Jury duty today…

[A930Rocket]

I got my summons for jury duty a couple weeks ago. Checked last night and it was still on for today. Came in this morning and about 15 minutes after the trial was supposed to start, the judge came out to talk to us and let us know that the parties agreed out of court and he appreciated us showing up.

The young girl next to me stood up and was ready to book as soon as he said the trial would not happen. He did a quick look at her and she sat right back down, but on the edge of her seat. You could tell she didn’t want to be there and when he finally finished she ran from the front row out the back door.

My first thought was, I didn’t really want to be here, but on the other hand if nobody does it, the system doesn’t work. The judge asked how many people wanted to serve as a juror, and I was one of three that raised their hands.

What’s your experience?

[Cairo94507]

I believe it is a civil duty and I would love to serve on a criminal jury. But each time I get called, I get excused due to my careers.

I always find it amazing people just fail to appear and rarely anything happens to them. I also love that a lot of them all of sudden do not speak English sufficient to sit on a jury. Yet outside the courtroom, they are chatting up a storm in English....

[KFC911]

Here, we call in on Sun. night to see if we are required to show up on Monday ... the last few times, I haven't had to show up. Before this system .... mebbe 35 years ago I had to go (along with about 200 others) and sat in a huge room all morning ..... bored crapless... NOT a single person was called to begin the process . Prior to smartphones ... while at lunch I was paged for a serious problem at work (a major bank was essentially "down"), and I was the only one who could determine & fix the issue .... but I digress ....

I drove home to fix the issue remotely (it took a while) and never went back...

I like our current system .

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by KC911

Here, we call in on Sun. night to see if we are required to show up on Monday ... the last few times, I haven't had to show up.

My exact situation.

[flatbutt]

I've never ducked jury duty. I haven't been called in years. Serving nearly cost me my job once. I was working for a small company when JD came up. I was selected and it turned out to be a 3 month murder trial. The boss was pizzed and berated me severely for not "getting out of it". I had to leave the company after that, it was miserable there.

I often wonder why they haven't called me?

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Cairo94507

I always find it amazing people just fail to appear and rarely anything happens to them. ...

Geeze. When I had it in federal court, the judge boasted about sending US Marshals to arrest no-shows. He was a ball buster.

[GH85Carrera]

My last time I had to drive to the middle of Downtown, Oklahoma City and park in the parking garage across from the courthouse. They had employees on the bottom level of the elevator and the stairwell to show us where to go. Into a long tunnel under the street, into the courthouse and stand on a spot marked with foot size graphics in a really long line in the tunnel. We moved forward, slowly. Finally inside, go through security just like the airport, take off my belt and shoes, go through metal detector, put on my shoes while standing up, and continue on in.

We filled out the paperwork and had to have the paperwork they had mailed to us in hand. 30 minutes later we all go through another line and get juror badges. Sit back down, and wait for 45 minutes. They start picking names and they report off to the next phase. They never called my name, and they told us to go home and we were done. The room was mostly empty, and just the un-called were in there.

I was there at 8:00 AM and not out of there until almost noon. Just waiting. The parking garage was almost the entire cost of the check they sent me several weeks later.

I have been on other juries in the past. Never got to a trial for two of them. On one trial I was on a 18 year old kid broke the window of a car, and stole less than a dollar in change. His minimum sentences was to be several years in prison. The trial went for two days, and on the second day the judge sent us out of the courtroom, and when he had us return, he declared a mistrial. I remember thinking what a colossal waste of time and money for such a petty crime. There had to be more to it than the simple theft. I never found out what happened to the thief.

[Crowbob]

I tried three different tactics to get excused from selection. None worked. Murder trial. Husband v wife. He ended up dead with a butcher knife in his chest. Both had BAC > .4 the evening of July 4. We acquitted her (for two days the jury was stalled at 11-1 to acquit-I was the holdout). The pressure in deliberations was nothing like I had ever thought possible.

Prosecution ‘lost’ a crucial piece of evidence (which was an accordion-style door to the laundry area with blood splatter). Pictures of the crime scene were gruesome. Had expert testimony about blood splatter, anatomy, how long an obese person could stagger around with a knife stuck in his chest, etc.

Primary defense expert witnesses included a coroner who was the son of a (very) famous forensic coroner, another coroner from Detroit with tons of experience, of course, some doctors, a buncha other scientific people.

A couple years later the expert from Detroit was arrested and convicted for fraud. The lead defense counsel was a former prosecutor who eventually went to prison for conspiracy to murder for hire of another local attorney.

I tried my best, to no avail, to tell the other jurors that the medical evidence and the defendant’s story don’t add up. They (the other jurors) were completely twitterpated over the defense medical testimony and the unrelenting attacks on the responding LEO’s that were without merit, IMO.

I’ve always wanted to go back and fork over the cost of obtaining a complete transcript of the week-long trial and write a tabloid story about it. Grandkids came and interrupted that plan.

In retrospect, I will cherish the experience. I learned a TON about medicine, the law, jury-duty, social prejudice against men, rules of evidence, corruption, but most of all how powerful peer-pressure can be.

[nota]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

My last time I had to drive to the middle of

. On one trial I was on a 18 year old kid broke the window of a car, and stole less than a dollar in change. His minimum sentences was to be several years in prison. The trial went for two days, and on the second day the judge sent us out of the courtroom, and when he had us return, he declared a mistrial. I remember thinking what a colossal waste of time and money for such a petty crime. There had to be more to it than the simple theft. I never found out what happened to the thief.

really sounds like a case for jury to NULLIFY THE STATE TRYING TO IMPRISON A KID FOR A MINOR CRIME

I see the right of a jury to NULLIFY as the ONLY real reason for a jury
but the courts get real insane about that citizen RIGHT and try to block you from even knowing about jury NULLIFICATION

btw want off the jury just ask about when a jury SHOULD NULLIFY
AND YOU WILL BE OUT THE DOOR quickly

[Sooner or later]

Called 3 times. Never picked.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by nota

really sounds like a case for jury to NULLIFY THE STATE TRYING TO IMPRISON A KID FOR A MINOR CRIME

I see the right of a jury to NULLIFY as the ONLY real reason for a jury
but the courts get real insane about that citizen RIGHT and try to block you from even knowing about jury NULLIFICATION

btw want off the jury just ask about when a jury SHOULD NULLIFY
AND YOU WILL BE OUT THE DOOR quickly

Once we were dismissed, one of the other jurors whose brother is a cop said likely the kid had a very long and bad juvenile record, and the prosecutor wanted him off the streets.

[billybek]

I have been sent a Juror's Summons several times in the past when I was working on the tools. Each time I had returned the summons stating that I was an hourly employee and that being without wages would be a hardship for me.
Strangely enough, since I have been in a position at work where I could serve as a juror, I've never been asked.

[KFC911]

He didn't tell me until much later, but my cousin served on the jury that convicted "The Black Widow" 33 years ago. She poisoned her hubby (and 3 others earlier in life, it turned out) while being the grandmotherly, church going, caregiver, giving him food laced with arsenic .... horrible painful death over time.

She still sits on death row in Raleigh

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

What’s your experience?

I've been called twice and was seated both times. First was a dispute over the value of some property the state "eminent domained" to built I-675. We found for the state.

The second was a murder trial. I don't know why we were there. There was no dispute that the guy killed his wife, and only a weak argument that it was an accident. You don't walk into the bedroom and shoot your wife in the chest 3 times by accident. We found him guilty, but there were some interesting side issues. One juror didn't want to convict him because during the trial a couple of witnesses intimated that the wife was a lesbian. This one juror said, "Well if she was a lesbian she deserved to be shot" and wanted to let him go. Even if that was a legitimate reason to find the guy not guilty it was only these two witnesses making a vague claim that neither one of them tried to back up with anything, but he got really hot under the collar about it.
After the trial was over and they released the jury we were milling around the hallway and that same juror was talking to the prosecutor's mother. (Jean attended all his trials) Turns out one of the jurors was friends with the family of the prosecutor.
That prosecutor is now the governor of the State of Ohio.

[jamesnmlaw]

Apples and oranges. Judge declaring a mistrial is not the same as jury nullification of a judge's sentence.

[GG Allin]

I haven't received any mail in quite some time now for jury duty. My standard response is, find the nearest trash can. Reason being, they always want me to go downtown Chicago. Sorry, not going down there for anything. There are at least three court houses out here in the 'burbs by me, where "my peers" have court. Never do they want me to serve there.

[A930Rocket]

When I called last night to see if I needed to show up, they said yes. She said to call after 830 this morning to verify. I did, but I got a voicemail. At that point, I was already in the parking lot and fortunately was in Mount Pleasant and not downtown Charleston.

The last time I got summoned, was at least 40 years ago in Atlanta. I showed up, waited for a while, got asked few questions and I was dismissed.

[LWJ]

We have the call in the night before as well.

I did serve on a jury once. It was a wonderful reinforcement of sanity.

The jury was 100% set against giving the plaintiff ANYTHING. We all thought she was abusing the system. It was pretty great to see that all the jurors felt the same.

[GH85Carrera]

One of the times I was called up for jury duty, there was a big murder trial for a cop killer on the docket. I sure did not want to get into some long drawn out murder trial. Fortunately for me, I was not chosen for a jury at all and just went home.

I got called once for federal jury duty. It was the same process, only different courtrooms and a all different building. That courtroom is across the street from the Murrah building which is now the bombing memorial.

[Evans, Marv]

I was amazed to find out some time ago people here over 70 didn't have to serve on juries anymore. I'm not aware of the reason. I suppose they think once you get to seventy, your thought and judgement processes don't function anymore.