U.S. v. Pickering

Dist. Ct. erred in finding that defendant was guilty of willful/criminal contempt for failing to report for jury duty in spite of having received summons to do so. Defendant explained that she merely forgot to appear for jury duty at time when she was experiencing difficult pregnancy, and when she was taking care of seriously ill mother, and Dist. Ct. essentially shifted burden of proof to defendant to convince him that she had not willfully disobeyed jury summons under circumstances where defendant gave her statement of reasons for failing to appear, and where govt. lawyer engaged in no cross-examination of defendant. Moreover, Dist. Ct. failed to cite statutory basis for finding defendant guilty of contempt. Fact that defendant did not appear for jury duty, by itself, did not establish proof that defendant had willfully disobeyed summons.