Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury Part V: 10 to 8 Odds for Conviction and Fears of Women in the Jury Box

Many thanks to Sara Piasecki for commenting on the last blog post -- men were not flocking to the court for jury duty either! A "scarcity" of male jurors was one of the factors prompting the call for this all-female experimental jury. One of the complicating and interesting issues concerning this aspect of civic participation and equality is that jury service was not, and as Sara points out still is not, one of the most favored ways to express citizenship. Many people in December of 1912, male and female, appeared to see it as an "obligation" that was onerous and unpleasant. And this would figure into the continuing debate about women's jury service in the state.


The newspaper coverage of the experimental jury continued to be full of ambiguity, too, with some praise for the women who served but also with sensational claims that placed the women in a negative light and hostility and jokes about such service and the status of women as citizens. This ambivalence had been part of the suffrage campaign and newspapers were now applying it to this next phase of the campaign for women's civic rights.


As we've seen, the Oregonian published the "results" of the telephone summons of a number of Portland women and as the trial approached newspapers named various women as potential jurors. The articles suggested that most women did not want to serve. Even the Oregon Journal, more supportive of the just-completed successful woman suffrage campaign in Oregon, headlined "Women Anxious to Dodge Jury Duty" even though the text of the article recognized that men were not lining up for service. "That women are as anxious to escape jury service as men is shown by the efforts of the municipal court clerk to secure a list for the women jury," the paper noted, but the headline focused on women only.

"Women Anxious to Dodge Jury Duty," Oregon Journal, December 3, 1912, 17.

Meanwhile, as the municipal court prepared for the trial, the Portland Evening Telegram reported "a lively movement in the betting line and probably a score of wagers have been put up on the result" with 10 to 8 odds that the women would return a guilty verdict. "If the defendant was a man the betting might be different," the Telegram noted, "but the prisoner at the bar is a woman." And "to make the affair as interesting as possible, extra chairs will be provided in the courtroom to accommodate women spectators who may attend with the desire of learning some of the duties of citizenship"(to say nothing of other interested parties).

"It's 10 to 8 That Woman Jury Convicts," Portland Evening Telegram, December 3, 1912, 1.

The Telegram's editorial cartoonist prepared this front page commentary on women jurors the day the trial began, Wednesday, December 4, 1912:

"Trial by Jury," Portland Evening Telegram, December 4, 1912, 1.

"Trial by Jury" portrays a jury box filled with fashionable young women in front of a young and nattily dressed male defendant arrested ("pinched") and on trial for burglary. Their thoughts are not on justice nor their obligations as citizens; rather they coo "Isn't he handsome" as the exasperated judge strikes his gavel to restore order. Women jurors, the cartoon suggests, would disrupt the order of a courtroom and its civic proceedings and the community cannot expect justice from women who only consider the appearance of a criminal and can be easily fooled. (Throughout the subsequent campaign for women's jury service supporters would work to counter this image with that of serious female citizens on the one hand and male jurors dazzled by a well-dressed, beautiful female defendant on the other).


Come back to find out if the floorboards of the Portland Municipal Courtroom could withstand the stress of the crowds . . . and more on the construction of the image of the woman juror for Oregonians in this "experimental" all-female jury.

Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury, Part IV: The Oregonian Prints the Results of the "Telephone Summons"

On December 1, 1912 in a very long article (part of which is reproduced here) the Oregonian presented the specific reactions of the women telephoned about service on the "experimental" all female jury in police court. The list was different from the one reported by the Oregon Journal, with some of the same names but many others.

Judge Tazwell "appointed a citizen to draw the special venire, and he spent most of the afternoon at the telephone with a list of addresses before him and a very puzzled woman at the other end of the wire," the Oregonian reported. "Just for curiosity he jotted down the substance of the answers he received, and here they are. . ." Just for curiosity?

The paper did not identify this "citizen" but the Oregonian made much of the list, and of course mined the "substance" of the answers for press value. We can't know how accurate these "responses" were, but the report seems designed to highlight the idea that most women did not want to participate. The "experimental" all female jury came about, in part, because of a scarcity of men who would serve. But the humor that slid into ridicule at times in this report was loaded with negative views about the women who would not serve and shadowed even some of the women who agreed to serve with sarcasm.

"First Women Jury Has Woman's Case," Oregonian, December 1, 1912, 1, 13.

Mrs. A.E. Clark would "serve if needed, but I would not be tried by a jury of women myself." She also told the caller she would like to consult her husband (a lawyer). The caller noted that with emancipation women "don't have to consult the mister," to which Clark replied that women were not yet "accustomed to our new liberty."

Mrs. J.A. Dougherty thought it was a joke and "refused."

Esther Goodman, an opponent of woman suffrage, said she was not ready for jury service and declined.

Mrs. H. L. Chapin asked "who will the other women be?" and would serve "if my husband doesn't object."

Mrs. A.J. Capron said it "would be a great trial to me to go" and declined.

Mrs. Peter Borgan was at a loss for words and didn't think she could do it. She also wanted to consult with her husband and was dismissed.

Mrs. O.C Bortzmeyer accepted, as did teacher and suffragist May Newill (though she first said she "always understood that teachers were exempt.") Oregonian columnist Leone Cass Baer also agreed. "I always want to go where I can learn something new," she said, "even if it is to Police Court." (She would write about her experience as we'll soon see.)

Mrs. Jessie G. Bennett said no, and Mrs. George E. Bingham expressed only "frank personal distaste." Mrs. H. H. Herdman did not feel competent to serve.

Mrs. E. N. Blythe said that she had to care for her children, and Mrs. Harrison Allen also claimed "home cares." Mrs. William Beck declined due to illness in the family. Mrs. Byron Miller said she was no politician and would have to ask her husband.

Mrs. Lansing Stout declined, but noted that "I should think that you could get any number of the women who advocated suffrage." Mrs. T.L. Perkins said she needed more time to study and prepare.

Paul Bates had joked with his wife that she was now liable for jury service after reading about the experimental jury in the paper and she thought that the call was his joke. After finding it was real she agreed to serve. Mrs. O.K. Jeffrey also thought it was a prank, but she agreed when she found the call was legitimate. Mrs. W.T. Pangle agreed, stating that "if they are all women, I have no objection." She wanted, the Oregonian reported, to know who else was serving.

Suffragist Mary Cachot Therkelsen agreed, noting "I have the privilege of voting, and I will take all the responsibilities. And the Oregonian gave a paragraph to Viola Coe's response with different details that the Oregon Journal's version.

"'Yes, certainly, I shall be very pleased,' was the hearty response of Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe . . . Later the new 'juroress' burst in upon the assemblage at a room in her house where Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, Governor West, and a delegation of prominent suffragists had assembled to proclaim the adoption of the suffrage amendment, with the news of her selection. She and her announcement were received with hearty applause by those present, Governor West joining the acclaim."

The report concluded: "Wherefore, tomorrow morning, the blue-coated policeman on the beat will ring the bell at the doors of mansions, apartment houses and cottages, and will hand to ten delighted women their credentials as members of the first body of its kind to be brought together in the state. And two days later, the grimy Municipal Court will witness what it never saw before, six well-dressed and reputable women sitting upon the question of the guilt or innocence of one of their less fortunate sisters. It is predicted that there will be standing room only, and little of that, when the case is called."

Under the editorial watch of Harvey Scott, brother of suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway, the Oregonian had opposed woman suffrage until his death in 1910 and had given lukewarm attention to the 1912 campaign. The paper's coverage of the all-female jury contributed to the spectacle, and this particular report questioned most women's commitment to jury service as a civic duty and opportunity to exercise citizenship.

More on the build-up to the "standing room only" trial in the next post.

Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury, Part III: Abigail Scott Duniway Subpoenaed . . . for Jury Duty . . . and it's Optional . . . and Dangerous?

On December 2, 1912 the Portland Evening Telegram reported a new development in the building drama about the all-female "experimental" jury being formed: Judge George Tazwell decided to subpoena aging and controversial suffrage activist Abigail Scott Duniway for the jury panel.

"Mrs. Duniway Called to Serve Upon Jury," Portland Evening Telegram, December 2, 1912, 1

The Telegram reported Tazwell announced "that it would be no more than fitting to have her a member of the first woman jury." But the ill and aging activist was in "feeble health" and "if Mrs. Duniway feels equal to the occasion she will have to attend but if her health is such as to prohibit her appearance reply to the subpoena will not be insisted upon." As we'll see, this would later become an "honorary subpoena."

Given Duniway's contentious role in the suffrage campaign just completed in November 1912 and her desire for the limelight, it's interesting to note that Viola Coe, not Duniway, was the first woman to be called for this experiment. Duniway is not mentioned in the first list of women drawn. It would appear that Duniway or her supporters contacted the court or made a request that she be included to honor her work in suffrage and to signal the links between suffrage and jury service.

The Telegram article is also interesting because it reflects the growing interest in the trial among women who volunteered to serve. "Numerous applications have been received by Clerk Beutgen from women in all parts of the city who have volunteered their services, and several were quite insistent that they should be selected." Perhaps Duniway was among them?

"Much interest is being displayed in the case," the Telegram reported, "and a packed courtroom is expected. Special precautions will be taken by the police to check any demonstration, and several patrolmen will be assigned to special baliff duty." It's not clear whether the reporter believed that the women were going to demonstrate and be a dangerous threat or whether the danger came from others who felt threatened by women jurors.

More on the continuing developments in this "experiment" that was creating such a stir -- and causing anxious officials to take "special precautions."

Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury, Part II, Oregon Journal December 1 and 2, 1912

On Sunday, December 1, the Oregon Journal linked suffrage and jury service for women solidly in readers' minds by reporting on Viola Coe's response to the call to jury duty in Portland's "experimental" all-female jury.

"Suffrage Leader on Jury," Oregon Journal, December 1, 1912, 4.

 Coe was acting president of the Oregon Equal Suffrage Association, one of the groups that had worked to achieve the votes for women victory several weeks before. "Mrs. Coe was hostess at the gathering in her home . . . at which Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway signed Governor West's suffrage proclamation" when she received the telephone call asking her to serve on this jury. "'I accepted,' Mrs. Coe went on, 'because I think it is a woman's duty to perform jury duty when she is called now that she has all the rights of a citizen. I'd like to set a good example for future women jurors. I don't want to see women shirk jury duty as some of the men do. I don't believe they will.'"

The Journal also noted that the case would be "a little experiment by Municipal Judge Tazwell in the psychology of woman jurors." And further, that "Mrs. Coe and her five fellow juroresses" would try a case involving "a woman of the underworld, who is charged with maintaining a disorderly house."

The next day, Monday, December 2, the Oregon Journal provided the names of sixteen women who would receive a summons. The assistant city attorney Raymond Sullivan "called for a list as representative as possible, suggesting that the 16 names be drawn, thus giving each side a chance to object to any one considered prejudiced or not a fair juror for the respective sides."

"Panel of Sixteen Women is Called to do Jury Duty," Oregon Journal, December 2, 1912, 2.

The Journal listed those on the list with their addresses. With help from the 1912 Portland City Directory and other resources we can see who comprised this group and if they were indeed representative.

"Mrs. Levy Young, of Meier & Frank's department store"
(listed in the Directory as Levi and as a department manager at Meier and Frank)

"Mrs. Gee, employed with Neustadter Bros."
(Lizzie Gee was the president of United Garment Workers Local 228 in Portland ["Garment Workers' Officers, Portland Labor Press, January 11, 1912, 8] and listed in the Directory as the widow of David H Gee. Gee would be a candidate for Oregon State representative, 18th district, with the progressive party and was part of the Esther Pohl Lovejoy for Congress Committee in 1920 -- you'll have to wait for the Lovejoy biography to learn more!)

"Miss Mamie Gaffney, 93 East Fifteenth Street"
(listed in the Directory as Mary F Gaffney, a bookkeeper at C R Winslow Company, press agents. Gaffney worked on the 1912 suffrage campaign with Esther Lovejoy and others. See "Suffragists Hold Initial Banquet," Oregon Journal, February 11, 1912, 4.)

"Mrs. Julia Kirk Sayer, Yeon Building"
(listed in the Directory as Julia Sayre-Kirker, Public Stenographer, with her office at 1404 Yeon Building -- she took out the following ad in the business section under "Stenographers" suggesting a good measure of success in her field. Many stenographers were members of the Stenographers Equal Suffrage League -- see Karin Traweek's article on the Century of Action website.)

"Mrs. Julia Kirker Sayre, Stenographer," Portland City Directory, (Portland, Polks, 1912), 1926.

"Mrs. Fowler, with the Pacific Telephone Company"
(not identifiable in Directory listings)

"Mrs. John F. Logan, wife of attorney Logan"
(Mrs. Logan worked on the 1912 suffrage campaign with Esther Lovejoy and others. See "Suffragists Hold Initial Banquet," Oregon Journal, February 11, 1912, 4.)

"Mrs. O. C. Bortzmeyer, 704 East Ankeny street"
(The Directory lists O.C. Bortzmeyer as a cashier for Merchants Savings and Trust with no listing for her.)

"Mrs. I. M. Bohansen, 405 Jefferson street"
(not listed in Directory)

"Mrs. J. H. Ray, East Thirty-second and Flanders streets)
(Joseph H Ray at this residence listed in the Directory a part of the real estate firm of Wyatt, Estabrook & Ray)

"Laura Vinson, 1024 Holgate Street"
(Laura Vinson is not listed in the Directory but Burr Vinson, a carpenter, Iliff J. Vinson, a clerk at the U.S. News Company, and Truman Vinson, a blacksmith, are listed at 1024 Holgate Street. The 1910 Census lists Laura as Burr's wife and the mother of Truman and Iliff. Thanks Ancestry.com!)

"Mrs. W. T. Pangle, Oregon hotel"
(W.T. Pangle, according to the Directory, was the manager of the Helig Theater)

"Mrs. L.W. Therkelsen, 329 Eleventh Street"
Mary Cachot Therkelsen had trained as a physician in San Francisco and was a strong suffragist in the 1912 campaign and a member of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage through 1920. She was the widow of Portland business leader and former manager of the Portland Pacific Lumber Company Lauritz Therkelsen. You'll be able to find more information about her in my upcoming biography of Esther Lovejoy.)

"Mrs. A.C. Newell, 744 Hoyt Street"
(May E. Newill (sometimes spelled Newell in the press reports) was a teacher and an active suffragist with the Portland Woman's Club Campaign Committee and other organizations. See, for example, "Suffragists Name Central Committee," Oregon Journal, March 9, 1912, 2)

"Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe, 841 Lovejoy street"
(As we've seen, Viola Coe was acting president of the Oregon Equal Suffrage Association. Trained as a physician she was apparently not practicing; she was the wife of prominent Portland doctor Henry Waldo Coe. See Jennifer Newby's essay on Coe on the Century of Action website for more information.)

"Mrs. Paul Bates, 493 Hassalo"
(Directory lists Paul Bates as an agent with McCargar, Bates & Lively, Insurance Agents)

"Mrs. A. E. Clark , 319 Johnson street"
(Mrs. Clark was a prominent and active suffragist with many local organizations including the Portland Equal Suffrage League, the College Equal Suffrage League, and the Oregon State Equal Suffrage Association. See, for example, "Cartoon Theories on Suffrage are Generally Supplanted Now, Oregonian, September 22, 1912, 2:18. Her husband A. E. Clark was a prominent attorney.)

Representative? Well, this initial list included stenographers, a labor leader, working and professional women and wives of prominent businessmen. Many had been suffrage supporters.

The Journal reported that two women had called "volunteering their services as jurors." We will see more women doing this in the next several days of reporting about this story -- they wanted a chance to show their support and to participate.

At this point the two women who volunteered were:

"Mrs. Ida B. Kayser, 491 East Thirty-third street"
(Listed in the Directory as the widow of Clement E Kayser)

"Mrs. L. G. Carpenter, 972 East Stark Street"
(As you'll see from the entry in the Directory below, her husband L.G. Carpenter was the Superintendent of the Coast Detective Bureau.)

"L.G. Carpenter, Superintendent, Coast Detective Bureau, Portland City Directory (Portland: R.K. Polk, 1912), 1784.

Next -- the Oregonian weighs in -- and gives transcriptions of the telephone conversations with prospective women jurors -- both those who wanted to serve and those who declined.

Portland's "Experimental" Woman Jury, Part I, November 30, 1912

Jury service embodies many aspects of the rights and obligations of equal citizenship. Citizens who serve on juries participate in the exercise of the laws and the democratic process beyond the act of voting. Many women and their supporters in Oregon in 1912, as elsewhere, saw this as both a right (the ability to serve had been limited to men and they wanted to exercise this right) and an obligation (taking the time to serve) of citizenship. They also believed that having a "jury of one's peers" was an important right for female defendants.

Chapters in two thoughtful monographs explore the general U.S. story of jury service for women: Linda Kerber's No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998) and Gretchen Ritter's The Constitution as Social Design: Gender and Civic Membership in the American Constitutional Order (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006). Kerber (p. 131) notes that in the U.S. the "founding generations understood juries as the place where the people continued their participation in lawmaking." But questions about whether women and men were "peers" and if women should participate as full citizens continued to the twentieth century and remain today. Ritter (p. 103) notes that "the concept of jurors as peers suggests very different ways of thinking about  . . . the ways that women bring their lived experiences to the exercise of their civic duties. Further, jury service is a more substantial commitment, in terms of time and effort, to civic participation -- a commitment that brings people more fully into the workings of the state and more intimately into contact with other citizens." 

These questions came front and center in the Oregon jury service debate, a story that has not been studied deeply by other scholars.


As we've seen, Oregon attorneys were divided over whether the achievement of woman suffrage meant that women could serve on juries and that November Attorney General Andrew Crawford had not yet announced a definite opinion on the matter. And Bend suffragist Hattie Corkett had served as "forewoman" of a jury there during the week of November 25, 1912, likely the first in Oregon to do so.


On Saturday, November 30, judges and attorneys in a Portland police court decided to have an "experimental" all-female jury. Oregonians were debating the question of women's jury service, Bend had been first to seat a woman juror and just that day, November 30, Governor Oswald West signed the suffrage proclamation written by the aging icon Abigail Scott Duniway at the Portland home of Viola Coe. 

Portland's two evening papers reported the news of the all-female jury on their front pages and introduced a variety of themes that would continue to be part of the story. The Evening Telegram situated the case in the middle of the debate about women and jury service. Municipal Court Judge George Tazwell, Deputy City Attorney John Cahalin and defense attorney Will Farrell met and agreed to "waive any legal bar to the use of women as jurors" in the case of Marcelle Bortelle "charged with vagrancy." It would be the first all-female jury, a point not lost on the participants. The question was a disputed one "among attorneys," the Telegram story noted, "as some assert that the enfranchisement of women at the recent general election modifies the state constitution, and consequently the code which is based on the constitution, while others assert that an amendment to the code must be made before women can be eligible to serve." This report also indicated that the court suffered from a "scarcity of male jurors in recent trials" (a theme that will continue in this story as well).

"First Oregon Jury of Women to Try Woman," Portland Evening Telegram, November 30, 1912, 1.

The Oregon Journal report echoed the news that the case would feature the first "complete jury" of women in the state but added important new details. Marcelle Bartell (or, as the Journal noted, "a woman giving the name of Marcelle Bartell") was charged with "conducting a house of ill repute at Fourth and Burnside streets." Police had her "place under surveillance for several days" and then raided it, arresting the "Bartell woman" that Thursday evening.


These new details suggested that "good" women of Portland, performing their civic duty, would be called to judge a "bad" woman who ran a house of prostitution. Were all of these women "peers" because of their gender? Could women better judge other women? Might they be more harsh than male jurors in judging a madame? Would "good" women be sullied by the details of illicit sex that would come up in the trial-- something that opponents of women's civic equality charged would be the downfall of womanhood, morality, and civilization? Participants and reporters would magnify these themes in the coming days.


The Journal story also noted that "speculation around the municipal court circles as to the outcome is now made; even men are offering to bet on the outcome."

"Woman Jury Will be Used in Trying Case in Municipal Court," Oregon Journal, November 30, 1912, 1.

Who would be subpoenaed? How would the trial evolve? Come back for the next installment.

Hattie Corkett First Woman Juror November 1912

In her chapter on women and jury service in No Constitutional Right to be Ladies (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998) Linda Kerber reminds us that many women considered the call for jury service to be a second suffrage campaign. This was true for many Oregon women, including Hattie Corkett of Bend.

Hattie Corkett, Oregonian, November 30, 1912, 6.

As we've seen, the question of whether woman suffrage meant that Oregon women could also serve as jurors was not, apparently, officially settled. In some communities court staff called women to service soon after the election.

In Bend during the week of November 25, 1912 Hattie Corkett became the first woman in central Oregon and indeed perhaps the first woman in the state to serve as a juror after the November 5, 1912 election.  According to the Bend Bulletin two other women, Mary E. Coleman and Mrs. C.D. Brown, were called but not selected. Corkett's five male "co-jurors made her foreman, or rather, forewoman." On November 26 "about half of Bend quit work" to attend the trial to see Corkett.

The Oregonian noted: "That she happens to be an ardent suffragette, and worked for the suffrage amendment during the recent election, adds further to the interest of her unique position."

The coverage of the trial (regarding who owned a calf and who was liable for its expenses) in both the Bend and Portland papers reflects the interest in women jurors but also questions about their entrance into the male domain of the jury box. The Bend Bulletin reported that "the new order of things was introduced at the outset by Justice [Ward H.] Coble, whose first case it was, by a graceful announcement that inasmuch as the fair sex was to participate, smoking would be tabooed in the court room. He also warned against careless use of language, a warning that had to be repeated on several occasions as the trial progressed, eliminating or at least expurgating some of the proffered testimony."

"Choose Woman Jury Foreman," Bend Bulletin, November 27, 1912, 1.

"Bend Woman First," Oregonian, November 30, 1912, 6.

A week later Portland began its own dramatic experience with women and jury service that would also highlight the complex and strong feelings in support of and in opposition to women's expanded civic roles. Stay tuned for the story of this "experimental jury" that includes an "honorary subpoena" for Abigail Scott Duniway, reporting by juror and Oregonian columnist Leone Cass Baer, and a controversial role for suffrage stalwart William M. "Pike" Davis.

Women and Jury Service in Oregon: Raising the Question in November 1912

Following the successful campaign for woman suffrage in Oregon in November 1912 supporters turned their attention to the many ways that women could exercise the rights of citizenship and fulfill their civic obligations. I have and will continue to blog about women and office holding, with emphasis on Esther Lovejoy's run for U.S. Congress in 1920, the Oregon Women's Legislative Council and other civic claims by women in the state in this period. And I'm also interested in unique and informative story of jury service for women in Oregon.

As the following newspaper reports from November 1912 reveal, jury service for women became a question even before the results of the election were tabulated.

On November 3, two days before the election, the Oregonian reported that "considerable opposition has developed to the suffrage amendment among voters who express themselves as being highly favorable to giving the women the ballot, but who are opposed to their being harassed with the onerous duties of the juror."

Oregon law defined jurors as "male" but the question was whether an amendment to the state constitution removing the word "male" from voting statues would also imply that women could be jurors. But some attorneys in Salem contended that a ballot victory for woman suffrage "would not automatically operate" to make women "subject to jury duty."

Attorney General Andrew Crawford could not make a definitive statement about the matter at the time. But he did tell the Oregonian that he had no doubt "but a law could be passed by the legislative assembly exempting women from jury duty and that such a law would be constitutional and not deny to all the equal protection of the laws."

The Attorney General was not sure, and the matter was "undecided," but the Oregonian ran the headline "Women Not to be Jurors."

"Women Not to be Jurors," Oregonian, November 3, 1912, 4:11.

On November 9, the Oregon Journal reported that "Woman May Vote But She Cannot Sit Upon a Jury," but gave no official statement by the Attorney General or anyone else about this assertion. The Journal used the authority of the existing statute that defined jurors as men.

 

"Woman May Vote But She Cannot Sit Upon a Jury," Oregon Journal, November 9, 1912, 1.

Medford, Oregon women were having none of it. Members of the Medford Equal Suffrage Association protested immediately. At a banquet celebrating the victory of the woman suffrage amendment members resolved: "'We protest against any curtailment of our rights . . . and maintain that if suffrage is granted this is an implied amendment to the constitution and wherever the word man is used woman is included.'"

"Jury Rights Demanded," Oregonian, November 10, 1912, 4.

This was just the beginning. Come back to read about the continuing story, including fears that the floor of the courtroom would collapse in Portland in early December because of the crowds attending a trial with an "experimental" all-woman jury.