新西兰英语 802 Jury Service

 　　An Auckland man was sentenced to 10 days in jail for refusing to do jury service. He said he was too busy at work to be on a jury. He is a self-employed engineer.

　　The Minister of Courts said it was the duty of everybody in a democratic society to serve on a jury.

　　The man did not apply by letter earlier to postpone¹ his jury service. He waited until he was chosen for the jury then he refused to take an oath. The trial could not continue that day as there were only 11 jurors. The judge said the man was in contempt of court, which means he did not obey the court rules. However, he is on bail² at the moment because he will appeal this sentence.

　　Everybody who is between the ages of 18 and 65 can be called to serve on a jury. However, people suffering from a disability, or people who do not understand English well do not have to serve. Sometimes as employer can write to the court to say that the worker is needed at work. Parents who are looking after small children can also write to the court to postpone their jury service.

　　Twelve people are needed for a jury trial. Usually about 60 people receive a letter to come to the court at the beginning of a trial. Then about half of those people are chosen, by drawing their names out of a box. These people go into the court and 12 people out of those are chosen for the jury. Then they take an oath to promise to do their best.

　　Vocabulary

　　Note these expressions: serve on a jury, do jury service

　　?to sentence (v) – to send someone to jail or some other punishment; a sentence (n)

　　?self-employed – works for himself

　　?postpone – do this at a later date

　　?oath – promise to do his best

　　?juror – a person on a jury

　　?in contempt of court – rude to the judge or not obeying the rules of the court

　　?on bail – has to pay money to stay out of jail until his appeal

　　?appeal – go to a higher court to try to change the sentence

　　?draw names out of a box – a ballot³ or random⁴ selection

　　?chosen (pp of choose) – choice (n)

1 postpone   

v.延期，推迟

参考例句：

• I shall postpone making a decision till I learn full particulars.在未获悉详情之前我得从缓作出决定。
• She decided to postpone the converastion for that evening.她决定当天晚上把谈话搁一搁。

2 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

3 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

4 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。