I picture myself sitting in a little booth and trying to decide what justification we can use to give jaywalking granny the chair. I am originally from Texas afterall. More people should get the chair. “Yes your honor, she gets the chair. We don’t like her attitude, sitting in the corner and knitting and trying to look innocent. She is probably the front of a huge jaywalking granny racket.”
Or maybe I will be in some other trial where the evil bad person was some type of successful white collar criminal who will pay every one involved a million bucks to let him off scott free. Hell, then we could give the prosecuting lawyer the chair after wasting our time.
Then maybe we will sit in with a scary ass psycho serial killer, charismatically similar to Charles Manson but with a horrific spree like Jeffrey Dahmer. He of course would get off on a technicality later sneaking back in and giving the judge the chair.
So what should I really expect during this time? Should I bring a book or something to do?
Lucky dog! I got the summons once but when I called in to see if I was needed my number didn’t come up. I’ve always wanted to serve on a jury. My mom’s been on two and my dad’s been on like four and I’m so jealous.
Yes Dorkus, I would recommend you bring a book/magazines/newspapers. Where are you located now? It could make a big difference how jury selection is handled in your courts.
I’ll give you a litle run down of what I have gone through.
Here in Queens, NY (Yes it is a little different by borough), we first have to call a phone # every night for a week. If your number is called within a range of numbers then you report where and when they tell you (if not no jury duty) .
You wind up sitting in a room with a few hundred people and they pick your name, AFAICT, in a lottery system. If your name is called you go with about 30-50 other people to be quesitoned by the judge/attorneys to see if you meet their requirements. Once they have enough, the selection process is over and if you are not picked you go back into the “Jury pool” to be possibly picked for other juries. I once sat there for three days until they called my name to go and be interviewed.
If you are picked to serve on a jury, and I was once, they will give you the run down on the rules you have to follow, such as avoiding certain locations (scene of crime/accident).
About 8 years ago, I was sequestered for two nights on a relatively cut and dry case. We had a devils advocate that must have seen 12 Angry Men one too many times. In the end we all convinced him that he was wrong. Were we right? I think we were given the facts of the case.
FYI, one of the defendant’s lawyer admitted that his client had cocaine but he did not know the car was stolen. This devil advocate couldn’t even agree that this defendant was guilty of possesion of cocaine (can’t remember legal term for the charges). It took us 4 hours to get this one charge out of the way.
Obviously IANAL, so I can’t say why we even had this charge in the court room if the client was now admitting to guilt through his attorney.
