Or copy-and-paste, if you believe the defense.
I’m curious about the note thing. Why aren’t juries allowed to take notes? Is it because the court is afraid the notes will leak to the outside? I would have a really hard time remembering salient facts without notes. Seems like a lot to count on jurors memories alone in rendering a verdict.
They didn’t want us to take notes because they wanted us to pay more attention to the witnesses and such. They felt that if we were writing as they were speaking we would miss things like body language, inflection, eye contact, etc. In addition they said your notes aren’t really useful because you must go by the official transcript taken by the stenographer and no other source for your information.
Ah. Sense made.
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I wonder if this is true regardless of the length of the trial. The spouse recently was excused from jury duty from a very high profile local murder trial (the Achilli murder trial, if anybody’s in the South SF Bay Area), and they were told up front that it would likely take at least six weeks. I can’t imagine listening to that much testimony for that long and remembering all of it well enough to arrive at an informed verdict.
I served on a jury a couple of years ago and posted this thread on it.
In this trial, they not only allowed us to take notes, they provided each juror with a notepad and pen.
The Some Other Dude Did It defense. We see that one a lot.
My friend and co-worker, an excellent trial attorney, says that our clients’ theories of the case boil down to the following:
First, this is some bullshit.
In the alternative, they lyin’ on me.
In my experience, most prosecutors suck at cross. Their cases are built on direct examination, so that’s what they’re more comfortable with.
I was just on a jury last week myself (a federal civil case), and we were encouraged to take notes - pads and pens were provided in the jury room. The only provision was that the notes had to stay in the jury room when we left for the night. Rules vary depending on state vs. federal court, and a lot of things are up to the judge, really. The judges have quite a bit of latitude to set how things are run in their courtroom. I’ve served on juries four times (three times for county trials, one federal), and things were different every time.
Yeah, she had a hell of a case and didn’t seem at all concerned with the cross examinations.
In sexual assault cases, we always said that there were three basic defenses:
- It never happened.
- It happened, but she wanted it.
- SODDI.
Did the jury have any input on the sentences handed out?
No, we only determined guilt. The judge will hand out sentences.
Very cool. Did you try to get out of jury duty at all, or did you just go with the flow from the start? In my opinion it’s quite generous of you to take 4 days for basically unpaid leave.
I would have called people too!
Was any of the evidence…really gory? Was the girl herself there? (If I’m asking inappropriate stuff, don’t’ hesitate to tell me!) Did you have much sympathy for the guys, or was the difficult part, as you said, determining how much a role #3 had?
I was once called for jury duty in my hometown while in college. My mom made a quick phone call and I was excused. I was a little hurt they didn’t even call the University to make sure I was enrolled, but I guess people 18-23 are rarely asked to serve in the first place.
What’s SODDI?
I had no problem serving on a jury but I was particular about which jury I would be able to serve on due to time constraints. The first case they called me for was supposed to run through January and that was not something I could have handled. It was also an insurance fraud case and I am an insurance agent so I couldn’t have been on that jury anyway. I actually really wanted to serve because it is something I see as an important part of being a citizen.
The woman they attacked was there and testified against them. Her testimony took an entire day and she only spoke Russian so she had an interpreter the entire time. We saw pictures of the injuries she had and they were not pretty. They dislocated her jaw and bruised up her entire left arm from shoulder to elbow as well as kicking her ribs and knee until they bruised really badly. She was so badly swollen and bruised I actually turned my head away for a moment because the images were so disturbing. When they showed the pictures and asked her if they were accurate representations of the injuries she received she said no because the pictures were taken 4 days after the attack and they had healed some by that time.:eek:
I did have sympathy for the men who attacked her. It is hard to look at people who are panicked and frightened and know that you are sending them away. Even though they were very obviously guilty every one of those men had a mother, sister, fiancee, etc. who loved them and believed them when they said they were innocent. Those families basically had their world torn apart when we read the verdicts out loud in court. I know without a doubt that we did the right thing and that society is better off with these men behind bars for a while but that doesn’t make me feel any better about the woman whose wedding is cancelled now because her fiance is in prision or the mother whose son was a big contributor to her monthly rent payment and will now probably be evicted from her apartment. These men will be in jail until they are probably 50 years old. We have taken from them their best earning years, the years in which most people raise families and buy homes. They absolutely deserve to be in prison but knowing you are taking those things away from someone really weighs on you.
Having gotten tired of the interminable “3. Hi Opal!” references, it’s short for “Said Opal, Dammit Don’t Involve me!”* 
- The M in “me” is omitted to avoid bad puns about SODDIMy.
How old were the attackers and their victim?
Do you know what kind of sentences they’re facing? Did you know going into deliberations?
The reason I ask about deliberations is because some people are hesitant to find a defendent guilty if they think the possible punishment is too harsh.
The attackers were all approximately 30 and the victim was 58. I have no idea what kind of sentences they are facing except my general knowledge from newspapers and such regarding other similar crimes. As a jury we knew we didn’t choose the punishment so we trusted that the judge would go easy where that was necessary and be hard where that was necessary in determining sentences so we just determined if we felt they were guilty according to the law.
Really? I’d have expected more Perry-Masonish witness-stand confessions by, say, the milkman—a witness for the prosecution—after it’s revealed that the accused has an inverted penis.