Another story; one juror was late coming back after a break in the trial. She explained to the bailiff that she was parked at a metered spot (because the parking lot for jurors was full) and ran down to feed the meter. The bailiff said that it was important that we all be present for the trial and that if we had to park at a metered spot, to just ignore it and give him any resulting tickets so that he could get them dismissed.
I was called for jury duty once when I was in college out of state, and once when I had a planned vacation. The third time was in 2019, and it was a really enjoyable week. Selection began on a Monday morning, the jury was chosen, and the trial began that afternoon. The trial ended on Friday morning, we deliberated for a few hours, and that was that.
The owner of an auto body shop claimed that his employee of several years had stolen $3,000.00. The employee was so well-liked and -trusted that he had a key to the place and permission to work on his own motorcycle when the shop was closed. There were no cameras, really no evidence at all, except that the owner said the money was missing and the kid had a key.
This never came up during the trial, but while the jury was reviewing photos of the scene, one of the guys noticed a big safe in the garage. The safe in the office where the cash was supposedly kept was a small, cheap model made for home use. But the one in the garage was a much heavier one, made to store valuables and guns. The jury reasoned that if the shop owner really had thousands of dollars in cash (I think he said he had won it at a casino), he probably would have used the safe in the garage. There were a lot of factors that made us go with a Not Guilty verdict, but that was a major one.
The courthouse is in a lovely little village, the jurors were a friendly group, the September weather was gorgeous, and we all walked into town together for lunch every day. It was a really nice respite from real life, and the trial wasn’t at all emotionally difficult.
I was last called a couple years ago, Downtown LA. Blech.
I arrived early, the Jury Assembly Room doors weren’t even open yet. Some people had started form a line in the middle of the floor in front of them. WTF was up with that? They wanted the best seats while waiting for their courtroom assignment?
It was maybe two hours before my name was called. Courtroom 53 was my destination, but there was some kind of hitch. They didn’t want any jurors showing up there for 3 hours.
I went outside and was hot. I found a shaded bench in the near-empty park abutting the courts building. I ate most of the food I had brought with me. The bench was killing my back and I knew there was no way I could spend 3 hours on it.
Then I remembered. There’s a used bookstore somewhere Downtown that I had long wanted to visit. I knew it was called The Last Bookstore, but I had no idea where it was. I didn’t have a very smartphone with me, but I was still able to call a friend who told me the bookstore was a little less than a mile away. Perfect.
Walking through Downtown LA was mostly unpleasant, like wandering through an ashtray full of smouldering cigarette butts. The bookstore was on the large side and I was easily able to squander lots of time there. I bought two books – neither of which I needed, one of which I gave away a few days later – and walked slowly back to the courthouse.
By this time, it was lunch hour and the park was full of people. Every bench in the shade had people on it. I still had plenty of time before I had to show up at Courtroom 53. I was also really tired. Fortuitously, the shaded bench closest to the courthouse had only a young lady on it. As I sat, she appeared to be reading a book while also listening to something through headphones. I thought it rather odd, but said nothing. I didn’t want to bother her, nor did I want to be bothered.
Eventually, she packed up her stuff, got up and started to leave. I said: “It was very nice sharing a bench with you.” She made no immediate reaction to my comment, but after a few seconds, turned around and gave me one of the most glorious smiles I have ever received. This would be the only true highlight of my jury duty service.
Subsequently, I arrived at Courtroom 53 and after more waiting, someone emerged to announce that a settlement had been reached and there was no longer any need for jurors. How anti-climactic. We picked up little green “Certification of Jury Service” slips at the Jury Assembly Room. Some people struggled to sign them and had to be told by the courthouse attendant to sign them somewhere else.
All in all, I would rank this experience as the second best tour of jury duty I have ever had, just after the one during the Pandemic when I didn’t have to go in at all.
That happened to me, too, and I had to ask the Registrar to fax my class schedule at the time to the court.
Often, you don’t get chosen. My first selection, the guy next to me said flatly, “I’m an NYPD Cop, and I hate lawyers”. I had no excuse, and the “case” was about rich people in the Hampton’s (Long Island) and puddles on their tennis courts. The non-flat tennis court company lost.
I got called another time, and mentioned I was going to Russia the next week (circa 2012) (audible sigh from crowd) and was let go.
Last time I was at my mother’s house in July, on the last day, I got a “Delinquent Jury questionnaire.” in the mail on my way to JFK - LHR. Somehow was able to get in and out of New York in January without the sheriff on my tail.
The most memorable for me was one in the 90s. I showed up to the Jury Pool location with about 100 other people. It was very noisy and announcements sounded like the teacher in Peanuts. There was a call for prospective jurors and I heard my name “Jane Doe” and dutifully followed the group to a courtroom a block away. I sat there all afternoon as one after another prospect was questioned. Sometime after 4 p.m., when there was just a few of us left, “Jane Toe” was called up and she took her place on the stand. Oh, shit. I went to the deputy in the back and asked if my name was on the list. He said it was not. I ran back to the Pool room and no one was there.
I spent the evening worried that my name had been called later for another case and I would get in trouble because I wasn’t there. I didn’t know if they could arrest me or something for skipping out. The next morning I was there as soon as the doors opened. I talked to someone in charge who told me that my name had not been called and it was no big deal. Whew. Shortly thereafter, they sent everyone home.
Note to self: when you go to the courthouse, do not bring 3 knives in your pockets.
Well I was the very first juror to be selected and I’m in seat #1. Maybe I’ll go and buy a lotto ticket!
The process has started and as such I will not discuss this any more, I cannot discuss this, nor will I even participate in any discussion about my previous case or anyone’s prior comments, because I will respect the process and the sanctity of our legal system.
They did ask if anyone has been to that eatery, and I answered the question truthfully.
So I will avoid this discussion altogether until my service has ended. I will not review anyone’s comments above, but then I do plan to circle back within the constraints per the instructions as given by the judge. Even if it is only to say, I’m back but cannot discuss any aspect of this case or my experiences.
Thanks in advance for your understanding with this.
I ended up on a jury where the defendant was accused of reckless endangerment of her minor children; she was smoking meth and doing cocaine around them. Both showed up in high amounts in their hair.
When her mother discovered this she grabbed the kids - not hard as she regularly babysat them - and called the police.
i was impressed by the grandmother; she was an immigrant who felt this was serious enough to forget about her fear of the police and call them. Also when the police asked to search her home because the defendant was all “they got exposed at grandma’s house!!” she immediately agreed.
I was not impressed by the detective who admitted he could not speak Spanish and did not arrange for an interpreter to accompany them when questioning grandma and her sons. This is Tucson; Spanish speakers are everywhere.
We found her guilty of second degree reckless endangerment of the minors.
I was removed from two juries before they were empaneled; the first was a dog bite case and apparently my years as a paper boy dealing with nasty dogs was enough for the defense, and the second involved a prison guard and my BIL is a prison guard so the prosecution removed me.
I served on a jury for a fairly sad case where some guy felt wronged by society, no defence lawyer would take his case, so he filed a civil suit against the cops who arrested him. It was a one day trial, pretty cut and dry, and we found for the defendant pretty quickly. He wasn’t a very well educated guy, his case was a mess, and he really didn’t know his way around a courtroom. But he was wrong.
I had been called about four times and never been put on a jury, and I figured I never would be, since I don’t think anybody wants professors on a jury. Except, it turns out that if you’re one of the first 24 people in the jury pool, you’re going to be on a grand jury, and nobody gets to strike you.
It was interesting. I learned about all the felony cases in my county (there were about 180 or 200 of them during that session). Most of them involved drugs, burglary, and / or possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, which were pretty straightforward. There were maybe a dozen or so domestic violence, rape, or sex abuse cases, some of which were very frustrating because the perpetrator was clearly guilty but the only witness was the victim, and if the victim changed her mind about testifying there was nothing you could do about it; the DA’s office just told us not to charge. Several cases where people who were clearly very messed-up (drugs, mental illness, just really really mad at their ex) did things that were just plain bizarre. Two murder cases, one of which was clearly self-defense; the other one, we did think there was enough evidence to bring the guy to trial, but if I had been on a trial jury I would have found it very hard to convict.
I think the whole process was basically fair and we made the right decisions in all the cases, although our forewoman (who was very obviously MAGA) would have gotten on my last nerve if it had gone on for a few more days. There were a couple of people I felt bad about charging (think “did something really dumb that was technically felony X, but no serious damage ensued, and they may not have really intended to commit X”) and the forewoman clearly did not feel bad about it at all … but, they had definitely done the thing they were accused of.
We were also taken on a tour of the county jail and the tax assessor’s office, because apparently my state has a law on the books saying that grand juries are supposed to inspect these places.
All in all, it was really interesting, and I honestly wouldn’t mind doing it again, but not until after I’m retired, because trying to cover my classes for a week was a pain.
My non-citizen husband keeps getting called every couple of years, for me I think it was more than 20 years between summonses. A couple of years ago I was called, and ended up empaneled on a criminal assault case. It concerned a security guard at a hospital, two EMTs and a patient. The security guard was charged with attacking the EMTs, who said they were protecting the patient from the guard. Fortunately there was video, which allowed us to see that the EMTs attacked the guard first, when he was standing still and talking to the patient. So we acquitted. (There’s more to it, but too much to go into in one post.)
The jury room experience was short and pretty much free of conflict, once we were able to watch the whole video from beginning to end. I don’t know why the defense didn’t show that in court. Once again I was not impressed with the lawyers on either side.
There’s a thing, once the verdict has been reached and the trial is over, where the lawyers want to talk to the members of the jury about the things that moved their decision, but I don’t like participating in that, so I just walked out.
I’ve been called for jury duty three times.
The first time was for a case of someone selling fake drugs to a cop. The selections from the jury panel didn’t get to me. I talked to the prosecutor for a few minutes after the jury selection. I told him that if someone sells illicit drugs that aren’t really illicit drugs, I wasn’t sure that was a bad thing as long as they don’t get harmed by them, but if they had charged the kid with fraud, I’d have wholeheartedly voted for it.
The second time was for a burglary. Just before they were ready to select a jury, the defendant pled guilty. While waiting for all that, though, I was surprised to see a detective I knew. It turned out that the burglary was just down the street from me.If I had made the jury, I would have wanted to give him the maximum.
I don’t even know what the charges were the third time. Where I live now, if you get called for jury duty, you are supposed to call the sheriff’s office the night before to find out if you’ll be needed. In that case, the defendant wisely decided to plead guilty.
Where I live, nobody is very tolerant of criminals.
For example, a couple of years ago, one 28 year old man was charged with the statutory rape of his 14 year old girlfriend. He pled guilty to the charges but wanted probation with no jail or prison time.
The judge informed him that the lowest he could sentence on his own was two years and that if he wanted to go for probation, he would need to request that a jury determine the sentence. So he requested a jury and got eight years in prison.
In another case years ago, the defendant honestly swore that he was innocent of the charge of burglary, but he had no alibi because he couldn’t remember what he was doing on the night of the burglary.
During the trial, someone said something that caused him to remember where he was. He told his lawyer and his lawyer and the prosecutor had a talk with the judge. The judge halted the trial for the rest of the day and arranged to resume the next morning. And then he made a telephone call.
The next morning, the sheriff from a county about 75 miles away was at the court with his jail book (whatever it is called), took the stand, and explained that the defendant was in his jail on the night in question. That makes for a pretty solid alibi.
In spite of the alibi, several members of the jury wanted to go ahead and find him guilty because they knew that sooner or later the defendant would commit criminal acts in our county.
I knew one woman years ago who was on a jury in Houston. She said that the defendant had such an incompetent lawyer that the entire jury felt sorry for the guy. That didn’t stop them from voting guilty, though.
More interesting to me is stories about people trying to get off of juries.
For example, in the 1980s, during voire dire one potential juror from a mid sized city was asked his opinion on what punishment should be given to someone for robbing a convenience store. He answered with something like, “Well, that depends. Was he white or black?”
And in another case in a more rural county, one local farmer/rancher during voir dire announced, “I think he’s guilty. Where do I sign?”
Neither were selected for the jury.
When I was going through jury selection, one potential juror said she couldn’t serve because she watched her son’s children while the son was at work. The judge said that the grandchildren were the primary responsibility of her son, so that wasn’t a valid excuse. (But he did excuse someone who took care of her elderly mother.) And when anyone said their employer wouldn’t pay them for jury duty (meaning it would be an economic hardship to serve) the judge asked for the name of their employer. I suspect they already know the jury pay policies for many of the local employers, so he would know who was lying.
The reason the judges I worked for asked was so they could call the employer and encourage them to offer jury pay, at least for a day or three. In general. Not for the case their employee had been called for.
I did jury duty about a year ago. My experience: We went to a courtroom mid-morning, waited for about 1/2 hour, and then were told to return to the main room. Later in the morning, a defendant came in with his lawyer, a young woman who wore sunglasses and a full-face mask (I suspect she had a medical issue) and they started seating the jury. IIRC, it was some kind of assault case, and then we broke for lunch.
After lunch, we came back, and waited…..and waited…..and waited. Around 3PM, the judge came back without a robe on, and he announced that the defendant took a plea deal, and we could go. It was like a stampede to the door LOL!
Anyway, I got about 1/4 of “Moby Dick” read. That’s definitely a book that you can simply pick up where you left off, no matter where you are in the story, at least from my POV.
My sister-in-law has been seated for a jury 3 times, and all of them were for lawsuits.
Phones are prohibited at my local courthouse, and they told us that if they saw one, it would be confiscated and they could get it back when they were excused.
A few years ago, I was on a jury and have several stories.
It was an arson case. A couple of people hired a kid to burn down a building for the insurance. They pled not guilty. Their lawyers came up with a defense blaming someone else.
Highlights:
- The defendants didn’t cooperate with the insurance company, so didn’t get any money from them.
- They got the insurance, paid the first month’s premium, and had the fire set the day before the second payment was due.
- The woman avoided the police investigation. They got her on a traffic violation and took her to be questioned. A cop drove her car. She left her phone unlocked on the car seat. The cops checked her texts.
- The DA had a printed record of her texts. She had deleted all her texts on the day of the fire,. When questioned, she said she didn’t text much. The DA just fanned the 300 pages of texts in front of the jury.
- Her son – the other defendant – described the kid’s bicycle. When questioned how he knew, he said it was from the camera footage. But the footage was not shown to him (or the jury) during the trial. (The kid, BTW, was not charged and was given help).
- The kid used the money he got to buy an iPad. He immediately returned it to get something else. My guess was that he didn’t realize it required WiFi.
- The son incriminated himself over the phone. A jailhouse phone. You know, the ones with big signs that the conversation was recorded. (Once this came out, they pleaded guilty.)
- The lawyers talked to us after the trial. The defense knew their clients were guilty, but they were required to do the best they could because the defendants refused to take a plea. They figured that since they didn’t set the fire themselves, they were in the clear.
- When I filled out the jury questionnaire, I put down Doctor Who as a favorite. The DA was a fan and mentioned it was the first time someone had mentioned it, then asked my favorite Doctor. So, under oath, I said it was David Tennant.
- I had figured that would keep me off the jury, since I had the fandom in common with the DA. The defense didn’t reject me because they figured I might be more receptive to their far-fetched defense.
I was called for jury duty only once. It was for a murder case in which a drunk 20-something man drove his car off the road on a bitterly cold winter’s night after bar closing time. He walked to the closest farmhouse and entered the garage (which is allowed to save your life from the cold). He proceeded to rummage around the basement and the gun cabinet. He heard a noise from the bedrooms upstairs in the old house, so went up to investigate. The young farmer yelled something at him, so the kid shot him dead as he was trying to get out of bed. Next the young wife tried to stand up, but she was shot in the shoulder and arm; she survived but lost her arm. The drunk kid went back downstairs, but when the 10-year-old son woke up and was on the phone at the top of the stairs, he was shot dead in the gut while talking to 911. (The 7-year-old son was at a sleepover at a neighbors house and was spared.) It was a pretty open-and-shut case, but the trial still lasted two weeks. I was an alternate so I got dismissed at the end, but it was obvious the deliberations wouldn’t take long. Guilty, and maximum sentences on all counts.
The bailiff took good care of us, escorting us on the elevators (with no other passengers), leading us out the back exits, etc. He even saved me and the other alternate seats at the sentencing hearing the next day. We were also told that due to the horrendous case we were on, that we were unlikely to be asked to serve again.
After it was over on the drive home I let out a deep sob involuntarily.