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...if your wife gets voir dired for a meth possession and distribution case in superior court.
She got the expected "Thanks, take the rest of the week off" speech after giving a rundown of my former areas of investigation.
So we got that going for us... though both of us are willing to serve.
:cool:
Ironic that those best suited to be a juror are often times those least likely to be chosen.Quote:
Originally Posted by blues
"What's wrong? I don't automatically think they're guilty just because they're a criminal" is always a response they like to hear.
I had to remember what 'voir dired' meant because I had a different perspective when I first read this...Once I remembered it - it made a lot more sense. Another cup of coffee is needed over here, clearly.
One of my TAs this summer had to go to jury duty summons. I told her, "You won't get selected."
"What not?"
"This is Arizona. A New York born and raised, Afro-Asian-Cuban, medical student, with a master's degree, isn't exactly a 'peer'." - Which isn't a knock on Arizonans, so much as a statement that the combination of all of those factors makes her unlikely to be selected for jury duty. Sure enough the next day she comes in and says, "So, they asked me what I do and I said I was a medical student and they just dismissed me immediately."
Yep...
I tend to shut up unless I'm asked a direct question during voir dire.
After my last jury, talking with the defense council (civil trial, we found for defendant), he pointed out that it's hard to disqualify people who don't say anything during VD, since, they have nothing they can point to as prejudicial other than the content of my jury survey.
Food for thought.
I had told her that she wouldn't be selected, as she hadn't been previously in Miami...despite her saying thatthey should hang the guilty bastardshe could be fair and impartial to the defendant.
Oh well. Maybe someday.
(Who'm I kidding?)
I mean, I want you or Mrs. Blues to be on my jury should I ever need one. Not because I think you'll be partial, but precisely the opposite, because I think you'll be impartial and apply the law as opposed to applying feelings to the situation.Quote:
Originally Posted by blues
And I would be proud to have that opportunity. (It would be no different than the way I handled an investigation. If I didn't find evidence to support an indictment, or the spirit of the law, I wouldn't bring it to the U.S. Attorney's office.)Quote:
Originally Posted by RevolverRob
It's the same standard we should be able to expect from all citizens. But alas...
(Though you...personally...might be tempting fate...;))
I would actually be a pretty good juror. Thankfully I will never be picked regardless.Quote:
Originally Posted by Suvorov
Sometimes you gotta live a little dangerously. I say that knowing that at present, I am neither planning nor engaging in any felonious acts.Quote:
Originally Posted by blues
I should be good, at least until they actually make Thought Crime an actual crime. But at that point I think everyone might be in a bit of trouble...:eek:
I always tell people if they don’t want to be selected just say if they got arrested they must be guilty. :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by TGS
I've heard it said that a jury is just twelve people too dumb to get out of jury duty.
I don't necessarily believe that, because I always get voted off the island even though I would personally like to be a juror. But neither side wants impartiality, they want people who lean towards their side.
The one time I went and actually got chosen for void dire I answered so many questions the Judge finally started posing questions as Other then Officer CF has anyone…. I got sent home early.
Plus I played hockey with the arresting Officer :D
I was shocked when Mrs. UNM1136 got selected. She was stoked even to be an alternate.. Felony DWI. I was only about a year or two out of the DWI Unit at the time.
I got summoned and assumed I would not get selected because of my job and current level of seniority. So I forgot to do the cute little survey until it was a week overdue. Then I failed to check in online account daily like I was told. Now I am staring at a summons for duty to start in three weeks, with my questionnaire due in two.
pat
I never make it past the question on jury nullification. Judges & prosecutors just love when you answer some variant of "do you believe juries can disregard the law?" with "well duh, any judge could decide whether a law was broken, but a jury trial ensures people in the community want that law enforced in this circumstance." Excused...
I gotta call Sunday night to see if I have to report Monday to Sarasota for duty...
Last time I was called, Judge asked everybody who had a FL CW/FL to raise their hand...I got dismissed. :)
I’ve sat through jury selection several times since becoming a part time bailiff last year. I’ve found it pretty interesting so far. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what the attorneys are thinking. The judge (over thirty years on two different courts) always says he gave up trying to psychoanalyze attorneys a long time ago.
Got called a few years ago for criminal court. In the jury survey they asked a lot of questions about clubs, organizations memberships, etc.... I listed everything from NRA Lifer to PD and FD volunteer stuff and political clubs.. I got seated 21st in a jury pool of 24 for the DWI trial of a Mexican illegal (no English) and I got picked from deep on the bench because the other potential jurors were clearly trying to shirk it, and succeeded... :rolleyes:
Even though I am likely the antithesis of the juror profile the defense was looking for, I'd wager heavily that nobody else on that jury was more concerned with upholding the law based on the actual facts of the case. Regardless of the guy's immigration status.
When he admitted on the stand to having drank "about 22 beers" that afternoon, it wasn't a difficult decision. :o
Last time I sat in the box the defense was a good friend of mine and the plaintiff’s counsel was a well known jackass. So after detailing our relationship I affirmed (repeatedly) I would be impartial and this guy burned his second peremptory of the day.
Got a nice Pinot Noir for that effort.
I can’t think of jury duty without thinking about this classic bit from Jerry Stiller:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feANfZsUEOg
The only time I was almost selected for jury duty my cousin was the desense lawyer on a murder trial. I had to sit at jury duty all day until I was dismissed because I answered truthfully.
I had always heard that engineers were never selected for jury duty. I was lied to. I got to waste three days of my life on she-said-he-said domestic abuse case.
Could have been worse. A coworker (engineer) got stuck on one for like six weeks. A murder case where some dude intentionally burned down his own house with his kids inside. My coworker became almost as misanthropic as me after that.
@TC215
I used to live pretty close to that courthouse in Queens.
I was called up for jury duty. When questioned about my Army experience, I noted that I had worked both as a counterintelligence agent and interrogator. I wasn’t chosen. :cool:
Last time the wife got called for jury duty, she was waiting to be voir dired and noticed that the lead investigator was my old partner from the regional SWAT team. Plus, she had worked with a relative of the suspect at her hospital. The judge in the case lived in the town I worked in and recognized my wife's name because I had been parking in front of her house, due to threats, in between calls. It's weird that this happened in a county with 750k population. Dismissed.
Can't have a discussion about a wife being voir dired without thinking about
https://youtu.be/3nGQLQF1b6I
I have a friend—who happens to be the lead singer for a touring band—who showed up for jury duty wearing this t-shirt:
https://rebellionrepublic.com/wp-con....1280.1280.jpg
She did not get selected.
:)
When I saw the thread title, my first though was: ”Free doughnuts?”
Anyhoo, there was a state, awhile back, where the exemptions to jury duty were set by the rules of the state supreme court. It was getting too hard to seat juries, so the supremes basically said: "Fuck it. No more exemptions as of right. If you think you shouldn't have to serve on a jury, make your case to the presiding judge."
Soon after that, a federal judge was called for jury duty in state court. The federal judge explained that he had hearings and trials upcoming and they'd have to be rescheduled. The state court judge was unimpressed, pointing out that a lot of the other people in the jury pool also had to reschedule things. Neither of the attorneys wanted to try to claim that a judge couldn't be fair, so he was seated on the jury.
The judge later wrote an article for a local legal publication about it. He said that serving on a jury was one of the more significant legal experiences of his career. He said that he gained a lot of respect for jurors and recommended that any practicing attorney who got a chance to be on a jury should jump on it.
Back in the `90s, when countries in eastern Europe were trying to establish independent legal systems, my law school offered a one-year program for foreign lawyers in legal procedures. One of the sessions was a screening of "My Cousin Vinnie".Quote:
Originally Posted by ccmdfd
Military service will sometimes get you off a jury. There were 3 of us that got bumped from a murder trial. I never figured out why but I was happy to get cut loose.Quote:
Originally Posted by revchuck38
I haven’t been called since I was a working commercial liability insurance underwriter, but my luck was such that I always got called for criminal court. IIRC I was called six times, picked four, and returned a verdict three times. I was stuck as foreman each time. Enough.
I assume if I ever get called for civil if the case in any way involves insurance I’m out.
Well, not always. A couple of months after I retired, my wife got called for jury duty in the county we both worked in. She is a retired correctional deputy as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by blues
She still made it on the jury. We were shocked, and so were the courtroom deputies.
Shocking in CA. But maybe it's a positive sign...Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Gelhaus
Oh, who am I kidding?
I only got summoned for jury duty where I had to answer questions. This was when I was 19.
Judge: What's your name?
Me: Paul D.
Judge: Is your dad a doctor?
Me: Yes. His name is so and so.
Judge: Oh, he's my doctor. You are dismissed!
I have never been selected to a jury pool ever since.
Physician, heal thyself!Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul D
;)
Jury duty was fascinating the time I was called for it. It was a drug possession case and the questions for selection hovered around whether one had any addict relatives or immediate LE family. I had neither and therefore had no out. I also didn't have enough lack of ethics to lie about health problems or whatever other excuses people try on the judge of which people were throwing out tons.
The most fascinating aspect was just watching the lawyer show. Those folks are pretty skilled at swaying opinions and building narratives.
Jury deliberations sucked. People waffle so hard sometimes on basic facts.