1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Jury duty

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by FileNotFound, Jun 29, 2008.

  1. I had a similar experience in my two terms on jury duty.
    It gave me a new sense of appreciation for the dumbassery of my fellow man.
     
  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I was called a couple of years ago. Spent one morning sitting in a room with other prospective jurors, reading a book. Then the case got settled and I didn't have to go in again.
     
  3. zebracoy

    zebracoy Guest

    I was called in about three months ago and treated to the most bizarre, self-serving, elementary questioning by the DA.

    Sir, it says here that you are a reporter, is that correct?

    Yes, ma'am. It is.

    And what do you report on? I think I've seen your byline a few times, but I'm not sure.

    Well, I do this, this and that.

    I see. Now, let me ask you a question. A lot of times, people are hesitant to be around reporters, and think that they have some kind of watchdog/patrol status in the community. Have you told people in the back what your job is?

    No, I haven't, actually. We haven't even said a word.

    OK. And what would you say if they asked what your job was?

    (Pause). Uh, well, I'd tell them, I guess. It's my job. I'm proud of it.

    OK, fair enough. Now, a lot of times these days, when people see cases on TV, in shows like CSI, they assume that every trial that comes through the court system involves multiple photographs and DNA evidence and all kinds of technology. There's a strong chance we don't have any of that here. Would that be OK with you?

    Yes?

    And there's also a strong chance that instead of multiple witnesses, like you see on TV, we might only be able to produce one witness. Would you be able to make a decision on this case if all you're hearing from is the one witness?

    Well, of course. I don't know anything about the case. If this person is telling me the details, of course I'm going to be able to make a decision off it.

    OK, that's all, your honor.

    Of course, it's not verbatim. But it's real close. The result? They asked me to step outside, they shut the door to the courtroom, and opened it up 15 seconds later to tell me that I was not selected.
     
  4. kingcreole

    kingcreole Active Member

    I've been on jury duty once and had to report just once.

    "Sitting around for hours doing nothing" is all I did. But I did get paid $10.
     
  5. Trouser_Buddah

    Trouser_Buddah Active Member

    I've been in a jury pool twice in two different counties and served on two trials.

    Not a good experience. It definitely soured me on the jury system.

    My first experience was when I was 19 years old. I was the only one who had a clue what was going on. I spent the entire time explaining what was going on to the idiots surrounding me. One woman in her early 30s seemed to get it, but wouldn't say a word. Surprisingly, I was voted foreman at 19 years old...

    It was a drunk driving case where they found the guy passed out in his car, a block over from where he lived with urine-soaked pants. He blew twice the legal limit an hour later.

    The two senior citizens in the group, apart from having no idea what was going on during the trial, thought it was bullshit that the police could bust you for drunk driving without actually having seen him drive. And that wasn't even the guy's defense. He said he chugged a bottle of champagne at a Christmas party, drove right away and fell asleep in his car. He claimed he wasn't drunk at the time he was driving because it hadn't hit him yet...

    Somehow, I was able to get everyone on track and convinced them to ignore all the stupid prejudices they had that weren't related to the law and we handed down a guilty verdict.

    The second one came about seven years later... the case was about a guy who was accused of sleeping with his girlfriends high-school-aged daughter. The mom was also charged with something like contributing to the delinquency of a minor, or something like that. Maybe negligence...

    Anyway, we have this maverick asshole in the jury room who demands to be the foreman, and after the week-long trial, decides in five minutes the dude's guilty and says there is no need for deliberation. Huh?

    We deliberate for six hours and finally all agree that the guy is guilty but there wasn't enough proof to say that the mom knew what was going on...

    The guy hung himself in jail two days later...

    Overall an interesting experience, but I might just waive my right to a jury trial if I'm ever wrongly accused of something.
     
  6. finishthehat

    finishthehat Active Member


    That CSI question has become standard procedure. Lawyers will tell you that jurors come in these days expecting a high-tech recreation like on TV, and that's not how things actually work.

    I had jury duty in New Jersey a long time ago -- you had to show up every day for two weeks. I never got picked.

    In Texas you show up for one day; if you'r e not picked you go home. I served on one jury where it was obvious the guy was only going ahead with the trial in order to get a day out of jail. Took one day.

    Also served on a municipal-court jury. Some slacker 18-year-old representing himself on a speeding ticket. But when we found out the cop had basically pulled over three cars on the same radar reading, we gave it a not guilty. Really, on any speeding ticket I got the sense we would have done the same, unless the defendant was an a-hole.
     
  7. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    Here you go on the first day. If you are not selected, you go home. But i was summoned once to a trial where it took 5 days to seat the jury.
     
  8. pressmurphy

    pressmurphy Member

    Got called once for a evening town court case that ended up being dismissed because the plaintiff was a no-show, for which I was grateful.

    It was supposed to be a case about a guy violating an order of protection for his former wife. It was shaping up to be the classic "he said, she said" with probably nothing else in the way of evidence or witnesses.
     
  9. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    I'd never been called once for jury duty, then I move to this county and I've been called four times in five years. I'm convinced it's because I registered Democrat.

    I got out of two of them because once you're called, you're exempt for two years.
     
  10. Got called into voir dire once... it was a summer between years in college, so I didn't mind going in and getting paid when I would have been asleep normally. I actually ended up in there with a girl who I had dated off and on in high school. We were still pretty good friends, so I had someone to talk with to kill the boredom.

    I did get called up to be questioned, though I was ultimately let go. But I'll never forget that short line of questioning.

    At some point, the defense attorney had started in on this whole reasonable doubt run of queries. He kept asking people over and over if "on a scale of 1-10, you think there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and President Bush was telling the truth. 1 being no there are not weapons and he was lying, 10 being yes there are and he was being truthful."

    Person after person, in this mostly conservative area, said "0", that there were not WMDs and that President Bush was lying. I mean, every person said "0". So, he finally came to me and after the few "What are you studying type questions", he asked me on a scale of 1-10 if I thought there were WMDs and if the president was lying. I said "1". Immediately, he perked up and said, "So, you think there is at least some truth to what President Bush has to say then?"

    I said no. He looked confused and then he said again, "but you said 1 and everyone else said 0". I reminded him that he had been asking on a scale of 1-10, so I answered the lowest possible way according to his parameters. He smirked and moved onto questioning the next person.
     
  11. Notepad

    Notepad Member

    Jury duty makes you realize that if the government offices were private entities, they would be bankrupt in about two weeks because of the way they are run.
     
  12. Notepad

    Notepad Member

    Indeed.
    And the best part of it is that the people there seem to realize as much. Their attitude is kind of like, "screw you, I work for Uncle Sam and it doesn't matter how shitty of a job I/we do because we are always going to be floated cash from the gov't."
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page