Jury service is essential to making sure justice is done
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — There was silence in the court. Justice Vincent Del Giudice, sitting at the very front of the room on the second floor at 320 Jay St., addressed approximately 50 prospective jurors for a murder trial as the five defendants, their attorneys and the prosecutors listened.
“Jury service may be the most important duty of citizenship any of you may serve in your lifetime,” Del Giudice told the group. “We have a human being dead. His life ended before it should have, and these gentlemen are accused of that. It doesn’t get more important than that.”
Ultimately, out of the crowd of people brought into the courtroom from the central jury room where prospective jurors wait, 16 will be chosen to serve on this particular jury, 12 members plus four alternates, key players in the pursuit of justice that is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.