Has there ever been a trial where the murderer was on that case's jury?
July 1, 2017 7:54 AM Subscribe
File under History / Ask a Historian...
I'm working on a tabletop game where there's been a murder. The murderer got away, but the sheriff has called a jury, and the murderer's been named to it. The players roles (except for the judge) are all secret, but some are shown secretly to other players over the course of a round.... More inside, naturally.
I'm working on a tabletop game where there's been a murder. The murderer got away, but the sheriff has called a jury, and the murderer's been named to it. The players are the sheriff, the murderer, accomplices, witnesses, and members of the jury. Their roles (except for the judge) are all secret, but some are shown secretly to other players over the course of a round.
It's a party game for 6-20 players, plays in 10-15 minutes, and is for fans of One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Mafia, and other social deduction games. It doesn't require a moderator (meaning everyone plays), and no one needs to close their eyes (meaning there's less chance to accidentally mess the game up).
Right now, the game is themeless (e.g. not set in any specific place or time). I have spent a fair bit of time trying to find a historical story of a murderer, and despite decent Google-fu I've failed... The game doesn't need a historical theme, but I'd love to highlight a fascinating / obscure story that parallels the gameplay.
So, historians: has there ever been a trial where the murderer (or an accomplice) was on that case's jury? Failing that, has there ever been a trial where a murderer (or an accomplice) was on the jury of another trial?
I'm working on a tabletop game where there's been a murder. The murderer got away, but the sheriff has called a jury, and the murderer's been named to it. The players are the sheriff, the murderer, accomplices, witnesses, and members of the jury. Their roles (except for the judge) are all secret, but some are shown secretly to other players over the course of a round.
It's a party game for 6-20 players, plays in 10-15 minutes, and is for fans of One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Mafia, and other social deduction games. It doesn't require a moderator (meaning everyone plays), and no one needs to close their eyes (meaning there's less chance to accidentally mess the game up).
Right now, the game is themeless (e.g. not set in any specific place or time). I have spent a fair bit of time trying to find a historical story of a murderer, and despite decent Google-fu I've failed... The game doesn't need a historical theme, but I'd love to highlight a fascinating / obscure story that parallels the gameplay.
So, historians: has there ever been a trial where the murderer (or an accomplice) was on that case's jury? Failing that, has there ever been a trial where a murderer (or an accomplice) was on the jury of another trial?
Not that I know of.
The only way this could possibly happen under US jurisprudence would be if the murderer was not suspected at. all. The actual murderer could lie in voir dire and end up on the grand jury investigating the murder or the petit jury hearing the case against the wrongfully accused defendant.
Given how large jury pools are most places, it's vanishingly unlikely that the murderer would be in the pool, much less the panel, much less end up on the jury, but it's technically possible.
posted by radicalawyer at 10:12 AM on July 1, 2017
The only way this could possibly happen under US jurisprudence would be if the murderer was not suspected at. all. The actual murderer could lie in voir dire and end up on the grand jury investigating the murder or the petit jury hearing the case against the wrongfully accused defendant.
Given how large jury pools are most places, it's vanishingly unlikely that the murderer would be in the pool, much less the panel, much less end up on the jury, but it's technically possible.
posted by radicalawyer at 10:12 AM on July 1, 2017
> Given how large jury pools are most places
Jury Pool is only as big as the voting population of the County, so very small counties probably have people with a very high likelihood of jury duty but, for the same reason, a smaller chance of needing to assemble a full jury, unless you have the misfortune to live in Cabot Cove, Maine, or Absaroka Cty, Wyoming (two fictional places that are the per-capita murder capitals of the US because they happen to have a competent, telegenic detective in town).
Anyway, the likelihood of a true murderer sitting on the jury in a trial of a (wrong) murder suspect would go up in a rural county, I think, assuming the murderer's a voter.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:27 AM on July 1, 2017 [3 favorites]
Jury Pool is only as big as the voting population of the County, so very small counties probably have people with a very high likelihood of jury duty but, for the same reason, a smaller chance of needing to assemble a full jury, unless you have the misfortune to live in Cabot Cove, Maine, or Absaroka Cty, Wyoming (two fictional places that are the per-capita murder capitals of the US because they happen to have a competent, telegenic detective in town).
Anyway, the likelihood of a true murderer sitting on the jury in a trial of a (wrong) murder suspect would go up in a rural county, I think, assuming the murderer's a voter.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:27 AM on July 1, 2017 [3 favorites]
I thinking this would be most likely to happen in a very small community where the population pool is small and the number of upstanding citizens available to serve on a jury is even smaller. So rural (smaller population and more distance), slow transportation (if people have to get to the courthouse on foot or buggy they need to live close by) or limited access (island, space ship). Bonus is there is cultural stratification so some people (including perhaps the false suspect) are likely to be suspects and unlikely to be on the jury while others are assumed to be above suspicion and more likely to be asked to serve (including the guilt juror). Also excluding some for the jury pool makes the pool smaller and your guilt person more likely to be paneled.
posted by metahawk at 10:52 AM on July 1, 2017
posted by metahawk at 10:52 AM on July 1, 2017
Best answer: This has an old west, frontier justice vibe to me. Maybe something like a vigilance committee? Google has some interesting results for that term -- "The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee was set up solely because of the Jack the Ripper murders." It's not hard to imagine Jack the Ripper joining such a group.
Or this Google Books result for The Story of the Outlaw: A Study of the Western Desperado by Emerson Hough: "The Committee now hanged two more murderers -- Hetherington and Brace -- the former a gambler from St. Louis, the latter a youth of New York parentage, twenty-one years of age, but hardened enough to curse volubly upon the scaffold." (As who would not?) "[F]ew men who knew of the deeds of the 'Committee of Vigilance' ever cared to discuss them. Indeed it was practically certain that any man who ever served on a Western vigilance committee finished his life with sealed lips. Had he ventured to talk of what he knew he would have met contempt or something harsher."
posted by john hadron collider at 2:51 PM on July 1, 2017
Or this Google Books result for The Story of the Outlaw: A Study of the Western Desperado by Emerson Hough: "The Committee now hanged two more murderers -- Hetherington and Brace -- the former a gambler from St. Louis, the latter a youth of New York parentage, twenty-one years of age, but hardened enough to curse volubly upon the scaffold." (As who would not?) "[F]ew men who knew of the deeds of the 'Committee of Vigilance' ever cared to discuss them. Indeed it was practically certain that any man who ever served on a Western vigilance committee finished his life with sealed lips. Had he ventured to talk of what he knew he would have met contempt or something harsher."
posted by john hadron collider at 2:51 PM on July 1, 2017
In a military court marshal, there is no jury. The guilty/not guilty decision is made by the "court" which is a panel of 1 or more officers acting as judges. The number depends on the seriousness of the crime. Since the number of officers on a base is small compared to the number of enlisted men, I think the odds of a evil-doing officer being put on the court is much higher than for a civilian murderer getting picked for jury duty.
posted by SemiSalt at 3:30 PM on July 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by SemiSalt at 3:30 PM on July 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
When I was in law school, in Durham, NC, we had not one, not two, but THREE law professors seated on the same jury. Durham had low compliance with jury summonses at the time, which is how they ended up with three law profs on one jury (many lawyers try not to seat other lawyers). So while I know of know historical circumstances, I think it's plausible; make your murderer otherwise very law-complying to stay unsuspected and put him in a local county with low jury-summons compliance. Combine low compliance with limited lists of possible jurors -- low numbers of registered voters, low numbers of property owners vs. renters, low numbers of licensed drivers (all three places jury lists draw from), and/or a high transient college population who are typically registered in their originating counties and not in their county of college attendance.
Other things that drastically reduce jury compliance are old-fashioned mail summonses (with no phone or web support) with defined days of appearance. People beg off based on unreschedulable commitments, or they throw out the summons and pretend it never came in the mail. Modern systems where you're given a month range you have to serve and you sign on to a website and pick your three days have much, much higher compliance; as do semi-modern systems where you call the courthouse in the morning for three days in a row and a recorded message tells you whether or not you have to come in (based on whether juries may be seated that day).
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:17 PM on July 1, 2017
Other things that drastically reduce jury compliance are old-fashioned mail summonses (with no phone or web support) with defined days of appearance. People beg off based on unreschedulable commitments, or they throw out the summons and pretend it never came in the mail. Modern systems where you're given a month range you have to serve and you sign on to a website and pick your three days have much, much higher compliance; as do semi-modern systems where you call the courthouse in the morning for three days in a row and a recorded message tells you whether or not you have to come in (based on whether juries may be seated that day).
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:17 PM on July 1, 2017
Response by poster: OP here - to the replies!
SLC Mom - the jury is intentionally non-specific, and may not necessarily be in the US. That said, I'm going to test adding a 'defendant' who's been falsely accused and gets to point the finger at other people...
radicalawyer - agree. Without going to an example like the Salem Witch Trials (which has already had a couple of excellent games about it), the real chances are unlikely.
john hadron collider - hadn't heard of the Vigilance Committees, so kudos. Jack the Ripper's been done in the past (it's considered bad form in the game world to have two games of the same name or to be very closely related / similar to another game), but there might be room for him in the context of Whitechapel.
Going to keep this open and keep an eye on future replies - thanks a lot!
posted by chrisinseoul at 2:26 AM on July 2, 2017
SLC Mom - the jury is intentionally non-specific, and may not necessarily be in the US. That said, I'm going to test adding a 'defendant' who's been falsely accused and gets to point the finger at other people...
radicalawyer - agree. Without going to an example like the Salem Witch Trials (which has already had a couple of excellent games about it), the real chances are unlikely.
john hadron collider - hadn't heard of the Vigilance Committees, so kudos. Jack the Ripper's been done in the past (it's considered bad form in the game world to have two games of the same name or to be very closely related / similar to another game), but there might be room for him in the context of Whitechapel.
Going to keep this open and keep an eye on future replies - thanks a lot!
posted by chrisinseoul at 2:26 AM on July 2, 2017
This 1945 case is still officially unsolved, but:
posted by Flannery Culp at 7:15 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
The local coroner convened an inquest the next day, which held that the fire was an accident caused by "faulty wiring". Among the jurors was the man who had threatened George Sodder that his house would be burned down and his children "destroyed" in retribution for his anti-Mussolini remarks.(hat tip to the Ungeniused podcast)
posted by Flannery Culp at 7:15 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by SLC Mom at 9:00 AM on July 1, 2017 [1 favorite]