Many of us get called for jury duty. Quite a few less actually get called to be on a jury. I imagine that many dopers have been on a jury, but I haven’t seen a thread about it lately.
I spent the last four days serving as a juror on a felony criminal case here in Albuquerque. It was fascinating and sad. As a teaser I will say we came to a unanimous not guilty verdict in ten seconds.
After that the judge encouraged us to talk to the young states attorneys and the young defense attorney. They came into our little deliberation room and we had a Q and A session for about an hour. Anyway, if any one wants to ask about anything feel free. And i would hope any lawyers weigh in too.
As a bonus, we actually had a sitting federal judge on the jury also…
The crime was child abuse. An 8 year old kid got the living shit beat out of him by a belt.
Bruises from his butt to all around his legs. the defendant was a licensed day care provider. From her home legal in new mexico. I will be willing to discuss the case but not tonight gotta work in the morn. Long story short the pros failed y o prove the the day care lady the defendant did it and testimony seemed to lean toward the mother.
We got the case this afternoon. I have lost sleep past two days thinking i am the only one voting not guilty. when we started deliberating somebody said “lets take a vote”
"guilty raise your hand. not one. Not Guilty every one of us raised our hand. we deliberated 10 seconds. freaked me out. how can 12 people independently say that? We all agreed before even talking about it
Just reading that, I have a feeling a day care provider wouldn’t do that. Why the hell would they? So is the mother now charged, or do you know? The culprit needs to be identified.
it is sad because no justice was done for this poor kid. although i will sleep well knowing as best i can i didnt send some body to prison for something they didnt do. maybe they did but i did the best i can.
I’ve said it before, but I think I would be a professional juror if we had such a profession here. But so many people I’ve talked to proclaim to dread jury duty; not for the expected reason that it is a chore, but rather because they don’t want to sit in judgement of a person and be responsible for their fate. I don’t get that. Is it a Christian thing? I’m an atheist, and I don’t think I would have a problem considering the arguments and rendering a verdict. Do you have any religion, Klaatu, that influenced you sitting on a jury?
This started when the school nurse asst found bruises on the kids legs.Call CYFD and the cops.
Babysitter went to pick up kid cops said no. testimony came out that the mother showed up in psycho mode and screameing to the principal, where in the office the kid and babysitter were, jumped into the kids face and screamed:
I am also an atheist. not sure if that matters. But I cannot send someone to prison if I am not OG sure that they did it. And I am probably gullible too. But I will sleep well tonight
Well, hell no, I wouldn’t want to convict the wrong person, but what I was saying was kind of along the lines that the Christians I speak with are never sure they’re judging the right person. Sort of like the James Holmes (Aurora Co. Shooter) incident, they could have all sorts of evidence, but they don’t want to make a judgement or be responsible.
In other words, maybe this lady did beat this kid. I will never know. But the fact that all 12 of us right off the bat agreed she didnt, tripped us all out.
I cant dwell on it anymore…I can talk about the case but will not judge my decision…
Why did they then go after the babysitter? Did the mom instantly blame her and it forced the authority’s hand, or did the cops and the prosecution really screw up? If you think they screwed up, why?
I’ve always been a believer that the people in our system are essentially good. Did you get a feeling of malice from what should be professionals doing their job?
The cops did screw up. they focused on the BS immediatly. They did interviews with the mother and BS but somhow they lost the video of the mother.
They took both downtown for a taped interview in a room like on tv.
The prosecution didnt have much to work with because of the inept investigation. they called a detective from crimes against children unit. he testified he was on call but off the next day they wouldnt pay overtime so he told another detective to go to defendants house an collect belts. they got a warrant went there collected a couple belts, didnt interview the kids who were there during alleged crime complete clusterfuck, i would rather comment in the morn if anyone is still interested, thanks for the replies gotta go to bed
I’m surprised the judge wasn’t either exempt or very promptly excused by one of the attorneys (or the presiding judge, if there was a possibility of acquaintance).
I’ve also been on a felony jury trial, several years ago in California. Kind of sad, since the 19yo defendant picked up two felony strikes in one shot, but at 19, he was old enough to face the consequences of his choices. We were also told after the verdict that we could chat with the attorneys if we wished. The defense counsel didn’t seem to feel like talking to jurors, but I did have a few minutes conversation with the prosecutor, who seemed to appreciate feedback on how the case had been presented.
It surprised all of us as it came up even during voir dire. But after the trial, when we asked the state attorneys, one said 'Well we thought the defense would excuse him because we wanted to save some strikes"
Young defense attorney said "I actually kept the judge because he is a symbol of integrity. He also said his lawyer friends called him a dumbass for seating a judge
Both. No, after we voted, we discussed it for about an hour. I think we freaked ourselves out with that immediate verdict. So we talked about it for a while, I guess to reassure ourselves, to be perfectly honest.
