Very OT - Jury duty, day 8

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Dan M - 21 Apr 2006 23:36 GMT

I haven't mentioned this before, but I've been on Jury Duty for the last
few days. 3 days last week, and every day this week. We're just about to
start our 3rd day of deliberation.

I have learned some important things in these last few days:
* Judges are incredibly patient, possessing the ability to refrain from
choking the living s**t out of stupid attorneys
* A lot of attorneys are stupid s**ts
* With the number of miscreants appearing to cop pleas, and the
revolving-door nature of the service they receive from public defenders,
it's a wonder that our justice system (in the US) works at all
* An awfully large number of jurors and potential jurors are beyond dumb,
to the point of being dynamically anticluefull. They are surrounded by an
invisible field that actively repels cluons. If you were able to hear
intellect, you'd hear a sucking sound when they walk into a room.

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Lucy's Mom - 22 Apr 2006 01:24 GMT

>I haven't mentioned this before, but I've been on Jury Duty for the last
>few days. 3 days last week, and every day this week. We're just about to
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>invisible field that actively repels cluons. If you were able to hear
>intellect, you'd hear a sucking sound when they walk into a room.

Actually Dan, I think their absolute stupidity is WHY they were chosen
for the jury in the first place. I'm an engineer and, despite being
called for jury duty numerous times and being in the top section of
the jury pool, I've never been chosen. I really think it's because
the, as you put it "stupid s**t attorneys" realize they can't feed me
a bunch of crap and expect me to believe it. That's my opinion
anyhow. Hang in there...

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Cat Dude - 22 Apr 2006 01:44 GMT

> Actually Dan, I think their absolute stupidity is WHY they were chosen
> for the jury in the first place. I'm an engineer and, despite being
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> a bunch of crap and expect me to believe it. That's my opinion
> anyhow. Hang in there...

Unfortunately the attorneys used up all their peremptory challenges before
they could exclude me. This time they had a REALLY LARGE batch of stupid
candidates.

Fortunately we concluded this afternoon. The judge declared a mistrial, as
we were irresolvably deadlocked, 4 voting guilty and 8 (including me)
voting not guilty. The 4 holdouts couldn't be bothered by anything as
trivial as "reasonable doubt".

But overall this was a very valuable learning experience.

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Nomen Nescio - 22 Apr 2006 06:00 GMT

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

From: Lucy's Mom <lucysmom@chiggerranch.com>

>I think their absolute stupidity is WHY they were chosen
>for the jury in the first place. I'm an engineer and, despite being
>called for jury duty numerous times and being in the top section of
>the jury pool, I've never been chosen.

Hey, that's two of us! I knew there would be benefits to getting
an engineering degree. But I hadn't known jury duty immunity
would be one of them.
I've been called up 4 times, I've been shown the door 4 times.

I think they'd save a lot of time by just tapping the first joint below
a juror's shoulder and asking them what it is.....if they say "elbow",
send them home.......if they say "a.s", seat them in the jury box.

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Joy - 22 Apr 2006 01:56 GMT

> I haven't mentioned this before, but I've been on Jury Duty for the last
> few days. 3 days last week, and every day this week. We're just about to
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> invisible field that actively repels cluons. If you were able to hear
> intellect, you'd hear a sucking sound when they walk into a room.

I've had jury duty a number of times. My experience has been similar,
although I have been privileged to serve on a couple of juries with
intelligent jurors. OTOH, one woman on a jury I was on wasn't interested in
the discussion of the facts; she just kept asking me how I was going to
vote. On another, a woman said, "Well, I think he's a nice young man, so we
should vote him not guilty whether he is or not." Fortunately, the rest of
us decided he wasn't guilty, or we'd have had a hung jury.

Joy

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Victor Martinez - 22 Apr 2006 03:44 GMT

> * An awfully large number of jurors and potential jurors are beyond dumb,
> to the point of being dynamically anticluefull. They are surrounded by an
> invisible field that actively repels cluons. If you were able to hear
> intellect, you'd hear a sucking sound when they walk into a room.

There are a lot of idiots out there, that's for sure!

Purrs for your fellow jurors to listen to the voice of reason. :)

Signature

Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam here: uce@ftc.gov
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sriddles@aol.com - 22 Apr 2006 04:14 GMT

> I haven't mentioned this before, but I've been on Jury Duty for the last
> few days. 3 days last week, and every day this week. We're just about to
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> invisible field that actively repels cluons. If you were able to hear
> intellect, you'd hear a sucking sound when they walk into a room.

I was drawn for jury duty, but got excused after the initial interview.
I think I had way too many opinions.
On this particular case, it seemed that the first choice for both
attorney and D.A. were the jurors who were surrounded by the
cluon-repelling invisible field. They picked twelve people who were
dumb as wooden ducks, as far as I could tell.

Sherry

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Joy - 22 Apr 2006 05:43 GMT

> > I haven't mentioned this before, but I've been on Jury Duty for the last
> > few days. 3 days last week, and every day this week. We're just about to
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> Sherry

One of my jury duty experiences had an interesting aftermath. During the
preliminary questioning of prospective jurors, it came out that I'm a member
of Toastmasters (a speaking organization). After the trial was over, both
lawyers asked any jurors who were willing to talk to them in the hallway
afterward. During that session, the plaintiff's attorney told us that the
defendant's attorney had offered to settle the case for $250,000, but he had
refuse because he thought he could get more for his client. (We awarded her
about $90,000.)

The next day that same attorney called me. He said that, since he was a
Toastmaster, he was particularly interested in my assessment of how he
handled the case. He asked about his opening and closing statements, then
went through each witness, asking what I thought of the witness and of his
questioning. He concluded by asking if he did anything that particularly
annoyed me. It was quite an interesting conversation.

Joy

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Yowie - 22 Apr 2006 12:36 GMT

>> > I haven't mentioned this before, but I've been on Jury Duty for the
>> > last
[quoted text clipped - 44 lines]
> questioning. He concluded by asking if he did anything that particularly
> annoyed me. It was quite an interesting conversation.

I've never been called up for jury duty. but my mother has. She was
delighted to actually hear a case. As she tells it, the jurors were all
quite sure that the defendant was guilty - prior convictions, the evidence
presented etc etc. however, the evidence had not been collected properly and
due process had not been observed. Therefore they felt compelled to find hte
defendant 'not guilty' - not because they thorugh the was innocent, but
rather, the prosecution had not made their case well enough against the
youth in question.

My mother also reminded me that if I ever had to go to court, to make
sureI'm looking my absolute best and be extrememly polite and well spoken.
Turning up to court with greasy long straggly hair, a flannel shirt, dirty
tracksuit pants, thongs with a beligerant attitude and lots of 'colourful'
language does not help one iota in convincing the jury of one's innocence,
no matter what one is accused of.

Yowie

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Cat Dude - 22 Apr 2006 18:39 GMT

> I've never been called up for jury duty. but my mother has. She was
> delighted to actually hear a case. As she tells it, the jurors were all
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> rather, the prosecution had not made their case well enough against the
> youth in question.

Our experience was similar. Everybody on the jury suspected that the
defendant probably *was* guilty of the charges. But the prosecution did
such a horrible job of presenting her case that a reasonable doubt did
exist. While we all thought it was sad that a potentially guilty party was
getting off without a conviction, the thought of a postentially innocent
party being convicted unjustly was even worse.

> My mother also reminded me that if I ever had to go to court, to make
> sureI'm looking my absolute best and be extrememly polite and well
> spoken. Turning up to court with greasy long straggly hair, a flannel
> shirt, dirty tracksuit pants, thongs with a beligerant attitude and lots
> of 'colourful' language does not help one iota in convincing the jury of
> one's innocence, no matter what one is accused of.

Most definitely! What convinced the 8 of us that reasonable doubt existed
was the testimony of the defendant, his demeanor, etc.

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SuzQ - 22 Apr 2006 17:47 GMT

Poor Dan, at least you're not sequestered like those people in those big
publicity trials.
Suz (whose father wanted her to be a lawyer)&Spicey

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glsummer@neptunelink.com - 22 Apr 2006 18:18 GMT

lol!

I have only been summoned for jury duty once. It happened to be on
the *day I was getting married*! Luckily, I worked for attorneys at
the time. Some of them may be stupid s**ts indeed, but some of them
are very helpful in a situation like that. They got me out of it, so
I could proceed to my wedding.

Ginger-lyn

Home Pages:
http://www.moonsummer.com
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/glsummer (homepage & cats)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~summer/index.htm (genealogy)
http://www.movieanimals.bravehost.com/ (The Violence Against
Animals in Movies Website)

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Tanada - 24 Apr 2006 00:48 GMT

> I haven't mentioned this before, but I've been on Jury Duty for the last
> few days. 3 days last week, and every day this week. We're just about to
> start our 3rd day of deliberation.

We've been lucky, <taps wood> sos far. We voted and had our legal
residence in Idaho. With the exception of one time, every time we were
notified of jury duty, we were living at a military base across country,
and Nez Pierce County, Idaho, was not willing to pay for us to come home
and do our civic duty. I was willing though.

The last time (of four) we were in the process of moving to Idaho from
California, and the court clerk was very understanding about why I
couldn't serve. We haven't been called up here, so far. I've worked
for a lot of teachers who got called in; none of them ever actually served.

Pam S.

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