mommaB

I've been called for jury duty 3 times. Always for the county, not the feds. They say its a random pick of registered voters. They pay you here, but in the city it barely covers your parking fees and lunch!! I work for a huge corporation, so they do pay us anyway. I sat on a civil jury for a guy who said working in a blueprint company caused his asthma, but he was still smoking (and I was a smoker at the time also) and his disability didn't stop him from hanging out on the fence at the race track in all the dust! He lost!! And I've been on 2 rape cases. One guy we convicted and he got 25 years, could try for probation after 7. its a little creepy to think he might be out there now with my name and address... I just had a feeling he was guilty from the start, tried to keep an open mind, but after the girl he raped got up and testified, I had no doubt, neither did anyone else on the jury!! After the trial and we were released, the judge talked to us and said we did a good job, that this wasn't the first time this guy had raped, but this young lady was the first willing to go through with a trial. It was nice to get that feedback from him. the second rape case, we let the guy go. It was back and forth for me until it came out at the end that the girl accusing this guy was pregnant. She was white, he was black, and her family was as prejudiced as could be. The impression I got, since she didn't accuse him until after she found out she was expecting(yes, after, no DNA testing, no rape kit) was that she was looking for an excuse for her family. He had no problem admitting he'd had sex with her when and where she said, but that she consented. Again, we got a thumbs up from the judge when he spoke to us after the trial.
I was called again after that, and sat waiting to be called into a courtroom for two weeks!! I got alot of reading done, and learned to play euchre!!

I think its a great experience everyone should go through. It is nothing like you see on TV and quite an eyeopener!!

Lisanne

The trick is not to ask to be let off, but to make yourself sound like someone they wouldn't want on the jury. Talking too much, the way Cathy did, or whining or making yourself sound biased and opinionated would do it. Not that I'm advocating it, but OTOH part of a fair trial is having a jury that's willing to be there and carefully consider the evidence rather than having their decision be based on someone's desire to get back to work.

What you'll get asked really depends on the case. If it's not a death penalty case, they won't ask your feelings about it. Also first impressions - if you looked like someone who wasn't a problem for either side, they'd pick you and rserve their battles for other candidates.

zyxquilts

I've been called to jury duty several times, but only once was I actually picked to sit on the jury. My employer does not pay me if I'm not at work.
In Los Angeles County, the only people who can be excused from jury duty without question are police officers. Everyone has to show up if their group is picked (we have to call in the night before for 5 days). No financial hardship or anything else will be pre-excused. That time I was selected, in my group was the past head judge of the Superior Court! He actually had been the boss of the judge of this trial. lol As soon as his # was called to go sit in the jury box, the first attourney that spoke excused him - the judge laughed & said that, darn, he was looking forward to talking about his jury experience at his hext Kiwanis (or Elks or some service club) meeting!
Anyway, as I sat in the jury box, I got more & more stuffed up, but didn't notice at first. Then they sent us out to the hallway for 10 minutes & I DID notice that I could breathe again. As soon as I was back in the courtroom, sinuses snapped shut again! So I raised my hand & told the judge that I was having trouble breathing in there. The judge asked if I could take 'something' for it & I told him that I had already taken my allergy pill that day. Then he told the bailiff to find me a breathing apparatus!! Luckily, one of the lawyers excused me on the next round, so I didn't have to sit there with a big breathing mask on my face. Sheesh!

mimisharon

I've been called twice, excused once. The second time I sat on jury for a crack dealer. He proved he was guilty himself, but they went through the motion of the trial. Because he was only 25 there were folks on the jury that wanted to give him the benefit of a doubt and not sentence him to hard time. It was his 4th conviction, they were convinced he was guilty just didn't want to "warp" him with to much prison time.

I listened to all the evidence, I listened to him stumble around on his answers, I listened to the charges he could be convicted of. Then the jury voted once, guilty.

I would always do my duty. We got $9 a day but I turned it in to my principal and they paid me my wages. It was interesting seeing people try to get out of jury duty. That's the judges nightmare!

Interesting question!

bearisgray

I do wonder how much value to put on a witness's testimony -

I sometimes (frequently) can't remember what I did ten minutes ago - let alone x amount of time ago.

And how accurate is a person's recollection of an event? Ask ones' kids when they are squabbling - there are as many accounts of the event as there are kids in it.

And is the witness really allowed to tell the whole thing? Or are the questions skewed to only highlight one thing ?

MCH

I have been summoned several times. In the county where I live in CA, the names are picked from a database of driver's licenses and voter registration. I get at least one jury summons / year, as my driver's lic. includes my full middle name and my voter registration has my middle initial. I can tell which database they used for a particular summons. :)

I did "make it to the box" during one sojurn in Superior Court. It was a criminal case. The defendant already had 2 felonies on his record (in CA, if you get 3, you get a loooooooooooooooong stay at the Graybar Hotel). Two of the charges against him were felonies. He was a certified dirt-bag, but was cleaned up and suited up to look like a human being.

All potential jurors were required to complete a multi-page questionnaire and turn it in the first day. We were required to return the next day for jury selection.

The next day I was called to answer questions from the prosecutor and the defense lawyer. The prosecutor loved my responses and was very happy with me.

The defense attorney was not happy with me.

You see, my answers to the questionnaire indicated that I had been very pleased with the criminal justice system in CA as the twit :evil: who attacked my son sevreal years ago did time in prison for the crime. My son filed "assault with intent to do great bodily harm" charges against the jerk. That charge is one notch below attempted murder. Once testimony began in the pre-trail hearing, there was no way the creep would win and his lawyer basically threw up his hands and told the defendant he was toast.

Thus, this defense attorney knew my story and wanted me to recount it in the courtroom. I did...and you could hear gasps when I said my son was in surgery for 10 hours being put back together and flat-lined 4 times. :cry:

Then, the defense attorney started aggressively questioning me, making comments about my rigid attitude, and asked me to imagine if my son had been in his client's position, that of defendant. I looked him as if he had suddenly gone off the rails.

Immediately, the judge stopped all the proceedings. She very forcefully and publically rebuked the defense attorney for his line of questioning.

As expected, I was released from jury duty that day. As for my son, he's fine...God and highly skilled orthopaedic surgeon took good care of him.

All this having been said and taking into consideration all the inconvenience and hassle jury duty involves, I believe a trial by jury (an American right), is much better than a trial the verdict of which is decided by a 3-person tribunal comprised of judges or legal "experts".

Having said that, do NOT get me started on a rant about the criminal appeals' process in the country. The trial may be speedy, but the appeals process drags on and on like a bad rash.

You'll never get rich as a juror, but you'll be enriched by the process. It's an education -- on many levels

m.

sewmuch

MCH: an education for sure, it is....I also found it very interesting......and...sometimes things do go right......

2wheelwoman

I've actually lost count of how many juries I've been on. A few times I was certain that I would be excused - but still got seated. One was drug possession with intent to sell. I told them that by BiL was a narcotics prosecutor, and got seated anyway. :shock: I was on two different domestic abuse cases, even after disclosing that I'd been a victim of this in the past (not my sweet DH now), and still got seated on both. :shock: One was really hard because the children testified. That was so heartbreaking. I've also been on a burglery one, two assault ones, and started an attempted murder of a police officer one. That one ended up with a middle-aged or older jury of the most conservative looking people you could find, and the defendant plea bargained on the second day. He knew he was a goner with this group, particularly since there were a lot of witnesses. I served just another day on a property damage and unlawful restraint one, which luckily was plea bargained shortly after the trial started. Everything was being translated from arabic and it was really hard to follow. Those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.

I was excused from one because I learned too much. I was trying to still run my department via telephone during breaks and after being in the courtroom, so I was leaving a little late. I was still wearing my Juror badge, and ended up in an elevator with the defendant and his attorney on an assault trial that just started. They still talked about the trial, and I heard enough to know he was way quilty. :evil: I told the judge (via a note) I could no longer be unbiased, and they excused me.

The first assault one was a nightmare - the defendant actually said - under oath - that he chased this guy down and hit him on the back of the head with a 2x4, but we had one elderly man on the jury who was extremely bizarre and kept saying things like it may have been self-defense, or maybe the victim taunted him, etc. That went on for daaayyys - in July, with no a/c in the jury room. He admitted at one point that he loved being on jury duty and would keep holding out as long as he wanted. He's lucky HE survived jury duty. The one thing I REALLY learned is that a jury of your peers can be a scary thing to count on.

I do think I was able to listen and judge fairly, even given my background with some of the charges. We let one domestic abuser go because the wife's story clearly just didn't hold together. I thought I might have issues with that trial, but it was an easy decision.

It's a fascinating process and you do really have to listen and take notes. It's interesting how the attorneys can say something - without really saying it. For instance, in one trial the defendant was an admitted drug user. The attorney apparently wasn't allowed to tell us that he'd been in trouble before, but could ask the cop under oath if he was familiar with the guy. Yes. Did he go to his house and arrest him. Yes. Did he know where he lived. Yes, he was very familiar with it. It made it clear that he was well known to the cops, without actually stating the guy had been in trouble before. It's also fascinating to me how they pick a jury. The one who tried to kill the cop had a conservitive jury. The one for the drug dealer looked like a bunch of college kids with only a couple of us grown-ups. They each have their own 'flavor.'

I do love hearing "the rest of the story" from the attorneys. Several times we were able to learn about prior arrests after the fact, and it only reinforced our decision. I've never second-guessed any of them.

Oh gosh, sorry this is so long. :oops: Guess I've served too often and talk too much! :lol:

Lisanne

MCH and 2wheelwoman, both your stories were fascinating. Thanks for sharing them, and no, they weren't too long.

Mousie

2wheelwoman, I am finding these accounts, very enlightening, and I really got a lot of insight to some of the process from this thread,...talk away! :D