Jury Duty

[elijah23]

Well, I've been eligible for 27 years, and tomorrow I'll show up for my first summons. I hear people say all the time that they try desperately to get excused. I don't know. I'm not planning on trying to get on or get off. I'm just planning on showing up and doing what I'm supposed to do.

For those in other countries, our names populate the pool to draw from when we vote in elections. We show up, get hung down, rung down and all kinds of mean nasty and horrible things and told to sit on the Group W Bench. (Alice's Restaurant ) Then we get dismissed or selected to sit on a jury for one trial. It can last a day or weeks.

Any positive or negative experiences out there? Were you put on the Group W Bench? ;)

I've had jury duty twice. Both times I was selected to be one of those questioned by the lawyers. In both cases one of the lawyers then had me dismissed. Lucky me.

 

[Mike]

Wow Mike... well, a true snapshot of our society huh?.... Talk about a sense of entitlement. Brats... I'll bet both them younger ones will vote for Obama again too.

I'll probably offend somebody here, but whatever.... sounds like the guy is a scumbag. He gets bit, doesn't seek any help and works the rest of the day. If he had doctor bills I'd say pay his doctor bills and lost wages. At the very most, throw the guy two weeks wages based on last years W2 and call it a day... only so you don't have to argue about it.

20 grand huh? That's pathetic. I wonder if the home owner has that kind of cash, or if it will go against his home owners. I'd certainly want to look into the law on this one...

Jeff, I agree with your assessment of this guy. IMO, this was nothing but a money-grab. It's frustrating to see people abuse the system like this, and it's almost as frustrating having to argue against irrational fellow-jurors who are all too ready to shove cash at them... not their money, but another person's. Not that I would have appreciated giving much more of my time to this process, but I kinda wish a verdict would have required a consensus, because I would have held out for a long time.

It frustrated me that, as the foreman, I had to read that verdict without saying what my dollar figure would have been. The only thing close was being able to say this was not my verdict. But even with that, I couldn't say what it was. For all he knew, I had a higher figure than $20,000.

Anyway, enough about my experience. I hope to hear from someone else who has been involved on a jury. Even if you weren't selected and asked to leave, it's interesting to witness how the attorneys play chess to shape the jury in their client's favor.

 

[reba]

Same folks will cry when their insurance rates go up...

 

[jasoncran]

grr, my insurance has trippled in the past two years though i have made no claims nor has then been any hurricanes. plenty of retirees a grippin and them michanganders.

those michanganders sure a bunch of cry babies.only them canadians are worse!

 

[Mike]

grr, my insurance has trippled in the past two years though i have made no claims nor has then been any hurricanes. plenty of retirees a grippin and them michanganders.

those michanganders sure a bunch of cry babies.only them canadians are worse!

At least we Michiganders are smart enough to know how a ballot works and don't drag the country through gads of chads like Floridians do.

 

[AirDancer]

Uhmmm......... about many of those Floridians who had hanging chad disease....

they were from Chicago, where they did away with butterfly ballots years ago for electronic voting. That's why the results of Chicago mayor could definitely be announced 2 minutes after the polls closed. Of course, none of the polls had delivered their tallies yet....but then, I am talking about Chicago & politics....

(Downstate Illinois was still using the butterfly ballots, without worries about chads hanging; electronic voting became law state-wide 4 years ago.)

 

[jasoncran]

yes but many of them voters are also former michanganders. that cold weather tends force many a young or eldery who are sick of that sub artic weather to move here.

i can bust on florida as well. i do it all the time, that and republicans that are so into rush. remember i can do things in the summer year round that you cant do.lol. like if i had motorcycle ride it, or also , god forbid, golf.

 

[Bob Carabbio]

"I hear people say all the time that they try desperately to get excused."

That's difficult to do in Texas, unless there some REAL reason (other than conveience) you're there for the selection process.

The great and general rule is that in the jury selection process, the more you SAY (during the questioning period) the less likely you are to get on a Jury. Since my Aunt was run down by a drunken Boston Cop, and killed some years back (The Boston Police suggested STRONGLY to my family that it would be UNWISE to cause trouble), and my older daughter is an alcoholic, I'm automatically off any case that's alcohol related.

The Case I WAS selected to try took 3 days, and was the re-trial of a trucker that had "Zoned out", and ran his loaded semi at highway speed into the back of a line of stopped cars, killing two people. Fortunately another truck got in his way, or he'd have taken out many more.

We found him guilty, of course (wasn't any question about that). The DA (who was an officious little jerk) wanted us to PUT HIM AWAY (to "Send a message to other truckers") - so we gave him parole and no fines. The DA looked like he'd like to strangle each and every one of us. It was the most enjoyable part of the whole ordeal to take that idiot down a peg, or two.

The poor guy's "defense team" was totally worthless, and in fact, was the one who opened the door to us knowing that the trucker was "over his hours" since the police had lost the log book.

It would have been an entertaining comedy of errors, except that the jury chairs were uncomfortable - particularly after three days in 'em.

 

[Mike]

We found him guilty, of course (wasn't any question about that). The DA (who was an officious little jerk) wanted us to PUT HIM AWAY (to "Send a message to other truckers") - so we gave him parole and no fines.

What do you mean by saying "we gave him parole and no fines". What charge was he found guilty of? Manslaughter? When I read what you wrote, I was thinking "probation" where there is no jail time. Did you include jail time for him? It seems (not knowing all the facts) that he was negligent and caused the death of two people. I've always heard that called for some jail time.

Did you have different charges that you were considering, like 3rd degree murder, manslaughter, or negligent homicide? Did the defendant appear to be an innocent guy in the wrong place at the wrong time to you?

Very interesting...

 

[farouk]

The jury is supposed to protect the defendant from biased judges. Judges are supposed to protect the defendant and the prosecutor from biased juries.

Judges and juries are supposed to protect the defendant from biased prosecutors.

May God protect us all from biased juries, biased judges, biased prosecutors, biased plea-bargains, and from crimimals.