colorado and in the mid 90s, something happened to Laura that hadn't happened to anyone in centuries. So we'll just... Why don't you just take a sec to 1996, the day you got your jury summons, that very first one. Well, that was the day of jury duty. I had totally forgotten about the jury summons until the day of and I picked it up and I read the back of the summons and it said something about six months in jail if you don't show up. And so I didn't have a ride to the court house. And so I called the court and asked them if I really had to show up since I didn't have a ride. And they're like, yeah, yeah, you have to show up. And I said, well, I'll have to hitchhike then. And if something happens to me, I said to them, my blood is on your hands. I wanted to make them feel guilty about making me show up, but that didn't work. She said I had to show up anyway. But whatever. The point is, Laura did get to court in Gilpin County in Colorado. And when she got there, she walked in, took a seat. I think there was about 40 jurors in the pool of jurors. And first they fill up the box with 12 jurors and then they ask them questions about themselves. But real quick, were you hoping to get booted off? Oh, yeah, I was hoping to get booted off. Of course, any any good red-blooded American was hoping to cut towards the end of jury selection. I was I was one of the last ones to be selected. So the next day, Laura and the 11 other jurors showed up to hear the case. And the case was for this 19 year old girl. And she was charged with possession of methamphetamine. What happened was is that she was up in Central City, which is a gambling town. And that day she was driving in her van with her boyfriend and eventually the two of them drove to this casino. Her boyfriend jumped out of the van. He went to the casino. And then she kept driving. And then the police pulled her over. They just for whatever reason, pull her over. I don't know what she got pulled over for. They just pull her over. And the police said that she got out and put her purse on the hood of the car and then made a lunging movement towards it. Which they said give them probable cause to search your purse. Because now they're thinking, Oh, does she have a weapon in her purse? Like what is she trying to hide? And so the police opened up her purse and they start kind of rifling through it at which they found this one ounce of methamphetamine. And so one of the questions before the jury was, is this young woman guilty of possession of methamphetamine beyond a reasonable doubt? So at the end of the trial, Laura and the other 11 jurors got up and went to the jury room to deliberate. And so we talked about a lot of things. One of the things I remember we talked about was whether or not the police were lying about, you know, her lunging towards her purse and things like that. There is also the fact that she did have this meth, but it was unclear whether it was actually hers or not. Because according to the girl, when her boyfriend got out of the van, he put something in her purse, she said, without her knowledge, this girl saying the meth might be his, but it's definitely not hers. I mean, to me, that's the whole thing. It's element number one of the possession charges that they have to knowingly possess. So for Laura, if she said she didn't know she had it, and it could be her boyfriend,

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