Legislature(2009 - 2010)
04/07/2010 02:43 PM Senate JUD
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB249 | |
| HB52 | |
| HJR48 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 52-POST-TRIAL JUROR COUNSELING
VICE-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI announced the consideration of HB 52.
2:51:30 PM
REPRESENTATIVE BETH KERTTULA, sponsor of HB 52, said this bill
came about because a friend came to her after serving on a
particularly difficult jury. When the jurors asked the court
about counseling they were told there was none to be offered.
She said she worked initially with the court, but ultimately
decided that it would be best to introduce legislation. HB 52
would allow up to 10 hours of counseling for jury members who
serve on particularly gruesome and graphic cases and are
traumatized as a result.
MINDY LOBAUGH, representing herself, Juneau, said that HB 52
represents a bridge, a bridge that she and many other jurors did
not have at the end of a traumatic trial. She went on to say:
You arrive at the courthouse; you're given detailed
instructions of what is expected of you as a juror and
how the process of the trial works. What the court
system does not do is transition jurors out of the
trial. It is not uncommon to have major criminal
trials run for many days. I served as a juror on the
Rachelle Waterman trial four years ago. It lasted
approximately 10 days. For me, I arrived open and
ready to do my civic duty as a juror.
For 10 days, prosecutors went into excruciating detail
to help the jurors relive the events of an
unsuspecting mother getting abducted from her home,
tortured, and finally murdered. It was then our duty
to determine if the defendant, her daughter, was
guilty of masterminding this tragedy against a woman
who was a pillar of her community. By the end of the
trial, I left there as a victim, feeling closed,
mentally battered, and very traumatized by the burden
of knowledge I now carry.
I am here to tell you the media does not even come
close to covering the depth of this trial. As a juror,
we had access to piles of emails detailing out every
various way these men planned to kill the mother; the
physical evidence; the photographs; and, of course,
the hours of testimony.
2:54:32 PM
For quite some time during and following that trial,
eating, for me, was a near impossibility because of
the constant nausea I felt. To my friends and family,
I became a stranger, and each night I prayed myself to
sleep. One of my fellow jury-mates was pregnant with
her second child - she had shared her excitement and
the ultrasound pictures with us early on in the trial.
By the end of the trial, she lost her baby and had to
be excused from the trial. When this trial ended with
a hung jury, I turned to the presiding judge and I
asked if the courts offer some kind of counseling or
process to help jurors deal with the traumatizing
information. The answer was no. For me, it was like
having a door slammed in my face. There would be no
help in transitioning back to my life before this
trial, no bridge. Rather, I would have to move forward
with the dark knowledge. It was at this point I felt
the court had failed me as a juror doing my civic
duty.
Please help me to build the bridge by supporting HB 52
- Post-Trial Jury Counseling. I may not have found
closure with respect to this trial, but maybe you can
bridge that for future jurors doing their civic duty
by passing HB 52.
VICE-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI thanked her for her compelling
testimony.
SENATOR COGHILL asked if she got counseling on her own.
MS. LOBAUGH replied she did, but not immediately. Early on she
simply wanted to hide and not talk about it again. Now she
realizes that counseling would have helped her understand right
away that what she was doing was counterproductive.
SENATOR COGHILL asked if the timeframe suggested in the bill is
sufficient to negotiate strategies for dealing with traumatic
court cases.
MS. LOBAUGH said she believes that ten hours is a reasonable
amount of time to start the process. In that time a juror could
be evaluated by a professional and get some tools that would
help them get back to their life. For those who are fortunate,
ten hours may be enough to finish that process.
SENATOR COGHILL said he asked because she received counseling
and would have a good idea about whether or not ten hours is
sufficient.
MS. LOBAUGH said she would have found ten hours to be
sufficient.
2:57:53 PM
LAUREE MORTON, Program Coordinator, Council on Domestic Violence
and Sexual Assault (CDVSA), Department of Public Safety (DPS),
said she doesn't believe that CDVSA had looked at HB 52, but as
a private citizen she believes that it's very important to help
people process traumatic events. When people are willing to come
forward to do service, they should have some help after their
service is complete if it's needed because most people in their
daily lives aren't exposed what they'll see and hear in a murder
or assault or other traumatic trial. It's a fair offering to our
citizens, she said.
2:59:40 PM
DOUGLAS WOOLIVER, Administrative Attorney, Alaska Court System,
introduced himself.
SENATOR MCGUIRE asked if he can envision administering this
bill. She suggested that jurors who serve on cases involving
horrific crimes should automatically receive a handout about
services that may be available to help them deal with the trauma
they may be experiencing. They shouldn't need to ask for this,
she said.
MR. WOOLIVER said he's heard judges say that if this bill were
to pass they would speak to the jurors that had served on these
kinds of cases and let them know that counseling was available.
The court may in fact already have a list of counselors that
they've contracted with, he said. But the broader question is if
all jurors should be given a handout at the end of every trial
because he can imagine that even some run-of-the-mill cases are
difficult for some people to sit in on. He said he'd take that
suggestion back to the court.
3:02:05 PM
CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked how this would be administered.
MR. WOOLIVER said the court tried this twice in Southeast and
because it was a little out of the ordinary it involved a bit of
scrambling, but it basically involved going through the small
procurement process. If HB 52 were to pass, the court would
probably have a list of providers who had agreed to do this work
for jurors. He noted that oftentimes it would be on short
notice.
SENATOR COGHILL asked if there would be some accommodation for
the jurors who say they need more than ten hours of counseling
and if there might be some indigent pay.
MR. WOOLIVER replied they pay for a lot of things but none that
he can think of that are time limited. This would be similar to
insurance coverage that covers X amount of something and beyond
that it's not covered. In this situation the state would pay for
a certain amount of service, but not beyond that.
3:04:45 PM
SENATOR COGHILL observed that any time there's a time limit it
creates a liability issue because somebody will say they needed
more. It appears that this could put the court under a liability
and to this point the state hasn't accepted any liability for
peoples' reactions to doing their civic duty.
MR. WOOLIVER said he needs to think about that a bit because he
isn't sure that it does creates a liability.
SENATOR MCGUIRE said the feedback she's received about jury
service is that it's underappreciated. For example, parking
isn't provided and nobody seems to care, and then jurors are
dismissed from the trial with no closure. Jurors deserve more
than that because they are making huge sacrifices and disrupting
their lives. I assume you respond to the feedback you get, she
said.
3:07:05 PM
MR. WOOLIVER replied the court does get those same complaints
and they do respond. It's not the case everywhere, but in
Anchorage juror parking is a huge challenge and a constant
problem.
SENATOR COGHILL, noting that counseling services might not be
available in many of the trial areas outside of Anchorage,
Fairbanks and Juneau, asked how the court might handle that
circumstance.
REPRESENTATIVE KERTTULA suggested Ms. McCarty answer the
question.
HANNAH MCCARTY, staff to Representative Kerttula, reported that
she spoke with a counselor in Kotzebue this morning to learn
more about what's called "tele-behavioral" health. This involves
using Skype to communicate with a counselor in a larger
community who can also provide access to the Alaska Psychiatric
Institute (API) and a children's center in Seattle. Currently,
11 small remote communities in Representative Joule's district
are participating in this program, she said. This technology
could be used for trials that are held in Kotzebue.
REPRESENTATIVE KERTTULA said she expects this to be offered
statewide. She related that when she started this journey she
expected to find that juror counseling was widespread, but that
isn't the case. Texas has a program that hasn't been implemented
and King County in Washington state allows one hour of
counseling. If this passes, Alaska will be the first state to
implement this kind of program, but what's more important is
that it makes tremendous sense to help our citizens who help the
state do its work, she said.
3:09:55 PM
SENATOR COGHILL observed that jury service is more than a civic
responsibility; it's a civic duty that people are demanded to
do. He opined that in particularly tough cases, knowing that
counseling would be available afterward may play into how a jury
is selected. He asked if that had been anticipated.
REPRESENTATIVE KERTTULA replied she has thought about it and she
isn't sure it would impact jury selection. She noted that judges
give attorneys different amounts of latitude in voir dire and
it's a question an attorney might reasonably ask a juror about
beforehand. But in any event, she expects that this would be
offered afterward when the judge has recognized that the trial
was particularly difficult.
SENATOR COGHILL mentioned questions about previous counseling
and family instability and said he can see another realm of
questioning that may come to light.
3:11:53 PM
VICE-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI closed public testimony and announced he
would hold HB 52 for future consideration.
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