Has anyone ever tried saying during selection, “Man, I’d be great for this jury because I can tell just by LOOKING at someone if they’re a crook.” (or some variation of this?)
How’d that work out? lol
I’ve never seen it myself, but, lol, maybe sanctions for direct criminal contempt of court?
I’ve seen a venireperson say he could tell that the defendant was a crackhead as soon as he walked into the courtroom. He wasn’t found in contempt because he didn’t appear to be trying to get out of jury duty, he was serious. The lawyers thanked him and asked that he be excused, and the judge did so. If potential jurors hold those sorts of beliefs, you would much rather them tell you about them than keep them top themselves. If they were obviously just trying to avoid jury duty, though, they’d be held in contempt.
Just tell them you know some cops. And yes you would believe a cop over any defendant. Or if you are like me I do not trust cops to tell the truth, even when it would better if they did.
I got interviewed for jury duty the other day. I remained perfectly neutral and didn’t pull any stunts. The lawyers still excused me though.
I had an acquaintance who said “The defendant must be guility. Why else would they have arrested him?”. She was excused promptly.
I’ve never been summoned for jury duty, but the topic always reminds me of one of my favorite lines, “Twelve people who can’t get out of jury duty are **not **my peers.”
I’m reminded of one of my favorite lines, “People who have actually served on juries tend to display much more confidence in the system than people who have not”. Having served on a jury I agree and if I’m ever on trial I hope that I get a similar group of people judging me.
During voir dire nobody tried to pull anything stupid on the judge or the attorneys. People who were dismissed, aside from some peremptory challenges by the lawyers, had perfectly good reasons.
George Carlinisms aside, a courthouse is probably not the best place to be a joker. If there’s a reason that you can’t do your civic duty properly, say so.
A friend served on a jury for criminal court in IL. During jury selection a few people pulled these types of stunts. After the third one (or so), the judge got mad, yelled at the rest of the potential jurors, and threatened them with contempt if they tried to pull such a stunt. It was enough to scare the remaining jurors into behaving. I suspect this is a common scene for the judge and maybe other judges as well.
I served on a jury about two years ago.
The judge made it a point to state in the beginning that
blatant attempts to get dismissed would be seen as contempt
so you better think twice before you open your mouth.
that was all…end of story… everyone behaved.
I know everyone fears being the unlucky s.o.b. who ends up on some hideously long trial
being sequestered for weeks etc etc .
But if you do get called you should at least go and experience it once in your life.
It will be a major eye opener… for better or worse.
Sad to say it left me even more mistrustful and saddened by our justice system
and the many loopholes in laws that enable clearly horrible and guilty people to walk free.
Getting off a jury has never been a problem for me. I believe there is a Summit County, Ohio jury suckers list and I am in it. I have been called for jury duty at least 15 times (well 12 times but in the old days you could get called for more than one trial for each summons and I know I picked up 3 extra that way)
I have only ever served on 2 juries however, both civil cases. The most common reason for not sitting on a jury was there was a last second plea bargain, the presence of a potential jury forces one side or the other to blink. In another case the defendant failed to show (the had text messages and phone messages of him trying to get his daughter to have sex with him, the let him out on bail and he blew town). In a third case they called 200+ potential jurors for a city corruption trial and the jury was seated before they got around to me. In one case they excused the entire jury right smack dab in the middle of questioning us and didn’t say why, and called a different jury pool the next day. I suspect someone said something they shouldn’t have.
Other reasons that I know why I was excused were I knew the defense attorney, I’d been in an auto accident (albeit minor) where the other person was driving drunk.
The other I was preemptory challenged off the jury and only in one I have a clue as to why, the previous days paper had a front page article on the Supreme Court overturning someone’s child pornography conviction because, in part at least, all the persons child pornography had been sent to him by federal postal inspectors and in the case I was called for all this guys stuff had been mailed to him by federal postal inspectors.
I can only remember one person actively trying to get out of it–he was an important (mostly self important from what I gathered) executive with such and such a corporation and he didn’t have time for this, he eventually got preemptory challenged off, but he got a lecture from a judge (since his company was suing someone and the judge wondered how they would happen if no one had tome to be on their jury) and had to sit around a couple more hours before he did. No lawyer wants to risk an angry juror.
My understanding is most trials last less than two days (one of mine was done in one, the other took 4 days of really boring dueling doctors) and I don’t mind doing it, I work in the evenings and it might mess up sleeping pattern for a day or two, but I’ll live and I want someone to be there if I ever need a jury. If I ever got called for what could turn out to be a long trial, it could be problematic, I’ve been sleeping till noon or 1 for 20 years and I’m a cranky old coot who doesn’t want to change that. I wonder how that would work as an excuse to get out of jury duty?
I knew a guy who was a very funny, very big smartass. He was in a jury pool in Alexandria, VA and they asked him if there was any reason why he shouldn’t be on this jury and he said, “no sir, I can spot a guilty guy just by looking at him,” and the judge was not amused. IIRC, he got cited for contempt of court and had to pay a fine. He did not, however, have to serve on the jury.
I was in a jury pool a few months ago. In the end I was not selected. One of the questions asked was if anyone was related to, or knew, any police officers. I told them my brother was a sheriff’s deputy (he is). Another person said they hated and mistrusted all cops, and they WERE selected.
They asked everyone if they would be able to make a fair and impartial verdict based on the evidence. I said “probably”. This seemed to set off an alarm with them, they said “what do you mean, probably?”. “Don’t you mean you could?”. I said, “Yes, probably”. They didn’t like that “probably” in there.
They also asked if there was anyone who, if a job, babysitting, money, and other commitments, were not a concern, if anyone would not want to be there. I was the only one who raised my hand. They asked me why I wouldn’t want to be there; I told them I found the whole procedure boring. The judge thanked me for being candid and honest.
I know of a case in our county where someone tried one of these obvious statements to get out of jury duty. The annoyed Judge transferred him to a Civil Court trial, where they did place him on the jury.
In a real estate misrepresentation lawsuit, involving a bank, real estate company, title insurance company, etc., all fighting over things like the meaning of “comparable property” in subsection (d)2 of paragraph 14 A – dull, dry, boring details that went on for nearly 2 weeks of trial, and then the parties met in chambers and settled the case. And the settlement was sealed, so the jury wasn’t even told how it ended.
He was so bored he had to keep pinching himself to stay awake. Because if he began nodding off, the Judge (who was rather annoyed at having a jury at all) would send the bailiff to poke him.
And then he found out that the other jurors had a rather interesting assault case involving a lady, her baby daddy, baby daddy’s younger brother (who she had an affair with), baby daddy’s younger brother’s boyfriend (who was outraged that he had cheated on him – with a woman!), etc. It was better than any soap opera, it only lasted a day & a half, and then they were released for the rest of the week.
Many states have gotten rid of the rule that keeps people off of jurys for being a cop. Just knowing one isn’t going to do anything (unless of course the person you know is directly involved in the case).
Yes - I served on a jury a couple of years ago that dealt with drug charges. One of my fellow jurors was a retired cop from a nearby large city. He had spent the last 15 years of his career in narcotics. I was surprised that he was left on the jury, but it was a good decision. He was very knowledgeable, as you might imagine, and I believe we reached a good decision at least in part because he was there.
I served on a criminal trial jury about three years ago. I didn’t want to initially but was glad I did. After seeing endless movies and television shows about police, forensic investigators, attorneys and judges, it was interesting to watch the process for real. One difference: the trial was way more boring than it appears on television. For example, the prosecuting attorney would pause often between questions while he consulted extensive notes. Of course meeting the dead victim’s sister after the trial was kind of difficult. She cried as she told us how the children were affected.
It will if one of the lawyers doesn’t want jurors who know cops. In my state at least, the lawyers have a certain number of peremptory challenges, i.e., they can reject a certain number of potential jurors without having to give any reason.
I’m really familiar with that courthouse and the judges there and if I am guessing correctly as to the Judge, he doesn’t have much of a sense of humor for this kind of thing. He is a good judge but he hates people who try to be clever and play games with the system.
I got out of jury duty when I lived in Virginia by being an attorney which is enough there to be excused from service.
In DC, I was excused from appearing in the federal court because I work for a small law firm and had two trials scheduled for the period I was summonsed for.
My wife just got a summons and will serve.
My daughter once served on a jury that was hung. Since then she has been called twice, but as soon as they discovered (I guess the question is legal) about previous jury trial and discovered that, they excused her.
Both she and one of my sons considered jury duty a civic duty and served. I resent HelloNinja’s implication that only dimwits will serve on a jury.