I don't know why a 1999 New York Times story suddenly showed up in my news feeds, but I'm glad it did, because I missed it the first time. Rudolph Guiliani, then mayor of New York, spent a week on jury duty in a personal injury case that year.
Not surprisingly, he was foreman. Not surprisingly, he was a big hit with the rest of the group. And not surprisingly, the plaintiff lost.
"No."
The story starts:
As five jurors who heard a personal injury case in Manhattan emerged from State Supreme Court, they had praise for the jury foreman, describing him as a regular guy who came across, in their words, as ''unpretentious'' and ''friendly.''
''You'd expect a man with responsibility for a $30 billion annual budget to always be on cell phones during breaks or talking to aides, but he wasn't,'' said Caleb Silver, 28, a business reporter who served on the jury. ''When we took breaks, he took breaks. When we drank coffee, he drank coffee.''
In more typical get-down-to-business style, the famed foreman, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, used just one word -- no-- in announcing that he and his fellow jurors had rejected a $7 million claim from a man who said that searing shower water had scalded his genitals so badly that it had rendered him impotent.
The rest, equally good reading, is here.
Like a juror
''I let the other jurors express their opinions first,'' Giuliani told the Times, adding that "his fellow jurors had treated him 'like a juror, not like the Mayor.'" Likewise, "[m]embers of the panel, which consisted of a corporate executive, a college student, a registered nurse and a lawyer as well as the Mayor, said they were unswayed by Mr. Giuliani's presence." Maybe so. But if you think those other people, no matter how distinguished, could have talked the mayor out of the verdict he wanted, think again.
And thus we build our list of guaranteed jury leaders. So far we have lawyers, sitting legislators, the judge's mom, and now we can add the mayor of one of the world's largest cities. You can leave any of these people on your jury if you want to. Just understand: if you do it, you have a jury of one.
(Photo (c) 2007 Bill Fish Photography at http://www.flickr.com/photos/protectourprimary/477145883/; license details there.)
