Only got called into a courtroom once and they picked the jury before I got to voir-dire.
I would have been excused anyways if I did get called to sit because it was a drunk driving case. (No one was hurt just property damage.) When someone got called up to voir-dire the judge was asking people if they have people in their life who have been affected badly by alcohol and if they said yes he asked them to explain and then he asked them if they thought they could be impartial. If they said no he excused them. My grandpa was killed by a drunk driver and I would have said no I could not be impartial.
It was a long boring day but interesting. Now that I’ve done I can happily never do it again.
I am 54 and have never been called. I would like to sit on a jury, and my employer has no problem letting people take off to serve. My wife has had about 4 notices to appear.
I get a summons every 18 months like clockwork. Apparently, I’m on some special list. I’ve been almost picked twice and the last time I went, I did sit on the jury for a assault with deadly weapon/burglary case. Kid was very young and incredibly dumb. He went in to a local Baskin Robbins with a gun and stole $200. The entire trial I couldn’t believe he wasn’t looking for a plea deal. They found the gun, he did not wear a mask and the two ice cream clerks were very credible.
The only thing the defense had to stand on was that one of the clerks had cleaned the glass doors right before the robbery and there was one palm/fingerprint on the outside, up high on the glass that didn’t match. If one thing can be relied on in this world, it’s that cleaning a glass door doesn’t mean a random print won’t stay. It didn’t make sense anyways- the door pulled out, didn’t push in so it didn’t prove anything as far as whether it was made when the burglar entered (there was standard rails that he most likely used). Towards the end, I think we all started rolling our eyes when the Windex defense came out.
Sad thing is that we found out after the 15 min decision to convict (I ended up being an alternate) that the kid had also robbed a Pizza Hut driver and was found at his apartment with about 10 boxes of pizza he had taken. Also used a gun for that… they said his lawyers tried to convince him to take the plea deal since using the gun added so much time but he refused to let them take it. Young kid, probably will get at least 15-20 years between the two cases.
When I was leaving with another juror I had gotten chummy with- we were laughing about something unrelated to the case and then realized we were walking right by the kid’s mother who was bawling her eyes out. Sad day for her- what a waste… I was glad I ultimately didn’t have to make the decision to find him guilty (though I would have.)
When we where deliberating, an officer of the court brought in a SKS rifle and just laid it on the table. It’s barrel pointing at a jury member. I don’t care how unloaded a gun is, I would not have it pointing at us, and moved it.
During the trial, a PO was handling the weapon and painted the whole room with it several times. I couldn’t believe how badly he was handling the weapon.
I discovered they had pulled the bolt back and jammed it open with a broken pencil. But I don’t care. You just don’t point guns at people. I believe in the always loaded principal.
I was called up once. It was right after I graduated from university in Texas. I showed up looking scruffy and truthfully filled in “Unemployed” under Occupation. For some reason, I was one of the first to be let go. I believe it was some sort of civil suit between a homeowner and a contractor.
I was called up again during my first time in Thailand, in the 1980s. My father was s till alive back then, and all my mail went to him. He called them up and told them I was living over here.
Called twice, picked twice. The first time was for a sexual assault, the second was for multiple charges including attempted murder. The second time I was selected as an alternate at the end of the trial and did not get to participate in the decision.
Summoned several times and ended up on a jury twice. I served as jury foreman both times, and both times we found the guy guilty. Both cases involved robbery and shootings related to drug deals.
A few memories stand out. In the first case, it was so obvious that the defendant was guilty that when I took a vote just to get the feel of the room, it was unanimous for guilty. Everyone was like “Alright, let’s get out of here!” but I insisted that we talk it over because, after all, this guy was facing serious charges that likely would result in prison time. It seemed like a basic courtesy to talk it over and be sure rather than going back with a verdict in five minutes. We also discussed how the defendant’s attorney was odd and laughed at how she asked each of us if we watched Law & Order. We liked the prosecutor’s seersucker suit because it made him look like Matlock.
In the second case, I started the deliberations by having everyone write down their initial guilty/not guilty on paper, anonymously, so I could see where we were starting. After some confusion, I realized that one of the jurors was illiterate. (I was a volunteer literacy tutor at the time and had been trained in the commonalities of illiterate adults, and how to work with them without condescending.) He had written down something that had a few letters but otherwise was gibberish. By process of elimination when we were talking, I realized who it was and thereafter made sure we voted orally. I also read aloud any document that we were looking at from the evidence. The man was attentive and engaged, and he seemed entirely capable of participating in the decision. When a juror wanted another anonymous vote to be sure no one was being pressured, I instructed them to only write down X for guilty and O for not guilty. When I read the votes, they were all marked properly and I didn’t know which one came from the illiterate juror. He and I never discussed it but I got the sense he appreciated the accommodation.
I actually found both jury experiences to be quite interesting and a worthwhile way to spend a day or two of my time. The judges and courtroom staff were extremely nice and expressed their appreciation. I wouldn’t mind being selected again.
I was the foreman of the case I was on, and the judge recommended doing this, and I followed his advice. It is a good idea because if people say guilty or not guilty they may feel locked into their vote, but it is easier for them to change an anonymous one. We were 11 - 1 to convict, and the holdout didn’t hold out very long.
I spoke to the lawyers after, and found out that the DA’s office gave the prosecution to basically an intern, since they felt it was a slam dunk case. It was a fairly minor case, and I don’t know what the sentence was but I doubt it was very severe.
I’ve been called for jury duty 4 times, IIRC. Made two panels and one jury, of which I was the foreman.
The jury part was extremely interesting, right up to the point when the attorneys ran past about 5:30, and I had plans a little later on that night. Then in the jury room I just basically annoyed the rest of the jurors into making a freaking decision on the facts presented to us rather than coming up with dumb-ass what-if hypotheticals and debating those ad nauseam. Also, pointed out repeatedly that if this guy chose to take it to criminal trial rather than take a plea bargain, chances are the prosecution’s case was really, really weak (which it so absolutely was).
The son of the couple went a bit nuts and started firing the rifle in the house. They called the LEOS. The rifle (an old SKS semi auto) was part of the trial and evidence. And the one LEO while testifying was waving the thing around the court room.
Now, I assume that it was VERY unloaded when it was brought into the jury room. But that doesn’t matter to me. You just don’t drop a weapon on a table like that. I picked it off the table, let everyone look at it an set it in a corner.
Um… No. That’s not how a gun is handled. Don’t dare just drop it on a table surrounded by people. I was stunned.
I think this is why I was voted to be the foreman.
Three times: once for federal court and twice for state superior court when I was on the jury panel list for a couple weeks. In each instance, once they found out I’m a lawyer, I was removed.
Once, in SC. It was a federal case because the defendant was sending blackmail letters through the US Postal Service to his ex. This was almost twenty odd years ago, before e-mail and internet and online revenge porn.
He had gotten her to pose for some explicit photos, and after they broke up sent them to her new husband. He also kept old Christmas tags on presents she had given him.
He was an older gentleman, an odd duck. One day I looked over and saw him holding two styrofoam cups to his ears, rocking back and forth. Another day he got up in the middle of the trial and walked out. The judge got him back in almost immediately and the defense attorney babbled about how he was on medication and had to use the restroom frequently, blah blah blah.
We found him guilty in about an hour but the clerk said he’d probably just get probation. There was some local scandal because his ex was the former head of all nurses at the local medical university and there was a claim she’d tried to keep him off the heart transplant list, but the prosecution proved she didn’t have any say on that at all.
Been summonsed half a dozen times in 20+ years. The first few times, I called in the night before and all cases had settled, so didn’t need to go in. The last two times, I got to voir dire, and both times was removed from the panel via peremptory challenge. One was a civil suit (guy running from the cops sued the cop who shot him), and the other was a homicide. I also had to complete a prequalification questionnaire from the federal district court, but never heard anything further.
I’ve received lots of summonses. Several times I was told not to come in when I checked my group on the automated system, a few times I had to come in, and twice (I think) I made it into a courtroom. Once they filled the jury before I got to voir dire, and the other time one of the lawyers had a death in the family during lunch break, and we were dismissed halfway through voir dire.
The couple of times I was called for jury duty, I was in the middle of an important project and my employer sent them a letter explaining that I was needed during that time period for their business. This was approved both times. I’ve not been called since.