Letters

From the February 2006 issue

(Page 2 of 3)

Past Chair, Fully Informed Jury
Association/American Jury Institute
Houston, TX

I was deeply amused by Tim Cavanaugh's November Rant. It extends the notion that a jury is a "group of twelve people too stupid to get out of jury duty." But all of the examples he gave were from large cases; from what I've read and heard about smaller cases, there's at least somewhat more common sense at work.

This makes perfect sense: If a case looks like it's going to take longer than the week you're already expecting to be there, most rational people of average intelligence are going to figure out how to get kicked off the jury.

Unfortunately, this means that it's primarily the most difficult or famous cases that are determined by slack-witted dullards. At least in most places, people too lazy to register to vote aren't even eligible to be jurors. Imagine what the juror pool would look like if we included them.

Jason Kodat
Toledo, OH

Freedom Riders

Jacob Sullum's story of motorcyclists successfully fighting helmet laws ("Freedom Riders," November) brought a smile to my face.

Arizona had a helmet law. The motorcyclists gathered enough signatures to put it on the ballot, and it was repealed. In a subsequent unrelated matter, the legislature, infuriated at voters for passing a medical marijuana exemption, passed laws overturning the will of the voters. Voters responded by passing an initiative that took away the legislature's power to override voter-passed initiatives. So now when the Insurance Institute comes bribing them to pass a helmet law, legislators can only shrug.

Finally, the state Capitol where the legislature meets lies in a traffic circle. Whenever the local motorcycle clubs perceive a law being introduced that is detrimental to their cause, many hundreds of motorcyclists show up, dressed in their finest gun-toting apparel, and circle the building, revving their engines. Imagine holding a fundraiser and having this club show up to "support" your re-election. The message is received like no other, and the bill dies in committee.

As an activist said, "If you aren't having fun, you are doing something wrong."

Powell Gammill
Phoenix, AZ

I am all in favor of people making their own mistakes when only they suffer the consequences. But when I pay for those mistakes, it becomes my business too. When people are injured in accidents, not only law enforcement but medical services spring into action, paid for by taxes and insurance. There is plenty of good evidence that helmets and seat belts greatly reduce these costs.

When I lived in Kenya in the early 1970s, I met a young Kenyan doctor, working in a state-run hospital, who lamented that he spent all his time patching up victims of road accidents instead of preventing or curing other ailments. Every person who does not wear a seat belt is imposing a cost on others: the part of the expected extra cost of accidents that is covered by public services or private insurance.

When I see motorcyclists lying at the roadside like deer, raccoons, and other road kill, I may decide that they made their own bad choices and that it is none of my business. Then again, I may decide that I would rather live in a more humane country, one which provides some public services and then imposes reasonable regulations to minimize their cost.

Bernard Wasow
Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation
Washington, D.C.