Summoned several times. Got to the courtroom twice for voir dire.
First time was for a civil suit that was expected to last 9 weeks. I don’t know any specifics, but there were six lawyers in expensive suits on one side of the courtroom and two on the other, so I’m guessing there were deep pockets involved. I had college starting in a week, so I was excused.
Second time was for a kidnapping/robbery case. There were something like 100 potential jurors, and only about 8 left by the time the jurors were selected. I was one of the 8.
Been on notice several times. Called once but not picked. The prosecutor was really young and I found the whole jury selection process to be quite amusing what with the various half hearted excuses to get out of duty and the prosecutors awkward attempts at interviewing potential jurors in discerning who to try and dismiss.
I also found it amusing how often there were objections in the jury selection process by the defense over the misbehavior of the prosecution! And most of them were sustained.
I was disappointed not to be picked since I was unemployed anyway, though I’m probably a prime candidate for effective nullification.
Twice! How do you feel about the trial now in light of the numerous retrials and new evidence?
Served twice, the first was a one day DUI case and we found the defendant guilty of the lesser included charge of reckless driving.
The second was a two week, 2nd degree murder case. We found the defendant guilty. Being on a jury for a murder case is a pretty heavy deal. I wouldn’t say it was a good time, but it was an experience.
Many, many notices but only actually summoned to the court twice. Served both times. In my late-30’s on the first and early 40’s on the second.
First was ~4 day civil case in a state court involving an industrial accident, with a worker filing against his employer. Second was ~7.5 week federal criminal trial involving an executive accused by the government of fraud-related white-collar crime.
In general I enjoyed both experiences. Interesting and kind of a nice change of pace from my normal job. I was and am fully comfortable with both verdicts, though I actually found the multi-day deliberation on the long federal trial more harmonious and enjoyable ( despite plenty of arguing ) than the multi-hour deliberation on the state case, which was kind of tedious.
However I should note that my job pays me for jury service, so there was minimal pressure involved in serving. I lost out on a little holiday pay during the long trial, but nothing serious.
I’ve been summoned twice, once in GA and once in NY. I was selected as a juror in GA. It was a civil case resulting from a traffic accident. A local college hit a MARTA bus that was turning left. Basically, he was hoping to get some money from MARTA, but it didn’t work out that way. The jury was hung with one elderly lady who had never driven holding out because, “that nice young man deserves some money.” I can’t remember how long it lasted, but I know I had to report for at least 2 days.
In Japan, they are just starting with a system of “lay judges” which is sort of like a jury.
Previously, when they had only judges, there was a 99.7% conviction rate (according to wiki), in contrast to the US with a 88% rate. There just simply is no way that prosecutors could be that good.
Wike has an interesting article on the reasons. One is that there are too few prosecutors, so being overwhelmed, they only go with the best cases.
Non-citizens are not eligible for lay-judges, so unless I move back to the States, it won’t serve anytime soon.
Not sure how many times I’ve been called in, it’s at least 4 or 5. Most times I’ve gone home without having left the waiting area. I served on a jury once, it was one day for jury selection and a one-day trial.
A guy was caught by a cop standing outside an elementary school next to a pried-open window with a screwdriver in his pocket. It was pretty clear that he’d pried open the window, but there was no evidence that he’d actually entered the building, and certainly no evidence that he’d stolen the three computers that were allegedly missing. (The computers were not in his possession and there was no mention of any accomplices.)
Our verdict was split: Guilty of Possession of a Burglary Tool, Not Guilty of Burglary. Someone asked the judge afterward if he thought we’d gotten it right, and he said our decision was “consistent with the evidence presented.” I got the feeling there was more to the story that we didn’t get to hear.
A couple things that stuck with me: The prosecutor seemed very distracted, almost scattered, as if he was overworked and hadn’t really familiarized himself with the case. Several of us remarked that we thought he’d done a poor job of making his case.
During deliberations, one of the jurors did nothing but complain about how long it was taking, she needed to get home, her kid was getting out of school, on and on. She did not participate in discussion of the case at all. When the other 11 of us agreed on the verdicts and passed the paper around for everybody’s signatures, she said “I’ll sign to send this guy to the electric chair if it’ll get me out of here.” It made me realize why there are 12 people on a jury; the rest can pick up the slack if you get stuck with an idiot like this one.
I’m glad I got to do it, it was a good real-life civics lesson as well as a chance to feel like I’d done my duty as a citizen. Wouldn’t mind doing it again.
Twice. The second time I was even the jury foreman.
The first time was 3 weeks long and an incredibly boring case in which a car dealership went bankrupt and the partners were all suing each other. They were days of sleep-inducing testimony from bank loan officers and the like.
The second time was a fun one because the participants were all cowboys and there were lots of silver belt buckles, inlaid saddles and shotguns.
Twice. First time it was a civil suit. We went home after being sworn in, came back the next morning, and were told that they had settled. The second was a minor criminal trial, and I got to be foreman. I was close to serving two other times.
Been called up twice, but both times never even got to the courtroom for questioning before being dismissed. Don’t recall if they were civil or criminal cases.
With a BIL who is a state cop and a CSI, and a sister who has worked in the county court system for more than 25 years, and me being an ex-print reporter for the local daily rag who used to *cover *court trials of all sorts, if I ever DO get to voir dire, I highly doubt I’ll ever get selected to serve on a jury.
No defense attorney in his/her right mind would let me on a jury with that kind of pedigree behind me.
You might be in deeper trouble for that than you realize. I know people who have spent a night in the pokey on a bench warrant for refusing to attend a jury summons.
I’ve been called lots of times, but usually get rejected. Once, I was on a jury on a drunk driving case.
What I admired most about the process was how much effort the jury put in, during deliberations, to be fair. They (we) looked at everything, from every point of view. We took turns being “devil’s advocate.” We asked ourselves all the questions we could think of.
We found the driver guilty; the evidence was that strong.
I’ve been summoned many times, but only served once. I was an alternate on a murder trial about 15 years ago. Sat through the whole trial but never got to deliberate.
I’ve been summoned 3-4 times. I only left the waiting area once, it was the first time, I think I was 18 or 19, and I was selected for the jury. The defendant was being tried for assault and menacing. The verdict was guilty for menacing, not guilty for assault. Jury selection and trial were done and over with on the same day.
Holy fucking shit Student Driver - I understand that in the US juries can talk about what they were up to, so you almost need to start a thread!
I’m going to private message you about this after typing this reply; I make the reply to encourage like minded folk to join me in lettting you understand how great the demand is - cause I’m sure it’s massive!
Three cases in one week:
First case: Civil. One immigrant and her baby stroller were hit by a car driven by another immigrant while she was crossing the street and assuming everyone would stop for her while he didn’t see her since he was creeping forward watching for a break in traffic to make a right turn. Lot of testimony by doctors and such about whether her injury (a torn meniscus)was caused by the accident or stress from her miminum wage job. I was on the final panel and we basically gave her have of what the plaintiff wanted
Second Case: Civil: Menards employee sees a guy in a blue jacket with two buckets of joint compound shove a bunch of router bits into his jacket, and she radios up front to watch for him. Plaintiff is wearing a purple jacket with two buckets of joint compound in his cart is stopped in the parking lot; cashier demands he empty his pockets, and upon finding nothing lets him go. Guy sues Menards for emotional distresss or whatnot. I was the alternate and was dismissed before deliberations, so I don’t know how the case ended up, but several jurors were commenting this was a waste of their time so I don’t think it was too favorable.
Third Case: Criminal. Young man accused of assault. His mother shows up to testify against him. The judge (who was later removed for misconduct on different cases) starts proceedings without swearing us in, the court reporter bring that to his attention, the defense objects, and we’re kicked out of the room into the hallway. After sitting on the floor for an hour, the court reporter comes out and tells us to go back downstairs, a plea bargain was worked out.
