Jury Duty

I've been dreading this day since receiving my summons six weeks ago. Called the special number last night and was told I must show up. Sat in the jury lounge for a couple hours this morning waiting for the call for jurors. Then the nice lady returned from finding out what the delay was about. Man, what a great April fool! She said the defendent decided to plead guilty and that we all had done our duty and could go home. I'm so pleased I might have to go buy a flashlight!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif

definitely an occasion to treat yourself! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Lol, jury duty. What a dreaded phrase in my house.

Back in November, my dad got called for jury duty. He along with 1,200 other people, for a murder trial. He was pretty sure he wouldn't get on the jury.

Sure enough, he got on the jury. He was on that murder trial jury for five months. From November, to the end of March.

What a horror that trial was for my dad. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

I did jury service a few years back, losing a £1,000 gig in the process /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif Not only that, after a two day trial and a similar time deliberating, we couldn't even get a 10-2 majority verdict together /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif (although personally I thought he was guilty as a fox in a chicken coop).

Even so, I was glad to do my duty. The right to be tried by your peers is one of the few real rights we have in the UK (under the Magna Carta of 1315) and is soon to be lost under European Law, to a system of corpus juris, where the State acts as both prosecutor and judge. Hmmm... guilty until proven innocent - not a prospect I particularly relish, I have to say.

So don't look at jury duty as a chore, consider the alternatives, count yourselves lucky to have it and fight for the right to keep it. There's much more at stake than a few days pay /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

if ya bite sone one they willlet ya go home

Personally I would love to be called for Jury Duty... heck, if I could I'd offer to take a persons place /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Of course I'd be the Jurist from hell because I am a firm believer in Jury Nullification and Jurists Rights.

http://www.fija.org/
http://www.greenmac.com/eagle/ISSUES/ISSUE23-9/07JuryNullification.html
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/nullification.html

I always suggest to anybody who has been called to Jury Duty that they look into this issue... often I start by telling them to look at the SCOTUS ruling that established the 'Miranda Warning'... then look at the SCOTUS cases that set precedent regarding the 'legality' of a defense attorney actually informing a jury of its rights (he can be tossed in jail).... and watch carefully for the contradictory justifications.

what did you get...about $6 for the day?

gotta love that pay scale.

"I'm so pleased I might have to go buy a flashlight!! "

maybe you can find a dorcy AAA LED for that $6?

Bob

lmfao @ Rags method of getting outta jury duty

In a lot of places, if you show up in a Fully Informed Juries T-shirt or mention Jury Nullification, they'll herd you out of the courtroom so fast your feet won't hit the floor.

Constitutional rights void where prohibited by law, and all that...;

Many bad laws + uninformed juries = the most expensive and largest prison population in the world.

I was exempt last time I was sent a jury duty summons because Im in the emergency services.

I was summoned for a trial in which a young lady was suing her Methodist Minister & the church/diocese for sexual abuse. I tried to make myself unattractive to both the plaintiff and defense sides but was ultimately picked for duty. Three weeks of tedious testimony. The defense had 3 levels of blowhard attorneys- for the (now ex)minister, the church, and the diocese. Every witness was questioned by all three levels of attorneys. I was in dire pain.

The aggressive feminist plaintiff lawyer was trying to establish that the 5-year long affair had cost the young woman a career as an MD and so the priest owned her a lifetime of MD earnings.....$5 million bucks. At one point she called a labor statistics expert to make the point about the MD earnings. This funny little guy was squirming and mumbling so hard that I had to forcefully cover my mouth to keep from exploding in uncontrollable belly-laughs in the middle of the courtroom

They classified me as an alternate after 3 weeks and sent me home before final deliberations. However, they paid me $30/day to be there! The minister lost but became a professional non-employed person thereafter and never paid a cent as last I heard.

I always go to the assembly room dressed in slacks and a polo. I DO NOT want to get picked, but answer all questions honestly.

I've been on 3 juries, we found guilt in all 3.

One case was settled upon the panel walking into the courtroom.

2 or 3 times, I wasn't taken out of assembly.

But it seems like every time I get on a panel, I'm a juror.

It's part of the price of Freedom.

I was on jury duty for a 6 month period one time.
I served on about 4 juries.
While I did not like the fact that I needed to be available for the 6 month period (they were very lenient if I wanted to take a trip,etc) I did not mind the duty.

I was surprised that some jurors did not understand the "beyond a reasonable doubt" concept, but wanted beyond a shadow of doubt. As a result it was hard to convict a couple that should have been convicted.

We always hear how the perp should have been sent to prison, or some punishment that fit the crime, but juries are to a large degree responsible for the lack of justice.

Jury duty is the price we pay for liberty and justice. We don't do particualrly well with either.

Jerry

[ QUOTE ]
JerryM said:
... Jury duty is the price we pay for liberty and justice...
Jerry

[/ QUOTE ]
Amen.

When I get interviewed by the court I tell them that after being falsely accused by ONE CHP officer for driving 140 MILES PER HOUR!! on Pacific Coast Highway - at night- in a 1977 Trans AM (with my father as a passenger) and having a gang of them step on my neck with my face in the dirt while pointing a shotgun to my head, I have a hard time being impartial. It cost me three grand to hire a lawyer and three days trial in Malibu. I was found innocent by a jury. (Since I was) Then I bring up the Rodney King video issue.
I get dismissed rather quickly...

I was exempt for 30 years. After I retired from the job that caused my exemption, I was called last year. I actually enjoyed it and look forward to the next time (min 5 years from now). I'd heard horror stories of long waits and wasting weeks, but the method of calling in the night before works very well. In a month I only had to go six mornings, and that included two trials I was picked for.

I totally agree with lightnix, it's a cheap price to pay.

Ligntnix, you guys are giving that up to join the EU? That's awful /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Maybe it's time for another revolution... ours worked out rather well /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

But Jury Duty IMO is a form of slavery. Forced labor. Forcing people to work for little to no pay (the diddly squat you get for gas is utter hogwash) is absolutely NOT liberty. Some company contracts pay wages for jury duty service, but then again some don't (I've been in the position in the past when I was much younger of NOT being paid by the company I worked at when selected for Jury Duty). I find the whole Jury Duty process as forced labor, and I do whatever it takes to avoid being selected.

Furthermore, nonprofessional jurrors IMO have a tendency to do poor work. I've read so many cases where jurrors make such obviously bad decisions, and other cases where judges overturn all the work the jury did anyway. I'd be pretty peeved if a judge overruled our jury after putting lots of time into it. If a jury is what this system perceives as being most fair, at least use professional, paid jurrors that are screened and WANT to do the job. I sure wouldn't have faith in a bunch of jurrors that do NOT want to be there.

I've got to report this Tuesday and I can't wait!

I sat on a Federal jury back in college and it was a blast.
It's like Law and Order live but with less clever and attractive people.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

What would happen if you showed up in a shirt that read:

"I'm with Guilty
->"