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Re: “Jury duty: Backbone of justice or pain in neck?,” Jan. 4 Teresa Keegan column.
Teresa Keegan notes that the right to trial by jury is enshrined in the Constitution — in fact, it is in the Sixth Amendment. She states that short of military service, there is no greater civic contribution one can make than to serve on a jury, and I do not disagree.
However, when an amendment is added to the Constitution it sometimes supersedes or limits the articles that preceded it. The 13th Amendment reads as follows: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” I therefore ask any lawyer or judge who reads this letter to answer these questions: Why, in the light of the 13th Amendment, is jury service compulsory? And why is it not “involuntary servitude”?
Mitchell Brodsky, Denver
This letter was published in the Jan. 11 edition.
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