As Anna Frierson was exiting the polling location where she’d voted in Hamilton County’s 2024 election for circuit court judge, her father, Jim Frierson, asked her for the name of the candidate who’d received her vote.
“Alex McVeigh!” came Anna’s unhesitant reply, the elder Frierson recalls.
Frierson says he knew his daughter – a 27-year-old with Down syndrome – had voted for McVeigh because she’d followed his campaign with keen interest, scouring issues of Edge and Chatter magazine, as well as the Hamilton County Herald, for articles and photographs.
The seasoned civic enthusiast had also insisted her father drive her to where she could meet McVeigh on Election Day and take delivery of a campaign T-shirt the judge had grabbed for her.
Anna has been keeping abreast of local issues and voting for the candidates of her choice since she was 18. Since Anna is feeling too shy to comment, her father explains that he and her mother, Patti, have taught her to stay informed and be engaged in her community.
“We want Anna’s life to be about the things she can do, not about the things she can’t do,” Jim says.
Jim and Patti’s efforts have often succeeded beyond their initial hopes. When Anna has faced an obstacle some thought was too tall for her to scale, either she didn’t recognize it as such or her parents told her to start climbing anyway.
“[Patti] and I have encouraged Anna to do things we didn’t know were possible for her,” Jim says. “We feel comfortable with her being a part of whatever she sets her mind to do.”
Some of these opportunities were presented to Anna. For example, she became a Red Bank Middle School cheerleader after a teacher introduced her to the squad. In other cases, Anna initiated her participation. This was the case when she took culinary classes aimed at students with disabilities at Chattanooga State Community College.
But whether Anna was performing in a play at Lookout Mountain Elementary School, sprinting for Red Bank Middle School’s Special Olympics team, or holding down a job helping to prepare up to 2,000 meals a day for children at the YMCA, she’s always preferred to be playing rather than spectating, her father says.
“A different set of parents might have been concerned about easing Anna into things and sheltering her from possible failure. But there’s a big world out there and Anna needs to experience as much of it as she can.”
Anna’s civic participation now includes not only voting but also a cognitive understanding of the jury selection process and a willingness to serve as a juror, says her father. This new milestone is the upshot of an internship with the office of Larry Henry, who serves as clerk for Hamilton County’s circuit and sessions civil courts.
As clerk, Henry handles juror assignments for the courts. Working with his office placed Anna in the thick of jury orientation.
Anna’s most visible role came as she greeted potential jurors as they entered the jury assembly room for the first time. Jim says Henry told him that Anna’s presence at the check-in table would send a message to less-than-enthusiastic participants.
“Within any pool of 120 people who receive a summons, a third to a half come in complaining. ‘Why me? How do I get out of it?’ But they have no reason to be excused. Larry said Anna’s presence would help him with those people.”
Anna’s father has had his radar tuned to finding a way for Anna to learn more about the American jury system since she began working in a front desk role for Warren & Griffin in 2023.
“I wanted Anna to understand what’s taking place at Warren & Griffin and her role in those processes,” he explains.
As Jim waited for a blip on his radar, he researched whether Anna could serve on a jury, given her exceptional needs. He discovered a clear answer in the U.S. Constitution.
“I asked, ‘What are the rules for someone with an intellectual disability?’ And the law is clear: Disqualifying someone at the front end because of an intellectual disability is a violation of a person’s constitutional right to have a jury of their peers.”
In the constitutional context, “peers” refers to a cross section of the community, Jim contends, and 5-7% of any community as large as a county consists of people with intellectual disabilities, he adds.
Henry and Anna’s father devised the internship during McVeigh’s postelection celebration.
“I asked Larry if Anna could be exposed to the jury process,” Jim recalls. “He said he loved the idea because it would help her to connect the dots at her job.”
Anna served Henry’s office for six terms from August through December 2024. Once a pool of about 120 prospective jurors was assembled for an upcoming term, Henry would seat Anna at the front of the assembly and then he and Judge Boyd Patterson would introduce her as a volunteer intern and an honorary member of the clerk’s staff.
After Anna’s first day with Henry’s office, her mother wondered aloud if she was following the issues. Her husband cried foul.
“I said, ‘I don’t know if that’s a fair question. High school students come in and watch for an hour, but she’s getting the complete experience.’”
As Anna’s father looks backs on the things she’s experience, he says he’s grateful he and his wife raised their daughter in Chattanooga.
“Anna has truly benefited from the way things like this come together in Chattanooga. I can’t see all of these things happening in Atlanta or Washington, D.C. So, we thank God we’re here.”