Wisconsin judge helps jurors with trauma after tough trials
Jill Karofsky presided over her first homicide trial shortly after being elected to the Dane County Circuit Court in 2017.
The defendant in the case was accused of killing a 19-year-old woman and shooting another man in the face. Jurors were shown autopsy photos and other graphic evidence. They also heard testimony from the man who survived. He needed new teeth and pulled them out of his mouth to show jurors.
“The trial lasted a full work week, and I could just see as the time was passing that it was becoming more difficult for jurors,” says Karofsky, who is now chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. “I could tell there was some vicarious trauma taking place, and I asked my colleagues, ‘What do we do for jurors to help them process this?’
“And there was nothing. There were no services.”
Karofsky, who worked extensively with crime victims earlier in her career, long has understood the impact trauma has on everyone in the courtroom, including jurors. The New York Times recently highlighted a study showing as many as 50% of jurors who served in particularly violent criminal trials experienced symptoms of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Some jurors experienced symptoms for months.
“If there’s one thing we know about processing trauma, it’s that it happens through communicating about it,” Karofsky says. “But we’re telling jurors to do the opposite. We’re telling them to bury it deep, deep inside, and we’re telling them to do it for some period of time.”
During that first homicide trial, Karofsky discovered one of her colleagues had a sweet Labrador retriever named Ursa. She thought playing with Ursa could be therapeutic for the jurors, and after the bailiff checked to make sure everyone felt comfortable, they brought the dog in during lunch one day.
While the jurors appreciated the gesture, Karofsky says she “wanted to do things better” in other difficult trials. She previously served as the executive director of Wisconsin’s Office of Crime Victim Services, and during that time, she helped develop a brochure for jurors that described possible reactions to graphic testimony or images and how they could cope with them. She took that information and put it into a letter that she provided to jurors in her court.
Karofsky gave jurors her phone number and told them to call with any concerns. She also enlisted the help of Sandra Eugster, her friend and a local therapist. Eugster agreed to talk with any of Karofsky’s jurors who needed to process what they had seen and heard in the courtroom. Eugster would provide two post-trial sessions for free and, if they needed additional help, she could continue as their therapist or refer them to another practitioner.
Eugster, who saw some of these jurors, says Karofsky’s concern for their wellbeing is just one example of her drive to help those who may be overlooked by others.
“Whatever room she is in, Karofsky is acutely aware of the interests and perspective of every person in it,” says Eugster, who is now the owner of Madison Divorce Mediation in Madison, Wisconsin. “She consistently seeks out the least seen and heard participants, finds out what they need and does everything within her considerable power to address that need.”
Karofsky credits her background for giving her insight into the problems jurors face during and after tough trials.
Earlier in her career, she served as Wisconsin’s first violence-against-women resource prosecutor, where she assisted other prosecutors in the state with cases involving sexual assault, domestic violence and strangulation. She also was a prosecutor in the Dane County district attorney’s office, where many of her cases involved women and children who were victims of crime.
“I saw how trauma impacts people, and I saw how vicarious trauma plays its role in the system too,” Karofsky says. “It made me think a lot about what was happening to everyone in the courtroom.
“I was concerned for the jurors, but I was also concerned for my court reporter. I was concerned for my bailiff. I was concerned for my clerk.”
Karofsky also was affected by trials with graphic evidence, she adds. Before they started, she met with her own therapist to discuss how she could stay grounded. She met with her therapist again after they ended to process what happened.
“And I told the jurors I did that so that I could normalize the importance of debriefing with a professional in these situations,” Karofsky says.
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