Jury Duty

Factual Questions
21

Hey, spoke, thanks for telling me they might provide the jurors with pencils and paper, I figured I’d carry some just in case.

Bob,and WillGolf, really, that makes sense that I might be writing and not paying attention. But, that sure seems intimidating to have to have something read back to me.

BugZap, I’m curious about your one statement, I like the way you mapped it all out as to what could happen. But why would you say the part
‘you don’t want to be a juror? They don’t want you to be a juror’ Because I’m reluctant to do it, they only want people who are enthusiastic? Or because I’m afraid of being a screwup, they already assume I AM one?

Zette, thanks for your reaffirmation about the medical reason with Billy. It now has been a week since I sent a copy of the jury summons/and my own letter asking Dr. Holt to intervene and send a fax (that is what the secretary to the commissioner told me I would need to be excused) and still haven’t had a response. I am going to call him tomorrow, I hate to interrupt his work, but if he wants to say ‘no’, I’d rather hear it than just keep waiting.

jti, thanks for the comment about Johnny L.A. being offended by the shots in the building rather than the woman being shot. I figured he was just being facetious/humorous. When I read that, I just didn’t respond, just hoped that in Atlanta they have security metal detectors and BIG policemen on guard!

Judy

“I only use 10% or less of what I study. It’s a waist. sined, Dropout” Up The Down Stair Case

22

At least in Ventura County, California, serving one day by going to the courthouse satisfies your duty to serve, even if you never get on a jury, and even if you’re never called for jury selection. here, the “Confederate-flag T-shirt” method would probably work. Wanna really confuse 'em? Do it even though you’re black.

A committee is a lifeform with six or more legs and no brain.

23

In 99 I got called three times in one month. I told them I didn’t know enough sign language to do it. Most of the time you are called you don’t have to come in anyway cause they cancel your group when you call in.

24

Color me weird, but I’m actually disappointed I’ve never been called for jury duty. I think I would find the experience fascinating.

He’s the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor, shouting ‘All Gods are Bastards!’

25

Hey Singledad, Wanna swap?? I’ll send YOU my ‘Judy’ jury summons, and I’ll babysit whenever you need! How 'bout it??

“I only use 10% or less of what I study. It’s a waist. sined, Dropout” Up The Down Stair Case

26

When I served on my trial here in Georgia, they provided us with notepads and pencils. And they collected the notepads at the conclusion of the trial; the pads were destroyed, as they’re not evidence, but considered to be part of the jury’s deliberations, which you’re not allowed to share with the public. (Or, most likely, the defense, for a future appeal.)

A lot of jurisdictions have gotten quite severe about jury duty; it’s because the jury pool has gotten to be so small and people DO blow it off. When I did Grand Jury duty in New York, I actually saw people brought before the judge for not showing up. Impressed me.

your humble TubaDiva

PS BTW, for those that think if you don’t register to vote, you don’t get picked? They also use license lists, like business licenses, drivers licenses, etc.

your humble TubaDiva

27

Thanks Tuba, I’ve always thought the only way you were ever summoned for jury duty was by the names on voter registration. It’s still a curious thing that the pool for a jury is getting smaller.

I also noticed there have been others who have been called for jury duty multiple times, and this is my first. I’m forty six, and have lived here for almost eleven years. I wonder if they just draw names from a hat, so that would account for the inconsistent way some people get called more than others.

Judy

“I only use 10% or less of what I study. It’s a waist. sined, Dropout” Up The Down Stair Case

28

My mother never got called for jury duty during her entire life. A few months after she passed away, my father got a summons addressed to her.

She was excused, although I know she would have liked to have served.

My father finally got called once he retired. He was very excited. He came home very bored. He has since been on a second trial where a man was being charged for making lewd remarks to a minor. After the trial was over, my father kept asking why the prosecutor kept talking about the number 69.

I was not properly trained to educate him about that topic.

29

I was on a jury three years ago–in the same building in Los Angeles where the O. J. Simpson trial had been.
Not only did the court furnish us with notepads, but they did not collect our notes–just the blank pads–when the trial was over. (I still have my notes.)
I hope a large number of the Teeming Millions have seen the movie 12 Angry Men–which has had a life of its own outside the movie theaters, according to a blurb on the videotape box.

30

dougie_monty, you’ve hit on the fear! There is no way, I’m fittin’ in any of those giant ‘12 Angry Men’ shoes!! I love that movie! I don’t know why they bothered trying to remake it, why mess with perfection?

Bob T. that was poignantly funny about your mom finally getting the jury summons.If your dad accepted your silence about the ‘69’ so much the better!!

All of you have actually calmed me down somewhat about this. There HAVE to be others there that haven’t served before as well as ones who have, and then after I’ve served, I can help someone else when they are nervous about being called like ya’ll have done for me. Thanks!!

Judy

“I only use 10% or less of what I study. It’s a waist. sined, Dropout” Up The Down Stair Case

31

I just got GREAT news, at least for me, my oldest son IS disappointed, but he is a government major, and would’ve loved to come down from Virginia just to be on a jury!

Dr. Holt’s office, Billy’s neurologist, just called and he had already written the letter to substantiate what I had said about Billy still needing supervision due to the seizures he has had in the past. But, this was the sweet part, he also wanted to know could he send anything else to make sure I stayed home with Billy! What a great doctor!

Thanks for all the responses I received, ya’ll sure do come through, even when it sounds silly. It does figure, that I had calmed down about serving, or the possibility of it, when now I don’t have to after all!!

Judy

32

A question any Doper might be able to answer for me:
Do judges, attorneys, or any other people with this authority prefer to keep people who work in the legal profession off juries? When I was in that jury pool, a couple of times I was questioned before being approved for a jury, about what work I did or if I was a student. I said I was a law major–legal assistant, to be more exact–and I did not get on those juries. But one time nobody even brought up the matter of what course of study I had taken; as it happened I got onto that jury.
So do they avoid picking lawyers, judges, other court personnel, or paralegals/legal secretaries/legal interns for juries?

33

Some attorneys feel that a person with a legal education background will dominate the deliberations and make their own interpretations of the law. The judge tells you what the law is. The jury just decides the facts.

34

I’ve only been on one jury and you’re spot on about why lawyers and paralegals are almost always challenged as jurors.

One woman on our jury had once studied to be a paralegal, but had never worked as one. She had a definite opinion about the case and wouldn’t budge. She bullied other jurors with her opinions and statements about procedure. For example, she told us that in a personal injury case, the defendant must pay the court and expert-witness costs of the plaintiff if they lose. I don’t know if that’s the case or not, but I think it did influence other jurors.

I should note that I was the foreman and she was one of our two holdouts for the plaintiff (10/12 wins in WA).

I watched “12 Angry Men” three times before I went on duty. Its study of persuasion is one of the best ever written. Too bad most jurors are more like mules than thinking men.

35

I have been called to jury duty twice. I was actually pretty excited to go. Alas, my group was not called in to do the “questioning,” or whatever it’s called, either time. The closest I’ve come was that I was in a local production of “12 Angry Men.” (Not even community theatre, mind you. It was at my parish. I was a damn good “Juror #4”)

36

Was that Lee J. Cobb, or E. G. Marshall, in the movie, Jeannie? I’m impressed! Both (Cobb especially) were forceful characters!)

37

According to the IMDB it was E.G. Marshall. Our production was more like, “7 Angry Men and 5 Angry Women,” but whatever. My character was about the third to last to give in to Juror #8 (or, Jack Lemmon in the film). It was so much fun to be a bitch! Like I said, though, no biggie. It was in a church group I’ve been part of since I was a kid. Just a bunch of friends pretending we’re actors.

38

I’ve never been called but allow me to share my brother’s surefire method of skating out of jury duty. He always takes his bible with him and makes sure that he makes it very clear that he hates lawyers and wishes them all dead. Thumps on his bible a few times and wham, he’s off the list. Worked twice for him so far.

“Hope is not a method”

39

I’m 68 and have never been on jury duty. I’ve lived essentially all of my life after college in the SF Bay Area – Peninsula, South Bay or East Bay. I have been called only once, in Berkeley. Overlooked when I was supposed to call back, but when I did, they said they were no longer interested in my serving. Considering tons of civil squabbles in Silicon Valley and all the crime in the Bay Area the last few decades, and since I’ve always been regestered to vote, I’ve felt there must’ve been some kind of screening going on. I wouldn’t think they’d look at anything beforehand except a felony record, but maybe in Santa Clara County they figured they only wanted married persons or homeowners, or many even those having no degree above a bachelor’s.

For a while, I thought I’d be interested in being called, but then I saw more about how courts operate. The American jury system is a total sham, because of how lawyers, judges, and even court reporters, etc. make courts basically serve pretty much only the people who work there, including those “officers of the court” called ‘attorneys’, not society in general.

From what I understand, in CA.US, at least almost all judges tell jurors they’re not allowed to look up the law relevant to their case, that they’re only supposed to get it from His Honor. I also understand that there is nothing in the law of this state or this nation that precludes a juror looking at any source of law (s)he should choose during a trial. From what I’ve seen of judges, they extremely often don’t know beans about the law.

So, if I got called now (Is there an age limit?), I’d be delighted to tell the judge, “OK, you want me on your jury? I’ll sit on your jury, but I’ll look up the law of the case anywhere I please. If you want to poll me on how I see that law, fine; and if you can point out anything wrong with how I see it, and I recognize a problem with my view, I’ll reevaluate how I see it and tell you; but I won’t simply swallow what you claim the law is.” I’ll bet that’ll get me off jury duty really fast. (OK, so I spend a week in the pokey for contempt.)

Lawyers muddle up facts to the extent that they’re totally unrelated to subject matter of the case, even opposing ones agreeing on how to do this. Judges normally don’t judge the facts, so they don’t care how muddled up the facts get. As to the facts as rendered by pro-pers, we’ve already seen how attorneys such as Melin and others here regard pro-pers, who most of the time are going to leave the facts in true form, so they will concentrate on totally deranging such. I the few cases where pro-pers tell any cogent lies, the jurors are as likely as anyone else there to discern the truth. But the lawyers lie so much, even about what has gone on in the trial, that the jurors and the judge (who may be bored or senile) lose track of what has gone on in the trial. I witnessed a case where the prosecuting attorney lied up a stream about what was in evidence and the jury convicted. I found out that a couple years later the case was reversed on appeal, based on prosecutorial misconduct, but in the meantime that attorney cost the state a lot of money and, of course, the defendant much trouble.

In a suit I handled in pro per against an attorney, also in pro per, one tentative jury member presented absurdly senile upon questioning, the attorney had no objection to him, so what did I care, if that’s the way the game is played. I assumed he’d just go with however the jury blew and would take the place of a possible lawyer-lover. The jury bought the lawyer’s double-talk – not guts, no doubt bored silly by the case. The public like to rant at lawyers but have no guts to stand up against their thieving ways when they have the chance. The attorney had dropped my case when his super-lucrative one became hot, and refused to refund what I had advanced on my case.

Anyhow, if you want off jury duty, tell the judge you’ll do your own legal research on the case, because you don’t trust judges to know the law. (Hey, look how many judges’ decisions get reversed. How can they claim to know the law.)

I didn’t see that movie. I don’t get entertainment from such movies. But most of all, I hate the public’s always running to fiction to get their opinions on reality, rather than observing reality. I’ve even had an attorney throw a Hollywood plot or two at me in a discussion of law. No wonder the courts and justice in this country is such a joke. It all comes out only a tad more sophisticated than the latest news item: Five year old boy confronts his friends with his mother’s gun, then fires it into the ground. They can’t charge the woman with anything because the gun was on a high shelf and unloaded. . .but the kid got it, and from watching TV (as he told the police), he knew how to load it. American courts solve hassles about as well as guns in American homes.

Ray (whatever’s jury-rigged)

40

I’m not sure I understand…I wonder if the third juror to give in was the man who grew up in slums (Jack Klugman), or the ad man, or the immigrant watchmaker; in any case, I thought “Juror #8” was Henry Fonda; besides, Jack Lemmon was NOT in the movie.
In that trial I was in, the defense counsel was reprimanded several times by the judge for trying to sway the jurors (us 14, including two alternates). The trial closed on a Friday morning–that is, that was when we rendered our verdict. Thursday afternoon the prosecutor and the defense counsel gave us their closing arguments. One of the jurors had, during the screening, said he was going on a vacation; in his closing argument, defense counsel tried to persaude us to ‘render a Not Guilty verdict so you can go home early.’ We were not impressed. We deliberated for a total of three hours and took three ballots–and promptly handed in a Guilty verdict.