HB 52 - POST-TRIAL JUROR COUNSELING  1:25:04 PM CHAIR RAMRAS announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 52, "An Act authorizing psychological counseling for jurors serving in criminal trials who are traumatized by graphic evidence or testimony." 1:25:46 PM REPRESENTATIVE BETH KERTTULA, Alaska State Legislature, sponsor, explained that HB 52 was engendered by the experiences of a constituent who'd sat on the jury in the Rachelle Waterman murder trial, a particularly difficult case; her constituent had suggested that it might be a good idea for the State to provide psychological counseling to jurors who hear such cases in order to alleviate the trauma they experience when hearing testimony and evidence about particularly heinous crimes. In conclusion, she said she would appreciate the committee's support of HB 52. The committee took an at-ease from 1:27 p.m. to 1:31 p.m. 1:31:56 PM HANNA McCARTY, Staff, Representative Beth Kerttula, Alaska State Legislature, explained on behalf of the sponsor, Representative Kerttula, that HB 52's proposed AS 12.45.018(a) provides that a trial judge may offer not more than 10 hours of post-trial psychological counseling without charge to a juror who serves on a trial involving extraordinarily graphic, gruesome, or emotional evidence or testimony. REPRESENTATIVE HERRON, noting that he supports the concept of the bill, questioned whether the term, "extraordinarily" as used in the bill is already defined in statute. MS. McCARTY relayed that she would have to research that point. REPRESENTATIVE KERTTULA opined that it is necessary to include that term because there could be a lot of other types of trials that involve graphic, gruesome, or emotional evidence or testimony. House Bill 52 is intended to apply to extremely graphic, extremely gruesome, or extremely emotional evidence/testimony. She surmised that as used in the bill, the term, "extraordinarily" would be interpreted as having the normal dictionary definition. REPRESENTATIVE HERRON questioned who would determine whether testimony or evidence is extraordinarily graphic, gruesome, or emotional. REPRESENTATIVE KERTTULA explained that it would be the trial judge who would make that determination. MS. McCARTY went on to explain that HB 52's proposed AS 12.45.018(b) specifies which crimes the trials for which could warrant post-trial psychological counseling for jurors. Those crimes include: murder under AS 11.41.100 and AS 11.41.110, manslaughter under AS 11.41.120, criminally negligent homicide under AS 11.41.130, felonious assault under AS 11.41.200-220, and a sexual offense under AS 11.41.410-460. She also explained that HB 52's proposed AS 12.45.018(c)(1) states that the counseling must occur not later than 180 days after the jury is dismissed; and that HB 52's proposed AS 12.45.018(b)(2)-(3) states that the counseling may be provided by the court system, by a state agency, or by contract, and that it may be either individual or group counseling. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG, on the issue of the definition of the term, "extraordinarily", predicted that the court would determine on a case-by-case basis whether a particular trial warranted post-trial psychological counseling. 1:39:20 PM MINDY LOBAUGH remarked that HB 52 represents a bridge, a bridge that she and many other jurors did not have at the end of a trial. She went on to say: You arrive at the court, given detailed instructions of what is expected of you as a juror and how the process of the trial will work. What the court system does not do is transition jurors out of the process after a trial. It is not uncommon to have major criminal trials run for many days. As you know, I served on the Rachelle Waterman trial four years ago, and it lasted approximately ... 10 days. For me, I arrived open and ready to do my civic duty as a juror, and by the end of the trial, I left there as a victim, feeling closed, confused, and very traumatized by the burden of knowledge I now carried. For 10 days, prosecutors went into great detail to help the jurors relive the events of an unsuspecting mother getting abducted from her home, tortured, and finally murdered. It was our duty to determine if the defendant, her daughter, was guilty of masterminding this tragedy against a woman who was a pillar in her community. 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 e-mails that detailed out various ways these men planned to kill the mother; the physical evidence; the photographs; and, of course, the hours of testimony that we sat through. For quite some time during and following that trial, eating, for me, was a near impossibility because of how sickened I was from this experience. 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 the ultrasound pictures with us early on; by the end of the trial, she lost her baby and had to be excused. 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 this traumatizing information. The answer was no. For me, it was like having a door slammed in my face, and then you turn around and you find there's no bridge to help me return to the life that I had before this trial, ... a life that did not hold this kind of 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 the jurors doing their civic duties in the future, by passing HB 52. 1:43:08 PM REPRESENTATIVE DAHLSTROM noted that while that trial was going on, it even affected many of the people who worked in the Capitol, right across the street from the courthouse, and surmised that the media accounts of that trial couldn't have accurately portrayed what the jurors must have been going through. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG mentioned that he has sat on several coroner's juries - once having had to declare a friend of his dead - and that sitting on such juries can also be traumatizing. CHAIR RAMRAS, after ascertaining that no one else wished to testify, closed public testimony on HB 52. 1:45:42 PM REPRESENTATIVE DAHLSTROM moved to report HB 52 out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. REPRESENTATIVE LYNN objected for the purpose of demonstrating a roll call vote. A roll call vote was taken. Representatives Dahlstrom, Herron, Lynn, Gruenberg, and Ramras voted in favor of reporting HB 52 from committee. No one voted against it. Therefore, HB 52 was reported from the House Judiciary Standing Committee by a vote of 5-0.