Jury Duty
Just did my duty earlier this week as a member of a panel of 13 jurists in my counties circuit court. It was a very petty case and I was really upset that our local gov't went to all of the expense and time to make it to trial. The assistant prosecutor handling things looked to be about a week out of high school and needed constant advise and tutorage from the chief prosecutor and the judge.
I concluded that this hearing was merely an educational step in training for a someday (maybe) prosecutor!
Anyway, my main reason for sharing this experience is more about how things have changed over the years. This was my 2nd jury duty in my lifetime, my first was a much more exciting murder\bar room brawl trial that lasted a full 2 weeks way back in the summer of 1982. During this time, all of the members of the jury got to know each other pretty well. Although we were not allowed to even start talking about the case until the deliberations (trials end), we all shared our life stories, our work, family stuff, and our interests with each other daily while we had to leave the court room and sit around the big table in the jury room.
Back then, this room was equipped with an always going coffee pot, hot water and envelopes for hot chocolate, packaged snacks & cookies, and enough ash trays for 13 smokers! Most of them were heavily used as well.
Flash forward to 2019. The same jury room with coffee pot and nothing else. 13 jurors sitting around the big table, 12 of them looking steadily forward into their smart phones. Most of them punching buttons. Nobody saying a single word to one another. Me, the only one without one of those "anti-social" contraptions tries to liven things up with a few jokes. Mostly related to smart phones. I only got several dirty looks and a couple of irrelevant comments and then back to the quietness of a mortuary.
I have concluded that I am an old fossil and will remain content to stay that way!
I concluded that this hearing was merely an educational step in training for a someday (maybe) prosecutor!
Anyway, my main reason for sharing this experience is more about how things have changed over the years. This was my 2nd jury duty in my lifetime, my first was a much more exciting murder\bar room brawl trial that lasted a full 2 weeks way back in the summer of 1982. During this time, all of the members of the jury got to know each other pretty well. Although we were not allowed to even start talking about the case until the deliberations (trials end), we all shared our life stories, our work, family stuff, and our interests with each other daily while we had to leave the court room and sit around the big table in the jury room.
Back then, this room was equipped with an always going coffee pot, hot water and envelopes for hot chocolate, packaged snacks & cookies, and enough ash trays for 13 smokers! Most of them were heavily used as well.
Flash forward to 2019. The same jury room with coffee pot and nothing else. 13 jurors sitting around the big table, 12 of them looking steadily forward into their smart phones. Most of them punching buttons. Nobody saying a single word to one another. Me, the only one without one of those "anti-social" contraptions tries to liven things up with a few jokes. Mostly related to smart phones. I only got several dirty looks and a couple of irrelevant comments and then back to the quietness of a mortuary.
I have concluded that I am an old fossil and will remain content to stay that way!
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even if they had put the phones down, it has been my experience lately the new milenial crowd has nothing to talk about I could understand or really want to. Met a whole bunch at my sons wedding, he teaches colledge math and almost all the math department was there, and while they may be book smart, not one had as much common sense as my 9 year old granddaughter... one of the girls in charge had butch haircut, tatoos over allmost her entire body and that pinkish/green coolaide colored hair and she travels the world for the colledge, I may be old fashioned too, but I just cringe at the thought of her being the first thing folks see and remember as the face of the colledge.... 0 -
I would cringe at the thought that she could be the first thing I saw when I woke up in the morning...... 0 -
a judge ALLOWS phones in a jury room ??????????????? guess a trial is just a temporary inconvenience for citizens ......... 0 -
I too am shocked that they didn't confiscate every last phone. Allow jurors to access social/media stories about the trial they are on? Grounds for immediate dismissal if I were the defense attorney. 0 -
Everywhere I go I look around and it seems to me that 95% of the people are staring at their phones unless they are in motion and even then they are looking at them.
I stop at a light and look around and just about everyone in on their phone.
Go to a restaurant people are on the phone even people sitting together.
Waiting room..........bingo same same.
Me I take a book when I know I will have a long wait........it must blow peoples minds.
I have a funny story about Jury Duty:
My Dad was 85 and had just gone into the Rest home because he had dementia bad. I got his mail changed to be delivered to me so I could pay bills and such. Well he gets a jury summons(I was shocked he is 85! I figured there was an age limit)
So I call the clerk of courts in DeKalb Co Georgia and I tell LaDasha that my Dad has Dementia and is in a nursing home. So she tells me I have to get all this paperwork together from 2 Dr's and have it notarized and bring it to court.......ect..ect
I tell LaDasha who probably weighed 300#'s and has fingernails 9" long and doesn't move from here desk unless its to eat(I have been to the court many times), that I live in NC and it really isn't convenient for me to go through all that and would she just not take my word for it.............No way
So I told her I am not doing all that and to come put my Dad in jail, He would still get 3 hots and cot and I would be saving about 6K a month.
She didn't think that was funny and I really didn't GAS..........So now there is probably a warrant out for my Dads arrest :shock:0 -
Thank you, Brookwood, for doing your duty. 0 -
My mother always dreaded getting called for Jury duty. For many years, she refused to register to vote because she thought that the picked jurors from the voter registration list.
A year ago, on October 30, she died. In August of this year, she got a summons to serve on a Jury in September. I called the courthouse to explain that she would not be appearing. The lady who answered the phone is a friend of ours. She told me that she had removed my mother's name when she died last year. I said that apparently she is still on some list, and I expect she'll be voting Democrat in the next election (which would make her turn over in her casket, if she knew).0 -
My Daughter lives in Arizona and had just started a new job a few months ago when she was called for jury duty.
Some face tattooed gang member kidnapped and murdered someone and shot at the police.
When she was interviewed, she said "he looks guilty to me!" And They picked her! She was trying to get sent home! Her new employer would not pay her for time off.
Any way, it was almost a month and whatever county in Arizona paid the difference between what she should/would have been paid by her employer and the little bit jury duty pays so financially she came out about even.
Oh yeah, they found the thug guilty on like 9 of 10 counts. He will be busy for quite some time.....0 -
I have served on several juries over the years (2 in 1 week).
It has been my experience that of the people that are ultimatly selected, 8 out of 12 are not only not smart enough to avoid jury duty, they are so stupid they should never be let out of the house without an escort!
The other 4 juriers however (trying to perform their duty), are disillusioned forever after their experience.
Smart lawyers are fully aware of this and use it to their advantage. Hence, your wealth DOES determine your outcome, if you are the defendant.
I have maintained for many years that prosocution deals should be outlawed. A defendant should be charged with the crime the evidence points to, period. If the evidence isn't there -- move along.
Too many jurys are swayed into conviction. And aquitial.
Just my experience.0 -
well i would rather be tried by 12 than carried by 6...but i have seen some STUPID juries and JUDGES like the one that gave the token sentence to the woman cop in Dallas for murdering a man in his own apartment when when she was at the WRONG PLACE.....stupid FKN judge 0 -
I hate Iphones. They are very destructive. People no longer talk to each other, face to face. Instead, they send text messages on those damned Iphones, to someone far far away.
Face to face conversation has been a vital part of human society for tens of thousands of years. It is the glue that holds society together. And in ten years, it has been destroyed by the damned Iphone.
We are only beginning to understand how much damage these devices cause.0 -
allen griggs wrote:I hate Iphones. They are very destructive. People no longer talk to each other, face to face. Instead, they send text messages on those damned Iphones, to someone far far away.
Face to face conversation has been a vital part of human society for tens of thousands of years. It is the glue that holds society together. And in ten years, it has been destroyed by the damned Iphone.
We are only beginning to understand how much damage these devices cause.
+1
BUT
I think only weak people let the device take over their life. Like the toastdos commercial where the short fat guy is at a party and all he does is look at his phone.0 -
I have never understood the desire of so many to avoid doing their duty as citizens and serving on a jury.
I can understand there are some cases where missed work can severely hurt financially or just isn't realistic (close the ER for a week, the doc has JD!) but come on... With rights come responsibility, and serving on a jury is one of the few that is imposed relatively equally across all of us.0 -
Have to agree with llama. Citizenship carries certain responsibilities , jury duty being one of them . Just think we are all obligated to do so 0 -
I have never had the opportunity to serve on jury duty.
I would like to one day just for the experience.0 -
I agree.llama wrote:I have never understood the desire of so many to avoid doing their duty as citizens and serving on a jury.
I can understand there are some cases where missed work can severely hurt financially or just isn't realistic (close the ER for a week, the doc has JD!) but come on... With rights come responsibility, and serving on a jury is one of the few that is imposed relatively equally across all of us.
I served once and enjoyed it. Interesting to say the least......
If I was ever wrongly accused or being tried for something, I'd want one of you knuckleheads on the jury.
Like minded!0 -
Odd I didn't get my summons. Typically I get one like clock work every other year but not this time around. I wonder if crime stopped in Monterey County? Figure if the populous is stoned they're couch locked from doing criminal stuff? 0 -
I have only lived in this county for the past 4 years. In that short time, I have been hit with jury duty twice already! The first was two years ago and while I had to show up to the courthouse, I was one of many in the pool and was not selected for the trial.
I figure my chances for being summoned so often is the fact that the counties total population is only 35,000 people.
There was another part of this weeks experience that was different even from my attendance to the jury pool 2 years ago. That is the method the county used to pay me. Back then, I received a check in the mail for 22 dollars a couple of months afterwards. This time, I was given a debit card with instructions on how to activate it approx. one week after the trial ended.
I haven't checked it out yet but I'm pretty sure it probably won't pay for any dinners for 2 at any sit down places around here but I will let you all know about my windfall when I get it! 8-)0 -
LOL In NJ every one working in that courtroom is most likely a political appointment making $100k + a year. Judge in my town $280K +
You get $5 a day.
Are you in a sanctuary state or city?
Tell the politicrap judge that the state picks and chooses the laws they enforce so you will too.
Dismissed in seconds.
I refuse to be part of or endorse by participation, a totally corrupt system0 -
I would still decide by my heart not the law, I hate the thought of some criminal getting off on a technicality, or vice versa, may not be legal way, but that is my way...... 0 -
I was called for jury duty, I was driving over the road at the time. I had to arrange for time off of work, and get back home from Texas for the jury duty I must say it was inconvenient.
It was trial for a guy who had allegedly raped two 14 year old girls, baby sitter rape deal, so an interesting case.
I was selected as one of 20 jurors, one in the pool. Now, they had to narrow it down to 12.
Funny thing, my brother, and my fiancee, both kept telling me I would never be chosen. Because, they said, I am very intelligent, I have a 4 year degree, and I have a big mouth, I can influence people. They told me that the lawyers want docile people who they can readily influence. Not to say that y'all who have served, are wimps, I am sure that some quality people slip through.
I sat there for 5 hours in that jury box, the DA asked me how much education I had, the defense lawyer asked me some innocuous question, I don't recall what, and then I was dismissed.
Man, I was not happy! I would be a great juror I am fair minded I would move heaven and earth to acquit an innocent man, and I would be glad to sent a guilty man straight to hell.
I was not happy, I went to a lot of trouble, to get paid $15 a day for two days. My brother and girlfriend were right.
Next time I get a jury summons, I will ignore it.0 -
Want to get kicked of a jury panel really fast? Start talking about "Jury Nullification" within earshot of the prosecutor! They'll kick you out of there faster than a drunk Comanche at a prayer breakfast! 8-)
Just making a joke, but it is a real rule of law, and an interesting concept. Look it up.0 -
"It was a very petty case and I was really upset that our local gov't went to all of the expense and time to make it to trial." Either the prosecution or defendant can demand a jury trial, so the prosecution may not have had a choice based on the defendants desire.
Inmost place 90+% are pled out. That's because in most cases the defendant is clearly guilty, because they did in fact commit the crime. Very few crimes are true "who dun it" mysteries, unlike TV would like the public to think.
Where I currently live I've receive three jury questionaires from the Circuit court and am exempted due to my career. However my wife has never received one. She recently obtained her concealed carry permit through the Circuit Court, so it will be interesting to see if she gets a jury questionaire now after eleven year.0 -
allen griggs wrote:I was called for jury duty, I was driving over the road at the time. I had to arrange for time off of work, and get back home from Texas for the jury duty I must say it was inconvenient.
It was trial for a guy who had allegedly raped two 14 year old girls, baby sitter rape deal, so an interesting case.
I was selected as one of 20 jurors, one in the pool. Now, they had to narrow it down to 12.
Funny thing, my brother, and my fiancee, both kept telling me I would never be chosen. Because, they said, I am very intelligent, I have a 4 year degree, and I have a big mouth, I can influence people. They told me that the lawyers want docile people who they can readily influence. Not to say that y'all who have served, are wimps, I am sure that some quality people slip through.
I sat there for 5 hours in that jury box, the DA asked me how much education I had, the defense lawyer asked me some innocuous question, I don't recall what, and then I was dismissed.
Man, I was not happy! I would be a great juror I am fair minded I would move heaven and earth to acquit an innocent man, and I would be glad to sent a guilty man straight to hell.
I was not happy, I went to a lot of trouble, to get paid $15 a day for two days. My brother and girlfriend were right.
Next time I get a jury summons, I will ignore it.
One of those two sides may have been happy to have you, each gets the same number of challenges.0 -
Another interesting thing I noticed during the jury selection was that after the first 13 were called and took their chairs, the first ratio of men to women was 10 men and 3 women. That was all done by our names and numbers drawn from a lottery barrel.
By the time both the defense and prosecution attorneys were finished the final tally for men to women was 5 men and 8 women. :shock: The 13th juror of coarse was just in case one of us could not finish the case and in the end, using the same lottery drum, one of the women was picked and did not get to go into deliberation.0 -
The only time I was summoned for jury duty about 75 people showed up. Odds of me being picked looked to be quite low but you guessed it I was in the first group called to be interviewed. First one to be interviewed and 10 minutes later was on a jury. 3 days of trial for vehicular manslaughter. Got through that and was told to report the next Monday to be put back in the pool. The next Monday, yep called in first group. Murder trial with a hip hop looking black guy as defendant. Called first again for selection interview. Asked if I could be impartial. Told them that the year before I had a gun stuck in my face by a black guy (true story that I may tell someday) and they had to let him go because the cops screwed up the arrest. That was the only question asked and 10 minutes later I was in my car and going back to work. Its been 20 years and I haven't been summoned since, wonder why? 
Bob0
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