CWP15 - The Jury Poll

Crumb · #1 08-31-2016, 11:27 PM

Lawyers need not apply.

Stormlight · #2 09-01-2016, 05:48 AM

I will not ever serve because that doesn't exist here! Just like peanut butter!!

Angakuk · #3 09-01-2016, 05:55 AM

I have been called up for jury duty but have not served on a Jury. Apparently the defense attorney did not like the fact that I was a friend of the assistant county attorney. Also, he may not have thought it was good idea to have a minister on the jury.

Ari · #4 09-01-2016, 06:08 AM

The closest I've gotten to serving I was called up to be the possible replacement of an alternate juror. Went through their questions and a few minutes after both attorney's said they liked the set they had and thus I wasn't needed.

Given my views on things, such as the cops and how they can go fuck themselves, I'd be surprised if any prosecuting attorney would want me.

BrotherMan · #5 09-01-2016, 07:40 AM

Kamilah Hauptmann · #6 09-01-2016, 08:18 AM

Was called for a murder one, brought letter from my employer asking for me to be excused. It was heading into the big audit season and I was the accountant in charge of a number of large items.

I was excused, but I might have found it interesting.

Vivisectus · #7 09-01-2016, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormlight

I will not ever serve because that doesn't exist here! Just like peanut butter!!

I will not ever server either. I live in the republic, but I am not a member of it because of my foreignness.

Kael · #8 09-01-2016, 09:55 AM

omg but what about teh FREEDOMS?! :eagletear:

Vivisectus · #9 09-01-2016, 12:21 PM

Well, I could just, you know. Join the republic. Fill out a form and stuff.

Ymir's blood · #10 09-01-2016, 01:03 PM

Voted that I didn't like it
However ot was important to do and my feelings were set aside

Watser? · #11 09-01-2016, 02:20 PM

No juries here neither, we make do with judges.

curses · #12 09-01-2016, 02:27 PM

Served on two, one was a credit fraud case that got tossed out due to lack of evidence, the other was a damages case for a large pharmacy that had been giving a lady a super wrong dose of a thyroid medicine because of a typo. I voted didn't like. All we had to decide was how much money the lady would get. Almost everyone else immediately said "the full amount" with no discussion. There was absolutely no deliberation. And they wouldn't discuss it. One guy went off in a corner and slept. I wish I'd sent a note to the judge but yeah..hindsight.

livius drusus · #13 09-01-2016, 04:38 PM

I've been called thrice, had to appear at the courthouse cattle call twice and made it to the courtroom once only to be dismissed because the case had been pled out. I was super bummed. I would very much like to serve on a jury one day.

BrotherMan · #14 09-01-2016, 04:49 PM

12 Angry Drususes makes a good title for a short story.

lisarea · #15 09-01-2016, 05:22 PM

I have been called 400,000 times, but I have only served once, on a case where some cops were accusing a guy they beat up of starting it. I was all steeled to go against the jury if they wanted to convict the guy, but it turned out that everyone else on the jury was prepared to do the same, so we just voted, and then decided to have some free donuts so it would look like we deliberated for more than thirty seconds. That was pretty good.

One of the other times I got called, they had selected a lawyer for the jury*, and everyone including her was pretty surprised because we thought that never happened. But then that guy pled out, so she didn't serve after all.

* There was this really great part where the lawyers were asking potential jurors questions, and this not very smart guy from the jury pool had been bloviating nonsensically for a really long time to the point that everyone was pretty much catatonic, and after he was done, they asked her (the lawyer who got selected) if she agreed with what he'd said, and she sat up really quick, saying, "Whaaaa? WHA!? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" That was so great.

JoeP · #16 09-01-2016, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrotherMan

12 Angry Drususes makes a good title for a short story.

DVODECIM IRATVS DRVSII

The Lone Ranger · #17 09-01-2016, 06:17 PM

I've been called to jury duty twice. The first time, I never made it to the courtroom, as they picked their jury before they even got to me.

The second time was ... interesting. I made it to the courtroom and the defense attorney asked me what I do for a living. I explained that I taught as an adjunct in the Biology Department at a nearby college while doing graduate research at the local university.

"Am I to understand that you're some kind of scientist?" he asked. Feeling a bit perplexed, since I had assumed I'd been perfectly clear about that, I replied, "Yes."

"Your Honor, I don't want that man on my jury," the attorney said. And just like that, I was dismissed.

erimir · #18 09-01-2016, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger

I made it to the courtroom and the defense attorney asked me what I do for a living. I explained that I taught as an adjunct in the Biology Department at a nearby college while doing graduate research at the local university.

"Am I to understand that you're some kind of scientist?" he asked. Feeling a bit perplexed, since I had assumed I'd been perfectly clear about that, I replied, "Yes."

"Your Honor, I don't want that man on my jury," the attorney said. And just like that, I was dismissed.

This is an extremely American anecdote.

Kamilah Hauptmann · #19 09-01-2016, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger

The second time was ... interesting. I made it to the courtroom and the defense attorney asked me what I do for a living. I explained that I taught as an adjunct in the Biology Department at a nearby college while doing graduate research at the local university.

"Am I to understand that you're some kind of scientist?" he asked. Feeling a bit perplexed, since I had assumed I'd been perfectly clear about that, I replied, "Yes."

"Your Honor, I don't want that man on my jury," the attorney said. And just like that, I was dismissed.

Janet · #20 09-01-2016, 07:00 PM

I was an alternate in California. I sat through the trial but didn't deliberate. That baffled the people when I was picked for a trial in Michigan two years back. Apparently in Michigan they don't let you know you're an alternate until it's time to deliberate, but in CA they do. That was an assault case.

My Michigan one was medical malpractice. I joked afterward that the definition of rush to judgment is sending the jury to deliberate at 4:30 Friday afternoon. But the truth is we all agreed on the first vote. We did discuss it first, so it wasn't as bad as Curses' example. Still, the clerk came in to tell us we could go for the weekend and we were all, "No, we just voted!" We hadn't even finished filling out the form when she popped her head in.

godfry n. glad · #21 09-01-2016, 08:10 PM

The county seems to like to force me to be in the jury pool on a fairly frequent basis. I think since majority I've been called seven times (plus once for the federal courts). Most times, I just get reading done in the jurors room and go home at the end of the day. (Here, the commitment is one day, if not seated on a jury for a case. Then, you finish out the case. Grand jury is a one month commitment; I've never done grand jury duty.)

Once I was questioned for a civil rights employment case, but dismissed after questioning. Another time, I was placed on a jury for a legal malpractice case and heard two days of court before the judge excused us because the present attorney for the plaintiff had waited too long to file. Then, I was called and placed as an alternative juror (#14) on a dual murder and dismemberment trial. I had to listen to all the evidence, but I was sent home when the original twelve went in to deliberations....they convicted on all counts.

I would not call jury duty 'fun'. It can be 'interesting'. Mostly, jury duty is tedious and boring.

Ensign Steve · #22 09-02-2016, 08:07 PM

I always got excused from the Jury Duty for "financial hardship" on accounta my employers wouldn't pay but would write a note to that effect. Then the most recent time I had a cool employer who would pay me, so the first day I was to call in and they said don't come in today but do come in tomorrow morning.

So I came in tomorrow morning and literally sat around and waited for an eternity. I have insane amounts of patience with bureaucracy, borne of a lifetime on one dole or other, but the others in my group were all fussy and twitchy as other groups kept getting called or updated as to when they would be called.

Then when they finally called our group, it was to tell us we were excused, and everybody was like "yay! maybe I shouldn't have been such an asshole about having to wait for that. see ya suckers!" and we took the fuck off. It would have been cool, except later that day I found out my stepdad was missing. At least I didn't have to figure out how to get out of jury duty and deal with all that.

Ari · #23 09-02-2016, 08:21 PM

My first summons there was a dude in his 20s in a ratty tshirt constantly kicking the chair in front of him with someone in it while the judge was talking. I half expected those not chosen would be ushered into the contempt of court or murder trial, whichever came first.

The judge excused him in the way you might a bratty child. I expect he eventually saw the court room as a client.