Do any of the Teeming Millions remember these?
There must be some funny, thoughtful, or shocking situations some of us have been in after the judge told us, Ÿou’re on the jury."
I was on a fairly simple case not too long ago. Some college kid rear-ended another car at a stoplight.
The guy he hit was a chiropractor. A day or two after the accident, he “realized” that he received injuries to his wrists and his neck. For treatment, he went to see his identical twin chiropractor brother.
I’m not a warlock. I’m a witch with a Y chromosome.
I’ve been tapped only twice, and the most recent one consisted of a young woman accused of intentionally burning her 18-month old’s hand with an iron as punishment. After hearing a lot of testimony about the nature of the burn and the nervous system, about the stormy history of the mother and father from whom she was separated and the child’s role as pawn in their fights, and inspecting the iron and ironing board, it was pretty obvious that the injury was not the result of an accident. One juror, however, had nothing but contempt for expert witnesses and chose not to believe anything they said–which resulted in a few days of passionate argument from the rest of the jurors, who, finally, fearing being hung, settled for a lesser charge of negligence, which the holdout would agree to.
One jury I was happy NOT to serve on was in a murder trial. After filing out an 18-page questionnaire and being interviewed by the judge, I was excused. One of the questions on the questionnaire asked us to list every organization we had ever belonged to, including things like softball teams, PTA, and on and on. I can’t remember now what all I put in, but I know it included the ACLU, NRA, International Plastic Modelers Society, Pacific Coast Pipe Band Association, the Turtles, The Captain Showbiz Fan Club, MMMS, Sierra Club, National Association of Letter Carriers . . . I hope I thoroughly confused them.
I was on the jury of a federal case of a convict suing one of the administrators of his prison. When I first heard that, I thought “oh yeah, right”. But it turned out this guy had a damn good case. He had “snitched” on some other convicts in the past, and when this administrator wanted info on demand, the convict shut up. The convict alleged that the administrator released some papers that identified him as a snitch, then refused to give him proper protection once the deed was discovered. The administrator was a real weasel. The convict had been denied legal representation, so he had to do it all himself, and did an incredibly admirable job. He was clearly of higher caliber than the administrator and his sleazy lawyers! It was a fascinating and memorable case.
“With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.” - Rhett Butler
I was on the jury of a federal case of a convict suing one of the administrators of his prison. When I first heard that, I thought “oh yeah, right”. But it turned out this guy had a damn good case. He had “snitched” on some other convicts in the past, and when this administrator wanted info on demand, the convict shut up. The convict alleged that the administrator released some papers that identified him as a snitch, then refused to give him proper protection once the deed was discovered. The administrator was a real weasel. The convict had been denied legal representation, so he had to do it all himself, and did an incredibly admirable job. He was clearly of higher caliber than the administrator and his sleazy lawyers! It was a fascinating and memorable case.
“With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.” - Rhett Butler
Shit, I can’t believe I did that again. Sorry.
“With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.” - Rhett Butler
My 20-year old brother got called for jury duty (in a very small town). It was a murder case - very shocking for this community. These two guys were roommates, and one stabbed and killed the other. They were foreign…from somewhere in Africa, I believe. The sister of the dead guy had brought him over for a better life…anyway, on the first day of testimony, she was on the stand. She jumped over the witness stand and attacked the defendant. My brother was right in front of the whole thing. They had to get a new jury and trial after that.
I was a juror in a murder trial . . . a capital case.
It totally changed my life and my views on the death penalty. I went into the courthouse a confirmed liberal and came out of sequestration a totally different woman polically and every other way.
Regardless of how you might feel about the death penalty, I tell you: some people cannot be allowed to walk amongst us. They forfeit that right when they take a life as casually as you would step on a bug, when someone else’s life is meaningless and of no consequence to them.
The trial was nearly 15 years ago and I’ve never forgotten it.
your humble TubaDiva
PS It also doesn’t excuse you from further jury duty; since then I’ve served on two narcotics grand juries. But that’s another story. . .
I just got called for the first time a couple months ago. I was put in the pool for an assault case where a girl’s face was slashed by a stranger. (Hmmm, I think to myself, I know someone that happened to. I wonder if that’ll get me off the case). The judge gives the details of the case and mentions that it happened in my neighborhood. (How odd, my friend was slashed in my neighborhood. That’s gotta be enough to get me off this case). The judge says the victim’s name. (Holy Crap! That’s my friend!).
I got off the case.
It may not seem too odd to most of you, but this is in Brooklyn N.Y. There are millions of potential jurors, and thousands of cases being tried. I thought it was pretty damn weird to end up on the only case a freind of mine was involved in in the entire city.
I got to serve on a coronor’s jury a few years ago. It wasn’t very exciting, but it was interesting. We heard the evidence in several cases and had to determine if the death was homicide, suicide, accident, natural, and I think there was a fifth choice which I’ve forgotten. We heard five cases, and the most heated discussion came about a case wherein a man who was high on cocaine drove his car into a telephone poll and was killed. One person on our panel refused to accept that the death was accidental, arguing that the man voluntarily took the cocaine, so there was nothing accidental about it. Well, ya, but he didn’t intentionally drive into the pole! I was realy dismayed by this line of argument because I thought it proposterous, and the guy proporting it was a school teacher. Maybe I’m nuts, but I still think he was way off base.
“I think it would be a great idea” Mohandas Ghandi’s answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization
I’ve been called for jury duty several times. Once I had to drive down to US District Court in Detroit every morning for two weeks and sit there waiting with about 200 other people. Never got called, and I met a lot of nice people.
I sat in on a murder trial about three years ago and I have to agree with Tuba on the readjustment of perspective when you see what animals really live amongst us. Heres the story:
This 19-20 year old girl broke up with her 19-20 year old boyfriend and after a couple of months he decided to kill her best friend and come running to comfort her. He goes the the best friends house and the mom is home and since she knows this guy, lets him in saying her daughter ( the best friend) will be back any moment. The guy ties up the mother and waits. The bestfriend comes home and is immediately taking into the attached garaged and held in front of the running tailpipe of the family car and forced to inhale the noxious gases until she passes out. She is not dead, like he thinks. Drags her back to her mother and says " I can knock you out first before I do this to you so you won’t feel a thing." The mother nods, scared to death, and he decides he doesn’t want to hit her because he might hurt his hand. Does the same face-in-the-tail-pipe treatment to the mother, drags her back to her bedroom. Put the unconscious bestfriend in her bed ( it’s night time, I think well after midnight.) pours some kind of accelerant all throughout the house and lights it. Steals a few personal belongings, like a tv, before departing. Fire department, EMS show up and the women are taken out dead and burned and shuffled off to the coroners office and deposited there stating the obvious that they were in a house fire.
About two months go by and some things are not jiving with the inspectors. There was no electrical or appliance failure. ( we saw plenty of slides of every thing to rule out electrical) and there was dust (regular old household dust) around the spot on the entertainment center where the TV use to be.There were specific burn patterns in the carpet that told the investigators something was used to start the entire thing.
The house was beyond saving and eventually demolished. I think the only surviving family members were a sister and a brother 9 about 22 and 17) The family dogs were killed in the smoke. The girl and her mother are long buried.
This boyfriend brags to two seperate people ( whom do not know each other) of his actions and one of them, a high school sophomore that he was living at his house, told his mom and she went to the cops. The other person he brags to tells the cops after they stop by to ask some questions about him. He never admitted to the cops, but there was enough evidence to arrest him.
What we as jurors thought was odd was there were holes in the story that didn’t make sense. We figured there had to be some help for this guy and after we made our verdict ( It took less than an hour.) the DA came in and told us that he had two other buddies help him out and their trials were going on at the same time ( I think) down the hall.
No one, except his mother, took the stand for this schmuck.
This was not his first offense with the law and he ended up with life behind bars.
Everyone in the jury room agreed it was not like you see it on TV or Movies. No one stood up shouting " I Object!" It was all so calm. One guy, who is a principal of a high school, tried to get out of his duty but then said he was really glad he got stuck with it because it really opened up all our eyes. The trial took 4 days.
I like these comments. My own experience can’t match them! (I was on a jury in Los Angeles–apparently in the same building as the O. J. Simpson trial–in a drug-sting case. We deliberated for three hours, took three ballots, and rendered a Guilty verdict.)
As a sub-topic: For those of the Teeming Millions who have been on juries–Melvin Belli wrote in * Ready for the Plaintiff * (1955) that federal juries are somewhat “elitist”–I don’t have the book with me but he said they use different–and to Belli quite unfair–criteria for screening jurors. Well, that was in 1955. For those who have been on federal juries–what has happened since then?
Frankly, I’m jealous.
I’ve never had the opportunity to actually serve on a jury. Once the defense attorney learns that I have family members that are in law enforcement, as well as a circle of friends that includes law enforcement professionals; they dismiss me from service–fast!
–Kalél
(The Original EnigmaOne)
Common ¢ for all ages.
What state do you live in, Enigma One?
I know a woman who was called to jury duty in the criminal division of the court in Culver City, Los Angeles County, California. She was excused from the jury in Culver City when she told the judge that she has a brother who is with the Police Department. She was excused–and reassigned to the jury facility in Beverly Hills.
I guess in your state cops’ kinfolk can’t be jurors at all (even in civil cases)??
I have been called into jury duty once. This happened last year. The trial was for this guy who tried to abduct a girl, and he had been on parole for raping several other women (he had raped two girls behind my High school in the 70’s).
They called me in so they could fill the 6 empty seats in the jury (i guess they didnt have enough in the first place or something). So, i get called in. My group was the first to go to the courtroom and answer questions. When i got there i noticed that the defendant was the suspect in the sting operation my older brother took part of.
I remember telling my family how funny it would be if i got called to jury for the same case my brother was a witness for. I was sitting there listening to the judge and attorneys ask the first group questions. The kicker was that the judge asked one of the jurors if they knew the list of defendants. Well, my older brother was on the list for potential witnesses. So, i knew pretty much that i probably wouldn’t be put on the jury because of that. Usually the defendant’s attorneys do not like people who are relatives of police officers to be on the stand. For me, i probably wont ever get put on a jury since my father is a police officer and so is my brother.
Overall, it wasnt too bad. The court building was interesting to visit (lotsa metal detectors at the entrances to the court rooms), and i met a lot of nice people. In fact there were two ladies i met there that were kind of my buddies for the day. I got 8 bucks reimbursement for the gas i spent getting there and my “payment” for being a potential juror (a whole five bucks!).
The accident case I served on (which I mentioned above) was a pretty simple one, and the judge wanted to have it finished in one day. The trial didn’t start until early afternoon, and our deliberations went to 6:00.
According to the law around here, if jurors must serve later than 5 pm on the last day of trial, the court is required to pay them for the following day as well. So even though I was finished on Monday, the clerk gave me a receipt for both Monday and Tuesday, which meant that I got to skip an extra day of work. That was certainly the most fun part of the entire jury experience. =B^)
I’m not a warlock. I’m a witch with a Y chromosome.
I was on an arson jury. It was a bit obvious that she asked someone else to torch the restaurant, but the dumb prosecutor never pursued that angle. The defense attorney was a bit of a character, quite a goofball. He got chicken pox, we had to call off the case for a week. Finally, a hung jury, almost got her on fraud, but no. Three held out for the smoking gun evidence. Their behavior did not fit the sworn duties, they dismissed most circumstantial evidence.
There must have been 12 jurors at least once who got to hear a lawyer get put down–by Abraham Lincoln!
Abe was a circuit-riding lawyer screening prospective jurors. He asked, among other things, if the jurors knew the lawyer for the other side. It turned out 4 or 5 did know him; but then the judge interrupted.
“Mr. Lincoln, you are wasting the time of the court. The fact that a prospective juror knows your opponent does not disqualify him.”
Lincoln answered, “No that’s true, Your Honor. I’m afraid that some of these gentlemen may * not * know him, which would place me at a disadvantage.” 
I was never on jury duty. I was a defendant though. That was funny. Especially when my lawyer said I was basically a nice person. Those lawyers!
You are unique - Just like everone else.
I’ll tell, you, Wally–you can bet the lawyer will try damn hard (that’s what they’re paid for) to sway jurors. The defense attorney in the trial I was a juror on, knew one of us jurors was about to go on vacation–and tried to talk us into a “not guilty” verdict so we could go home early. Well, we deliberated only three hours all told–and ruled his client guilty anyway!
“If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully–because I walk in my sleep.”–Victor Borge