Being called in for Jury Duty...

[DDD]

I've served on three juries and two were for murder. LMS you don't get to volunteer information. They can ask you whatever they want to ask but they don't ask you what you think of the "system". Good thing, lol.

The lst murder trial we took days to decide and agreed on not guilty. Funny thing...we all believed he was guilty but the DA skipped over info that would have proven it beyond a reasonable doubt. We weren't allowed to ask questions once we were sent to deliberate. It was very frustrating. The second murder case we downgraded the charge but found him guilty. No problem for any of the panel.

Having a kid cope with parts of the system makes me strongly advocate for "regular" citizens to be the deciders. I no longer respect insider choices but I do overall trust "my fellow citizens". IF I were ever on trial I would hope reasonable thinking people would decide my fate. DDD

 

[JJJ]

I would love to serve on a jury. The one time I was called I had 5 kids under 7 years old -- all with special needs. I was excused over the phone LOL.

 

[witzend]

Years ago when you used to have to go down to the courthouse each morning for a week just in case you were needed, I worked with this woman who was kind of bored and lonely and very much a fundamentalist. She went the first four days, and wasn't picked for the jury, and was disappointed every day that she had to come back to work instead. This was also right after our state passed a law that a husband could indeed be found guilty of forcibly raping his wife.

The Friday, she got interviewed for a marital rape case. She swore that if the DA proved that the husband did what he was charged with, she could find him guilty. The facts were these:

A husband and wife are seperated. He comes drunk to her house and bullies his way into the door. He forces himself upon her while her children are asleep in the other room. He tells her that if she doesn't have sex with him, he is going to go home and get his shotgun and come back and kill them all. She has sex with him, calls the police, and he was arrested and charged.

The facts at trial proved that the man did exactly what he was charged with, that the wife was terrified, and would not have complied with him except that she was in fear for her life and her children's lives. The lady I worked with was the one hold-out. They deliberated for 10 days. It was a "not guilty" verdict. She gleefully told everyone who would listen that there was no way she was going to convict because it was a woman's duty from God to have sex with her husband whenever he wanted no matter what, and the wife was at fault.

The judge found out what the lady from my work did and declared it a mistrial, and the man was reindicted. The wife had had enough and refused to put herself and her family through it again. Juries definitely need intelligent fairminded people to give of their time. For the life me I will never understand why the rest of the jurors didn't rat the lady from work out. She should have been charged with a crime, in my mind. I mean, she put her reasons for voting in writing and sent it around work in e-mails. She bragged about it at meetings. It was disgusting.

But, I digress... again.

 

[ML]

I have it too! Monday the 8th.

 

[susiestar]

husband was called to jury duty a few years ago. Here you are called for the "Jury Pool". You fill in questionnaires and then are picked for jury as needed. If there are not many cases you won't do much. If there are a lot, you could be in court every day for that month. It is a 1 month commitment.

husband was on 2 trials. One was the trial of a man who preyed on the 14 yo daughter of his girlfriend. The details really took their toll on my soft-hearted husband. husband actually went and got some counselling to help him deal with all the sheer ugliness, cruelty and evil that the crime involved.

 

[DDD]

Witz, I was foreman of one murder jury and there was a very wealthy woman on the panel. Most of the people were already upper middle but she was dripping with diamonds, etc. After the first few hours in the jury room deliberating she said "I don't give a D what the verdict is but we MUST be out of here by tomorrow afternoon because I have a standing appoint with Mr. John my hair stylist and I CAN NOT miss it!"

Sure as heck.....she just waited to go with the majority to "get it over" so her hair would look good for the weekend. Geez! DDD