The Jury

When Baby Reindeer became an international hit it was no surprise that addicted viewers would soon become couch detectives in their quest to uncover the real Martha, the stalker brilliantly depicted by Jessica Gunning.

New SBS documentary The Jury is also based on real-life events where names dates, locations and images have been changed “to protect identities in the original trial.”

But it took me less than a minute to find press articles on the actual case, given it was so high-profile in NSW a decaade ago. That’s because there were no less than three trials involved. No wonder its disputed result makes it a contestable case for this 5 part experiement, based on a UK series.

The premise is intriguingly simple: actors re-enact courtroom scenes based on transcripts of a manslaughter trial before 12 ‘everyday Australians’ who will assess all the evidence. As cameras watch the way juries work, will they arrive at the same outcome? For this to succeed, it presumably means Episode 5 will detail the original outcome (or at least all 3 trial outcomes). SBS has only supplied 1 for preview.

There are 12 jurors who meet as strangers in a juror room, adjacent to the disused courtroom used for filming purposes. They range in age, ethnic background, life experience. Being SBS, this is quite varied.

They include funeral home director Monique, logistics manager Audrey, music graduate Tahi, children’s entertainer Van, sex therapist Anya, SCG groundskeeper Michael, ex-prison officer Craig, mensa expert Guy and the most outspoken of the bunch, Mishelle, who brought everybody a knitted ’emotional support potato.’

First task is to appoint a spokesperson which they decide to do after some greetings, candidates and anonymous votes. But already they group is forming allegiances, cliques, leaders and followers. Just how will these rudimentary societal structures influence the arguments and outcomes to come?

The crime centres around an elderly Italian gay man found dead at the bottom of a staircase following an argument with his partner, a younger Asian man. Producers will re-enact scenes of the fatal day which involve a juicer, operatic singing, paramedics, police and a bloodied staircase banister. Further scenes will restage police interrogation.

Actors also assume the roles of judge, prosecutor, defence as well as first witnesses: forensics, paramedics, police and detectives. All their dialogue can be drawn from police and court records. Another actor will sit throughout the trial as ‘the accused’ whom the jury scrutinise throughout for his reactions to court evidence and testimony. Question: do courtroom records take note of an accused’s reactions too? Not so sure…

The unscripted factor takes place in the jury room as our 12 are left to their own devices to react to what they have heard. Without giving too much away it’s safe to say there is a fair bit of division. There are conspiracy theorists, and there are those more guarded and reserved as the trial proceeds. Others still are practically Jessica Fletcher attempting to solve it all in record time.

What the doco demonstrates is how even amongst a group as small as 12, people receive the same information, yet can arrive at different conclusions.

Television also condenses the experiment for viewing purposes. I’m pretty sure the trial/s took a lot longer than the 5 hours of viewing offered here. But you’d hope producers staged it all for the jury before retiring to the edit suite.

If The Twelve is a drama equivalent of jury duty, then this goes into more detail than other TV juries: Survivor, Jury Duty, We the Jury, After the Verdict and Judge Judy (where she is judge and jury!).

It’s a fascinating, if somewhat dry, TV experiment which avoids a Menendez Brothers, The Staircase or Jon-Benet Ramsay dramatisation. Those also ask the audience to become jurors, but this dissects the deliberation experience.

If the legal system is one that intrigues, this will be one for you.

The Jury 8:30pm Wednesday on SBS.