Jury Duty

After some 25 years of being a registered voter, I am just now doing jury duty for the first time. Got picked for a trial today. Anyone have some advice or good jury duty stories to tell.

My husband says I will want to move far far away from Cleveland after serving on a jury.

 

Obligatory:

http://www.impawards.com/1995/jury_duty.html


-link edited; non-sharing site. pf

 

I had to sit on a 6-7 day trail involving a sexual predator. It was awesome only it was the exact opposite of awesome.

Aside from that court matter not being fun, lots of sitting around. I found the whole court process to be very non-efficient.

 

I was called and selected once. Civil traffic liability suit.. drunk motorcyclist's family v 'Suit' running stopsign in his 3 yo Lexus.

The thing ran for the attorneys' opening statements then recess was called and when we returned we were told it was settled.

Summary: determined NEVER EVER to call the top TV advertising law firm based on the performance of the schmuck they sent to represent the family.

 

Residents of the city of St. Louis (city proper, that is...not the metro area) regularly get called every 3-5 years. That's because we are a fairly small city (pop of about 300,000) with a high crime rate.

...and even more because the thinking in the legal community is that poorer juries tend to favor plaintiffs in civil suits. So, everyone who is suing someone in the St. Louis metro area looks for a legal excuse to file their suit in the city (rather than the suburban municipalities where folks are wealthier) to better their chance of winning.

I've had jury duty 4 times over the past 20 years, but I've only been selected for a jury once. An older lady was suing our local transit system for damages after being injured in a fall while stepping off a bus.

I sat through two days of testimony on bus maintenance. It was so excruciatingly boring that even the judge was dozing off. Next time, I hope I get a juicy criminal trial...at least that might be interesting.

My advice: Bring a good book and a lot of patience.

 

Sorry 'fog, you're right, I should've linked that rather than embedding it.

 

Well the trial is over and they let all of this weeks jurors go home two days early. Yay, I get to go back to work.

The defendent in this case did not settle so I got to go through the whole jury process. It was a crack cocaine case in which the guy was charged with possesion, trafficing, and lying to a public official (police officer). We found him not guilty of the first two and guilty of the third. The guy was most likely guilty of at least one of the cocaine charges, but we all felt the State didnt prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Afterwards we found out he was only 19 and would have had a mandatory 3 year sentence if we'd found him guilty on the cocaine charges.

The incredible thing was that today when I walked out of the court house the defendant was standing there off to the side talking to some people. He smiled and said "thank you". It made me feel better that he could look me in the eye and thank me. Even though he was probably guilty of a cocaine charge, that does make me hopeful that he has learned something. He certainly didnt appear to be an addict so I think there is a chance he can set things right.

The jury process here in Cleveland was also much more efficient than I expected. I didnt spend much time at all waiting around and the hundreds of jurors in the waiting area were all quite pleasant.

Another thing that made me happy occured standing in line to get through security. Whenever they saw I guy in fatigues, they asked him for his ID and then immediately let him through so he didnt have to wait in line. I've never seen that before, but I hope it standard practice.

Also, Spencer if you read this, you are not the only one who thinks I look like Brandy Chastain. One of the jurors said that also.

 

HA I forgot about that!

 

My experience, I have been summoned 3 times in the last 15 years, but only had to appear the 2nd time.
Of course I get picked right away to go to a courtroom, me and 125 others. After a day and a half of sitting through jury selection there was 3 of us left and down to the 4th juror #12. We all looked at each other & cross our fingers. Well #4 won't work. They call "Misfit Kid"? Crap... I answer everything right, I am #12.

The trial started right away that afternoon, attempted murder. Guy has bad relationship with ex-girlfriend and "tries" to shoot her in the courtyard of her apartment building, misses, runs away with the gun. Multiple witnesses and he confesses to a family member.
The next 6 days we listen to the victim, police & witnesses, etc. The accused gets on the stand and flat out lies. It was surreal. We are dismissed to deliberate.
We picked a foreman, then we decide to vote right away. 11 to 1 unsure. Ten minutes later, guilty. We thought shouldn't this take longer, it is longer on TV... They weren't prepared for such a quick verdict.

Next day. Guilty, Strike #3, Bub-Bye...