Most People Dread Jury Duty, But Some Never Get the Chance to Serve

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you’ve watched any legal drama on TV, you know that criminal defendants are entitled to a jury of peers. But does our court system fulfill that promise? Filmmaker Abby Ginzberg’s short documentary “Judging Juries” exposes how discriminatory dismissals, and a lack of financial support, keep people of color off of juries, and how that exclusion impacts our entire justice system. We’ll talk with Ginzberg, two public defenders, and a San Francisco official working to address this problem – in San Francisco, at least. The city launched a pilot program that offers $100 per day to low-income jurors for their service. We’ll explore the impact of that program, and other efforts to remove barriers to jury service. Have you ever served on a jury? Tell us about your experience. Guests: Manohar Raju, public defender, City of San Francisco Anne Stuhldreher, senior advisor, San Francisco Treasurer's Office Abby Ginzberg, documentary filmmaker, "Judging Juries" Brendon Woods, public defender for Alameda County, Alameda County Defenders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you had the smartest Wi-Fi, it'd be Xfinity.
0:05.1	It would boost speeds to the devices that needed them most, and to protect you from threats at home and online.
0:11.7	Xfinity. Imagine that. Restrictions apply.
0:15.3	Sponsorship of this podcast comes from Stanford Summer Session, allowing visiting students to study at Stanford for an academic term.
0:23.5	Learn more at summer.standford.edu.
0:27.5	From KQED.
0:30.6	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:33.7	Juries, like public libraries, are one of those artifacts of an earlier era of civic life.
0:39.4	They're hard to imagine anyone inventing now. But the jury is a key part of our system of justice
0:45.2	and one that emits increasing income and wealth disparities has become more unfair.
0:51.0	Fewer and fewer people with the life experience of many defendants are ever impaneled
0:55.6	on a jury, and the evidence suggests that black defendants in particular suffer when the jury
1:00.9	room is not diverse. Filmmaker Abby Ginsburg has a short new documentary you can watch on Apple
1:07.1	TV about the issue. It's called Judging Juries. Welcome to Forum, Abby. Thank you for having us.
1:13.4	We're also joined by several of the people in the documentary. We've got Brendan Woods,
1:19.4	Almeida County Public Defender. Welcome. Good morning. Thank you for having me.
1:23.1	We've got Anne Stool Dreher, who's senior advisor with the San Francisco Treasurer's Office.
1:27.9	Welcome.
1:28.3	Good morning.
1:29.1	And we've got Manohar Raju, who is a San Francisco County Public Defender.
1:33.8	Welcome.
1:34.6	Good morning.
	...

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