Jury Duty - UPDATE-POST #30

[Carols Clucks]

I have been called several times! Ugh.

Here, having a child over 12 (might have been 10) puts you back on the list. And needing to give him medication and specific times, just meant they said I needed to hire some one to come and do it. Whoo hoo on that $5 bucks a day and ONE way mileage! This was for a high profile case and the trial would last 2-4months and there was the possibility of being sequestered. It was a murder trial and as they were weeding through tons of people, it was plea bargained, thankfully!

Being self employed makes no difference either.

Thankfully, I can now say I care for an elder and can not serve. It would probably help that I have served on a non profit board with the judge or am the clerks landlord too.

I have made it to the box before. It was a spousal abuse case where the girl would not testify against the guy. I was in college and could not miss that much time. When they asked me if I saw I guy with his hand in the arm and his gf falling over the bluff in the distance, would I vote that he had pushed her. I said something like it would depend on how much I saw and if I just saw his hand in the air, how would I know he was not pointing at a bird and she tripped? I was excused.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I like Jury Duty....

Best way to get out of it though is to tell them that you cant convict anyone of any crime because of religious belief in not judging others...

Racial remarks get people excused pretty quick too.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:

 

[kuntrygirl]

If picked for jury duty, are the courts open after 5:00 PM? I hope not, because I have chicken duty chores that begin at 5:00 PM and I am the only person who can care for my chickens and other animals. I wonder if that would be a good reason to be excused?

 

[Stacykins]

The only person I know who has gotten called up was my mother. She was dismissed when she said she felt the victims of the crime had so few rights and were often criminalized in trials that were meant to put the criminals behind bars. I guess since I have no job, I wouldn't mind jury duty. But when I did, I would have definitely tried my hardest to get out of it.

 

[Judy]

I served once and am now too old. It was a silly case, two older people getting a divorce after two years of marriage; the trial was over who got one particular piece of furniture, some sort of armoire or something. I don't recall their asking anything but name and occupation and such. The silly thing was, we were never told who bought the thing or where it came from, or any other reason to choose one over the other. I think we actually tossed a coin.

 

[desertdarlene]

Most of the time, you will not be there after 5PM and may often leave early depending on the case. You may even get very long lunch breaks, too. I had lunch breaks that were an hour and a half or more depending on what the attorneys and the judge needed to do.

 

[Okie Amazon]

I have been on two juries; one criminal, one civil (auto accident).

The civil was pretty cut and dried, I think I was there two days. The criminal, however, was a nightmare. It took a full week, I must admit, largely due to my and one other womans' stubborness. It was a drug case; two cops are driving around in a neighborhood I used to live in. Two guys are walking down the street, minding their own business, when these (undercover) cops pull up and ask if they know where to get some crack. The OTHER guy, NOT the guy we are trying, says, "Yeah". So, they get in the car, drive to a house and both get out. One of them, the cops were not even clear on WHICH ONE, comes back with a few rocks of crack. So they arrest them and charge them with distribution, which carries 25+ years. The guy had prior convictions, but still, I was NOT going to send a guy up for potentially the rest of his life, when the cops couldn't even say with certainty that it was this guy! One woman with a major east coast accent, kept saying, "But he's a police offi-sah, whhhhyyy would he lie???" I just knew if she said it one more time, I would be on trial for throwing her out the window! Basically everyone else had the attitude, "Oh heck, he's a crackhead ni**er - who cares. Send him to prison and let's get out of here!" The thing that really got me steamed about it was, like I said, I used to LIVE in that neighborhood and I had to drive a long way to go to a store where crack dealers weren't literally climbing in my car windows trying to sell me some crack! Why just grab someone off the street when literally 2 blocks away, they are swarming around like roaches? Then the prosecutor said some crap like, "There's no reason for anyone to be IN that neighborhood unless they are buying or selling drugs!" Oh, reeeeally? I guess my Jehovah's Witness neighbor and his wife and kids would have been surprised to hear that. Probably the elderly couple that lived across the alley from me would be a little shocked, too! We did find him guilty of possesion of paraphrenalia (he had a crack pipe in his pocket), which got him 5 years as it was. We were there until after 10 pm at least two nights. I hopehopehope that I don't get called again anytime soon. I am too darn stubborn when i take a stand on something. I just was NOT sending the man to prison just because the cops "said so".

 

[Frosty]

I was in the pool once, for a DUI case. They asked where I worked, if I knew the defendant, things like that. I did find out that when you are there and get a tickle in your throat and start an uncontrollable cough they don't want you.

Here I was looking forward to being part of the jury for the guilty guy! I don't like it when folks drink and drive...

 

[kuntrygirl]

UPDATE:

I went to jury duty and sat there for 3 HOURS!!! The judge came out of his chambers, gave us the "You are a good citizen" speech and told us that we were excused because both parties had come to an agreement and that there would be no trial. I was like, "WHAT"?! So we all were thanked and we left. I guess I can't complain. I kinda got what I wanted.