G'day Everyone!
Here we go again. *Flash* Just found on http://deafness.about.com/ is a very important issue that involves a deaf juror, prosecutors, the judge, and a hearing killer's MURDER conviction OVERTURNED! Here's the link: http://deafness.about.com/b/2009/07/22/deaf-killers-go-free.htm.
If that wasn't enough of a summary on Jamie's Deafness.about.com blog, then you should go STRAIGHT to the source: http://www.ohio.com/news/51316367.html.
Right now, I am shocked and outraged. WHY?
First, how could the judge and prosecutors let a deaf juror sit on the jury panel WITHOUT any type of assistance in a major court trial? What were they thinking? Were they thinking "if we can SKIMP on costs of hiring a sign language interpreter or CART services, we can hope that the jury panel assists this deaf juror". They were also in hopes that this juror would be able to read lips through out the trial. Such thinking, as this may have been their thought, is a FATAL FLAW of the court proceedings. Especially when the 911 tape was played in it and you gotta be hearing to hear it.
Second, did the deaf juror fellow members of her panel assist her? Did they help her during the deliberations? Such questions are followed with more questions. It gets more complex to follow.
When the Ohio.com article mentions the NAD being involved in this situation, I checked the http://www.nad.com/ blog site for information. What I found was the current post about the North Carolina legislators that are debating a bill that could PREVENT deaf people from sitting on the jury panel for any reason. This appeals court in Ohio could support the legislators decisions on passing their bill which would doom many good deaf citizens from doing the honorable jury duty work. see: http://www.nad.org/blogs/lindanelson/north-carolina-legislators-oppose-deaf-jurors . Though the news is hitting through out the deaf community, I would be very interested to see what NAD says about the State of Ohio Court ruling on the deaf juror.
As the case now heads to the State of Ohi0's Supreme Court, things are going to get WAY interesting to see how they rule in this. If the State of Ohio upholds the appeal court's decision, it will get bad. Very bad. In terms of voter outrage on the judge and the prosecutor, they could get recalled and lose their office for sure in this election year.
I would recommend every judge and prosecutor to review their court's department readiness in support a deaf juror. They should change their jury survey forms to ask if the person was:
hearing
Deaf
Hard of hearing.
It is not meant as a dismissal by screening, but rather to provide the court with an ability to honor the ADA laws and make sure that a deaf juror is able to be a part of the panel. They should be prepared with certified Sign Language interpreters ready to be called into court and put to work in a court proceeding.
If there was an UNFAIR advantage in this Ohio case, it clearly belonged to the defense lawyers who used it to their own benefit to get their client off the hook in the appeals court. Just about any lawyer knows the basics of the ADA law. If the judge and the prosecutor don't know the ADA laws? Then they shouldn't be in the state of Ohio court anymore!
In this day and age, we depend on the ADA law pretty much. It's a strong law that makes the deaf community work in the hearing world.
The one thing that if you read all the comments in the Ohio.com of this, the outrage is about on both sides of the issue. In the coming days, we will be hearing important decisions.
Stay tuned.
Major thanks and salute to Jamie Berke and Robert Goodwin for the heads up on this issue.
Semper FI.
1 comment:
Maybe we need to carefully analyze the judges' ruling. I doubt that it was overturned ONLY because that juror was deaf (or hoh), but was probably due to additional complicating factors.
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