How long were the jurors up for, in your court. In my county court (California) it is one and done. If we don’t get picked on our reporting day, we are done for the year. In federal court I have to call every day for two weeks. Assuming I don’t have to go in. I don’t know if reporting means I’m finished or not.
You’re never too old to learn another language. 
Seriously, though, I’m not aware of any jurisdiction in Canada that requires jurors in criminal trials to speak French. At least in Quebec, it’s left to the defendant to decide whether the trial will be conducted in English or in French. The jury doesn’t need to be bilingual unless the trial has at least two defendants who have chosen two different languages.
I’d love to serve on a jury. My problem is that I cannot afford to keep my business open if I’m not there, and the courts won’t pay my employees for the time they’d lose.
I sat on a jury for two weeks in an eminent domain case. Be careful what you wish for (unless you’re really into topographical maps and water table charts).
I told this one to my geography major wife and she pumped her fist in the air and yelled “YES!”.
I was once on a federal grand jury, met every six weeks for a year and a half.
I’ve had notice for regular jury duty, and once got as far as the selection process. It was a domestic violence case, involuntary manslaughter and self defense.
Prospective jurors were asked if they’d ever been marriend. If they answered yes the next question was for how long they’d been married. One guy asked “This time or cumulative?”
If a woman ansered she was married sh next got asked if she preferred to be called Mrs or Ms. One gal looked over the tops of her glasses, down a long nose, and replied “It’s Dr!”
I had a high selection number so a jury was selected before I have a chance to get up there.
My experience was at the county level in California, so I’m afraid I have no help for you re federal requirements. It’s a whole different animal. Good luck – I hope your two-week stint will do it! As Baker points out, it can be onerous.
I am so sorry. Eminent domain cases were the worst, in my opinion. We called them “book droppers.” Sometimes you had to loudly drop a book on the desk or floor to startle the judge back to wakefulness.
I once worked for a judge who could not let go of this habit. Men were always referred to as “Mister.” With women, the question was asked: “Is it Miss? Or Mrs.?” So the women were classified as single (Miss), married (Mrs.) or divorced (Ms.). Both the court reporter and I disliked this practice and more than once complained. But he wouldn’t change.
One day he asked, “Is it Miss? Or Mrs.?” The reply: “It’s Mister!”
For the only time in my memory, this judge was entirely at a loss for words. The court reporter and I engaged in studious wall study, knowing we would burst out laughing if we looked at each other.
He finally stopped.
I’ve always wanted to be called for jury duty, but never have been, even though I’m a registered voter, a licensed driver and a home owner in my county for 25 years.
StG
I’ve been summoned three times, but never ended up on a jury. I think on all three occasions, they just ended up dismissing everyone in the pool.
Oh, she would have had fun. Me, not so much. The only good thing was that the courthouse was within walking distance of home, so I could go home for lunch every day. Oh, and I didn’t have to go to work for two weeks.
Almost 65 and never have been called. Now that I’m retired, I’d rather like to have the opportunity. Wonder if there is a way to ‘ask’ the courts to put me on ‘the list’.
In the past 20 years I have been called 5 times and sat on 3 juries. I have been left with a very dim view of the local judicial system.
Case 1: newly widowed 60 yo woman sells a trailer for payments. Purchaser, who has the same last name as a number of previous sheriffs in the county, defaults. Defendant repossesses trailer and is charged with theft. Not guilty
Case 2: young woman visits her SO in county jail. Exposes herself to him through glass barrier. No one else in visitor’s room and no one else had a direct view. Charged with indecent exposure. Hung jury. Sorry, can’t make this a criminal act. Intent of law is to protect people from seeing things they don’t want or need to see. No one was in any way harmed here. Classic victimless “crime”.
Case 3: a woman on disability was temporarily babysitting a step grandchild for a few weeks between other care situations. Somehow, 2yo comes to ingest an opioid. Defendant is on opioids for pain and there had been other persons known to use drugs staying in the house. Insufficient evidence to say the defendant was criminally negligent. Her own meds were inaccessible to a child. Not guilty.
By coincidence, all three trials had female defendents. In each case, my impression was the cases were prosecuted for an agenda: because they thought they could get an acquittal with minimal effort.
Beat me to it! (In my case, it’s me, not my wife).
I had to report for jury duty for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I had been summoned several times before but this was the first time I had to report. The trial was a guy accused of violating a restraining order against his ex-wife. I was in the first group of potential jurors to be questioned. The DA asked if anyone had ever taken out a restraining order against anyone. I raised my hand and said yes, against my ex-husband when I filed for divorce. DA asked if my ex obeyed the restraining order. I said yes for the most part. DA and prosecuting attorney conferred for a second and then dismissed me.
On a side note my dad used to get called for jury duty all the time. Here you can only get summoned every two years, and every two years like clockwork Dad got called. He usually wound up having to report, got picked a few times, and was made jury foreman on one occasion. Dad enjoyed it, he said he liked being part of the legal process. Dad actually got called for jury duty a few months after he died. Mom called the courthouse to let them know that for obvious reasons Dad wouldn’t be reporting. The lady she was talking to on the phone got snippy with her and asked why not. Mom said “Because he’s dead!” Lady apologized real fast and said they’d make sure they got their records updated.
I’ve only gotten a single letter in my life telling me to report for jury duty, back in Indianapolis. I was 18, and got picked to serve. Attempted auto theft. Guilty. This guy came out of a strip club at like 3 in the morning, with a screwdriver in his pocket (or else “he was happy to see me”, one of several jokes made in the jury room). He succeeded in breaking into a car at an auto lot, and he even got the engine running, but he took off on foot when a police helicopter arrived on the scene.
He was apprehended in a nearby apartment complex. Later, the helicopter circled back around to the auto lot, and we could see from the chopper’s night vision camera that the engine had been started, because the hood was darker than the rest of the car.
Open and shut case. Then we were told he had two previous strikes on him, and sent back to the jury room, asked to convict him as a habitual offender. That simply required confirmation that we’d been given info about his two previous convictions. Again, open and shut.
Best quote from the entire case: The defense attorney said, “No one ever accused my client of being smart.” That’s a family inside joke now.
The only time I got called to jury duty was at age 52. I had just been laid off from a long-time career. The corporation called it a “resource action” so during jury selection, one of the attorneys asked where I was employed. I told him the name of my then employer, but that I was part of a “resource action”. He said he didn’t know what that meant, could I explain it to him; I said he’d call it “being laid off”. He (and most of the rest of the courtroom) laughed. I got chosen for the trial, the last one picked, and I ended up being an alternate juror at the end.
It was a well publicized multiple murder trial; the victims were three members of the same family, including a ten-year old boy. The trial was moved to my city from the small town where it occurred. The trial started right when my job disappeared, so it was a bit easier not going to work for those two weeks; it was an interesting interlude from being employed to not being employed. The murder trial was fascinating but open-and-shut. Being an alternate, I didn’t get sequestered like the rest of the jury (for one night), but I did get to talk with the victim’s family while the others were deliberating. When the jury returned, the bailiff had reserved some seats for me and the other alternate juror to hear the verdict. Afterward he led us out of the back door so we wouldn’t be bothered by the press. About half-way on my drive home, I found myself sobbing about the whole sad affair.
I haven’t be asked since; the clerk said we probably would be excused from then on.
The first time I received a jury summons I was picked for the jury. This was in the mid-80s, and I was excited about being on a jury. The defendant in the case was an African-American man who was married to a white woman. In my small town, interracial marriages were still uncommon at that time. During jury selection, the judge asked us if anybody had a problem with interracial relationships; several people acknowledged that this could affect their judgment, and they were dismissed. The 12 people who were finally chosen were all white.
The gist of the case was that the wife had moved out and had filed for divorce, but it was not yet finalized. One night the defendant came to her apartment and convinced her to go for a ride, whereupon he took her to the country and raped her. (IIRC, this was the first time in the state that a husband had been accused of raping his wife; this was due to a fairly recent change in state law.)
This was an open-and-shut case. After less than an hour of deliberation, we took a vote and it was 11-1 guilty. We debated for another 30 minutes and took another vote. Same result. Finally, the foreman asked who the holdout was. An elderly woman acknowledged that she was the one. When asked why, she said she didn’t believe the wife’s testimony. I asked her why, if the wife was lying, she had allowed herself to be humiliated by being subjected to a rape examination while a male police officer was present in the exam room. Her reply was that the wife had already humiliated herself by marrying a black man.
Well, the rest of us immediately jumped all over this juror, telling her that she lied to the judge and this probably was going to mean a mistrial. She meekly relented, and the ensuing vote was 12-0.
I left the trial severely disillusioned, and hoped that I would never get chosen again for a jury, and that my fate would never be in the hands of 12 people. I have been summoned twice more and both times my name was drawn; both times I told the judge that my previous jury experience would not allow me to render an impartial verdict. Both times I was excused.
And, thus far, my fate has not been in the hands of a jury.
This one has to be written as a blind item:
My aunt managed to get picked on a major jury, the month sequestered kind. If you didn’t hear about the case, you read the book and/or saw the movie kind. Lots of thick scientific evidence.
In one of my collage legal classes, the movie was shown as an example of boarding house reach by the lawyers.
My aunt, on her few good days can plug in a three pronged electrical cord.
:smack:
I once had a conversation with an engineer at Lockheed she mentioned being on the jury for a civil case and the lawyers on both sides seemed to be aiming for jurors who who were not so bright – except her. After the trial she asked one of the lawyers why she was chosen and the guy shrugged, “Somebody’s gotta be foreman.”
When I was living in Santa Clara county I’d get tapped for jury duty every two years like clockwork. I was lucky that my first experience was the whole experience, a civil case where I was seated on the jury, we heard the trial, and came to a verdict. It was a family patriarch suing Bank of America and K-mart, two of California’s favorite corporations,* over the embarrassment of having his credit card confiscated. We reluctantly came to the conclusion that there had been no harm.
Another time I was seated for a DUI case. One question the defense lawyer kept asking the veniremen was whether we would believe the testimony of a peace officer over the defendant solely because he was a cop. After the jury was selected we broke for lunch. Before we did the judge mentioned the major intersection where the arrest had been and admonished us against going down and seeing the site ourselves; “If it becomes pertinent, we’ll take you there ourselves.” After coming back from lunch we were told by the bailiff to stay outside the courtroom. After cooling our heels for about 45 minutes, we entered the courtroom and only the judge was there, who told us the defendant had pled. I think having the twelve people in the jury box looking at him had an effect. The judge added, “Too bad; it looked like it was going to be an interesting case.”
The other uncounted times I never made it as far as being seated. After moving to Maricopa county I’ve gotten the summons several times, but didn’t have to go in when I called the evening before, except twice.
One was a criminal trial where a young man was accused of looting a store after its front window had been smashed out. The prosecution’s case was about a day’s worth in two halves after jury selection and I was startled when she rested, thinking, “That it? I’ll hear the defense’s case but I’m going to have a hard time convicting on the evidence now.” We broke for lunch and when we came back the judge had dismissed the case.
The other case I was in the courtroom but didn’t get selected for the jury. It was Sam Moore, of Sam & Dave fame and a gym; somebody was suing somebody over membership. I and another fellow were the only two of the thirty who raised their hands when we were asked if we recognized his name, which was a little sad.
*Wal-Mart hadn’t been invented yet.
I am 66 and have received only one notice (back in 2002) and that date was snowed out. I have lived at the same address for 29 years. It would be painful for me to sit for hours (arthritis in hips) but it would be interesting depending on the case.