Jury Service

I have spent the day in county court doing my civic duty under penalty of contempt of court if I didn't show up, so I thought it would make an interesting thread to share our collective experiences in this matter.

My experience actually started yesterday when I had to call the courthouse after 5:30 PM to find out if I should even show up. After waiting about 30 minutes to finally get through, they told me that jurors 1-301 were supposed to come in, and the rest should call back the next day. I really wonder how often they change the message. Something tells me that it is rarely, if ever, done.

To add insult to injury, the recording told me to be there at 7:30, even though the notice I received told me to report at 8:10 if I failed to get through. Sure enough, they didn't even start the process until it got to be 8:30. And nobody got called until after 9...

I didn't get selected for the first two jury calls, so I thought I was going to spend an easy half-day getting out of it. as I had the only other time I had been told to appear. But my name came up in the third round at about 10 AM when they selected 50 or so prospective jurors for one felony trial!

Florida only uses 6 jurors and one alternate on any trial that is not murder or "condemnation of land", whatever that means. So 43 of the people were going to be let go after the voir dire, which is apparently Latin for weeding out the idiots who don't really have a clue about basic judicial concepts we all learned in the 9th grade, like "innocent until proven guity" and "the defendent doesn't have to testify in his own defense". They also tell you what the crime is so those who have reservations about dealing with it can give their stories why they woudln't be particularly impartial.

I can't really say yet about the huge delay that caused in this particular case, because I was actually one of the 7 who got selected. So I have been told not to discuss the case until after the trial for what should be obvious reasons, at least to anybody who can pass thei voir dire.

But it was pretty weird being scrutinized by the DA, the two defense attorneys, and even the accused, as they tried to pick which ones would give them the best opportunity to prevail. In some ways, you wanted to be attractive to them just so you would be one of tthe few who are chosen. In other ways, you obviously didn't because it meant two, or possibly even three days of service in this particular case instead of a half-day or so.

So, anybody else have jury experiences they wish to share?

I have been called for jury duty one. I showed up with a room full of other people. We sat around half the day. And then someone came in and told us the case had been settled and we were free to go. That's the last I'd heard of it.

Interestingly enough my dissertation is on this but I have never actually been called for Jury service.

Quite amazing that Voire dire still happens over there.

I forgot to relate the funniest part. It took about 20 minutes to even get in the courthouse due to the security theater.

They had the sensitivity of the metal detector turned all the way up, so anybody who wasn't wearing gym shoes had to remove them to keep from setting it off. One bailiff was trying to keep the line moving by telling people this, but most wanted to at least try to see if they could get through before taking them off.

So I dutifully took off my shoes beforehand, and put them into the basket along with a book and a stainless steel thermos full of coffee, which suspiciously looks like some sort of hi-tech IED.

The woman in front of me had brought along a a bottle of water. She was made to drink some to ostensibly prove it wasn't some sort of clear bomb-making material. The same bailiff took one look at my thermos, realized he hadn't even scrutinized the X-ray results yet, so he went and did that. But he then decided he wasn't going to have me spin off the tops and prove my coffee was actually drinkable. I guess I look less dangerous than a 100 lb 30-year-old woman...

I have been lucky enough to perform voire dire a few times in misdemeanor criminal cases. (I was a law school intern at the time in the local Public Defender's office and my attorney-supervisor let me do a ton of stuff.) It was by far one of the most interesting portions of trial work as it was one of those times when absolutely anything could happen.

DUI trial: one of the jurors obviously didn't want to be there. This was common. This guy though was a real treat. When I asked him whether he could be fair if my guy didn't testify in the trial, he said he thought it would mean he was guilty. I probed that a little bit, and he said "look, this guy obviously did it. I mean look at him. He is not wearing a belt. When a guy doesn't wear a belt but dresses up, I get suspicious." This guy was around 30 and looked completely normal and straight faced. Everyone was fairly stunned. The judge kept him around until the very end.

A graffiti case: Graffiti cases in SF are by far the worst crime you can go before a jury for. People hate graffiti. Rapist? Murderer? Sure, we can be fair. Graffiti?? HANG HIM! In one case we had to dismiss maybe 15 people for complaining about why we even had a jury trial for this since he is "obviously guilty" (why would he have been arrested if he didn't do it?). (This was also common--when one guy got dismissed for saying something, everyone noticed and tried to act like that one guy.)

I've never been chosen but I would love to be chosen, I think it would be a lot of fun.

i went to jury duty last year. about 150 people were called, that got randomed down to 40. then we went into a court room and got our names called out at random. Once your name is called you either walk to the judge and explain you have a important job or you know someone in the case, or you go and sit down in the jury seats. the prosectution and defense can veto you before you sit down for any reason at all, but once your down your in.

I got two cases in the week i went, a rape and a assault. Pretty good luck getting two cases actually since we were picked from 150 people at random. The first case got canceled for some reason after lunch, and the second went on for two days, was really interesting, and then we found him not guilty.

I went to the local Sheriff Court* for service,spent around an hour having the process explained to us in excruciating detail, was not selected in the initial ballot, and then was sent home because it was Friday and they didn't have any more cases. Pointless, but it gave me the excuse to treat myself to a Did-Your-Civic-Duty donut.

Although, for whatever reason, the spares, which was about half of us, had to sit in for the very start of the case, when they introduce the sheriff, accused and the swore in the first witness, who was the arresting officer. Apparently, they have to, for whatever reason. It was something to do with drugs; some ned from Irvine was charged with possessing meth with intention to sell.

*In Scots Law, judges in second-tier courts are called "sheriffs"; for some reason, we kept the half of the original definition that referred to judicial activity, while Americans retained the portion that referred to law enforcement. I'm not sure why.

illram said:

I probed that a little bit, and he said "look, this guy obviously did it. I mean look at him. He is not wearing a belt. When a guy doesn't wear a belt but dresses up, I get suspicious.

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I could have used a similar out. The accused was wearing a long sleeve shirt, but he inadvertantly let the tattoos on one wrist and hand show.

I can't wait to be able to tell all about this case! It is a doozy!

I was only called to jury duty once, and it was perfect timing because I wasn't doing anything at the time in my life. I was within months of graduation from medical school and my residency was secure. In New York (where I lived at the time), once you are called, you cannot be called again for 5 years, even if you aren't selected for a jury and are just dismissed.

As it turned out, the experience revealed what jury selection was really all about, and it wasn't pretty. When it finally came for me to be grilled by the attorneys, it became evident what they were looking for. A group of about 20 at a time were called into a room with the 2 counsels, and people were asked certain questions. These questions essentially amounted to what you did for a living and whether you thought you could be impartial in the case at hand, which was described. Those who were picked were of 1 particular stock: they were the ones who were in the least educated jobs who gave the dumbest answers. Essentially, what the counsels wanted were pliable sheep, easily led to whatever conclusions they wanted, and without a trace of critical thought.

I got a jury duty notice at my house in Minnesota about 2 weeks ago... wondering what the penalty is if I don't fly back from Japan to be there.

So 43 of the people were going to be let go after the voir dire, which is apparently Latin for weeding out the idiots who don't really have a clue about basic judicial concepts we all learned in the 9th grade, like "innocent until proven guity" and "the defendent doesn't have to testify in his own defense".

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You call them the idiots, but you're the one stuck doing jury duty

I've gotten papers to fill out to be called the past 2 years, but I tell them I'm a student and so far they've left me off the hook. If I can go my whole life without ever being called in for jury duty I think I can consider it a success.

I was called once, and unlike most people, I wanted to do it. I'm a believer in civic duty.

Thing is, I was still going back and forth between FL and CT at the time. Being a resident of FL, I was ineligible to serve. I came in, showed my ID, and was out in 5 minutes.

Tip for those who actually want to get out of jury duty: have an out of state ID.

amadeus said:

I got a jury duty notice at my house in Minnesota about 2 weeks ago... wondering what the penalty is if I don't fly back from Japan to be there.

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Had a similar experience a while ago while I was in the Navy, got a jury duty notice from my home state (NY) while I was homeported in Pearl Harbor and was at the moment underway and steaming several hundred miles northeast of Australia.

Which frankly was a pity. Other than that, I've never been called for jury duty, and I do consider it an obligation of citizenship and would like to do it.

I was excluded from jury duty because I have a conscience. Essentially the prosecutor kept giving more and more ridiculous scenarios to try to weed out anyone who might have a mind or conscience. Essentially it went: if someone robbed a bank of $1,000,000 you would see it as a crime. She then made it a smaller and smaller offense but kept adding “could you convict if the judge told you it was a crime”. When she got to “finding $1 on the street and not returning it” I had had enough and raised my hand to say that in some circumstances I would have to follow my conscience rather than the judges instruction. I was the only one in a group of 90 people and was immediately excused.

Mark1031 said:

I was excluded from jury duty because I have a conscience. Essentially the prosecutor kept giving more and more ridiculous scenarios to try to weed out anyone who might have a mind or conscience. Essentially it went: if someone robbed a bank of $1,000,000 you would see it as a crime. She then made it a smaller and smaller offense but kept adding “could you convict if the judge told you it was a crime”. When she got to “finding $1 on the street and not returning it” I had had enough and raised my hand to say that in some circumstances I would have to follow my conscience rather than the judges instruction. I was the only one in a group of 90 people and was immediately excused.

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They were weeding out the "jury nullification" types.

IglooDude said:

They were weeding out the "jury nullification" types.

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Oh I am quite aware of what she was doing. However jury nullification is really the only reason to have people there rather than just entering the data into a computer or having a judge. Now you can say in theory it is about finding fact and determining the veracity of testimony etc. but that is BS and people are not good at that. It is to have a community check on the system.

I would do it but I wouldn't be objective.

Mark1031 said:

Oh I am quite aware of what she was doing. However jury nullification is really the only reason to have people there rather than just entering the data into a computer or having a judge. Now you can say in theory it is about finding fact and determining the veracity of testimony etc. but that is BS and people are not good at that. It is to have a community check on the system.

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"The English common law rests upon a bargain between the Law and the people. The jury box is where the people come into the court: the judge watches them and the jury watches back. A jury is the place where the bargain is struck. A jury attends in judgement not only upon the accused but also upon the justice and humanity of the Law"

Replace 'English Common law' with whatever you want and you have the essence of jury trial. I find it amazing in the light of Democracy that is America that Voir Dire is preserved, what could be more undemocratic than who actually sits and serves on a jury? It is essentially the same as choosing who gets to vote based on what they believe, the race has been essentially run before it has even started.

Mark1031 said:

Oh I am quite aware of what she was doing. However jury nullification is really the only reason to have people there rather than just entering the data into a computer or having a judge. Now you can say in theory it is about finding fact and determining the veracity of testimony etc. but that is BS and people are not good at that. It is to have a community check on the system.

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I agree with you, but it is understandable why our view wouldn't necessarily be popular with judges and prosecutors.

"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: Soap, Ballot, Jury, and Ammo."

I was called up for jury duty a few years ago. I had to go in for two days, since the first day on Monday, I was not chosen on any jury, so they sent me home and I did not have to go to work. There was one case for conspiracy that was scheduled to last for two weeks and when everyone heard about that one, there was an oooh to that announcement. I had to go back on Wednesday and the trial that I was one of many jurors for a sex case of some sort, I think it was a child abuse case. The thing is that I am sure that I would have been able to get out that one, since I would have been prejudiced against the defendant since I have a working with Children license, so I could have gotten out of it, had I been chosen.

When I got my summons, my brother and I both started to quote the Simpsons, when they had the issue of jury.
"Jury duty, I will see the Quimby boy hanged for this."

"What were we talking about, boy?"
"We were talking about the time you got off from jury duty."
"The trick is that you say that you are prejudiced against minorities."

I think I got similar advice from a co-worker, but we both realised that it more than likely would have been illegal for me to do that, so I did not even say anything of the nature.