Part true crime, part political treatise, part contemplation of right, wrong, and the power of words

Jury duty happens to everyone. It recently happened to Graham Burnett – a young historian and literary journalist. A Trial by Jury is his riveting account of how performing this familiar civic duty turned into one of the most harrowing experiences of his life. The People of New York v. Monte Virginia Milcray was a sensational murder trial. A body with multiple stab wounds was found in a tiny New York apartment; there intimations of cross-dressing, male prostitution and mistaken identity. For Burnett, who was appointed the foreman, and the other eleven members of the jury, the days it took to arrive at a verdict proved more traumatic than the trial itself. Locked in the black box of the jury room all day and virtual prisoners in their hotel at night , twelve overwrought strangers struggled for a verdict where there were no sure answers. Attempting to steer the jury through the ambiguities of the case, Burnett discovered for himself the terrifying power of the state and the agonies of trying to achieve justice within the inherent rigidities of law.