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Jury Service


Kirk W

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I was selected to a jury on a criminal case once where I had been the claims adjuster who handled the civil portrait of the same case. I told the Judge there was a reason I didn’t feel I could serve and he called me up to the bench with the prosecutor and defense attorney. I told them of my involvement and of course the DA said “ no problem”. I was shocked when the defense said “ no problem”!

 

turns out the defense attorney was deaf in the ear towards me and didn’t hear a word I said till his client started screaming at him. He immediately tried to get me removed.

 

Judge said tough rough cookies and I was on the jury!

Edited by Big Rick
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I've enjoyed reading through this thread.  I got called regularly for jury service when I owned the house, about every 18 months.  I usually spent the day sitting around the jury room but I was picked for panels a couple of times.  I've gotten home from a 3 month trip to find I was supposed to report the week before I got home.  A phone call, rescheduled and no problem.    

The last time was right after I had the house on the market, so I assume that my name would get dropped by next year when my name would be likely to come up again.

My DH once got a jury summons and then forgot about it.  Turns out his reporting date was right when we were moving to a different county - no problem, he just sent the card back saying he no longer lived in Los Angeles County and never heard anything else.

I did get called for a federal court - what a hassle that was.  The court is in Fresno, and I lived in the very southern end of Kern County (2 counties away) and worked in Los Angeles.  I pointed out that I would have to overnight in Fresno the night before I served and asking me to call in the afternoon, when I would have to drive 75 miles through LA rush hour traffic to get home, pack some clothes, book a motel and then drive another couple of hours (over 150 miles) to Fresno was a bit much.  Not acceptable excuse, but they allowed me to call in early in the morning.  It was also for a month and it didn't matter if you went in or not (California has a one day or one trial rule - if you go in and get dismissed you are finished).

I had to go in the first day, but wasn't selected for the panel.  I called in the rest of the week and was told I was done on Friday, whew!  I was very glad I didn't have to call in for the entire month.

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9 hours ago, k4rs said:

The one that really stands out in my memory was a capital murder case.  The prosecutor read a list of witnesses, including a number of people working for the sheriff's department, and asked if any of the potential jurors knew them.  I raised my hand and rattled off a list of names.  He asked me how I knew them.  I replied that they were coworkers.  Later I was asked if I could vote for the death penalty.  I replied "Yes I can".  I could have sworn that the defense would challenge for cause, but no - welcome to the jury.

In capital cases, people who are strictly opposed to the death penalty are not allowed to serve, so capital juries are composed only of people who can vote for the death penalty, even though the guilt-or-innocence phase has nothing to do with capital punishment.

Here's a pretty good article about the bias inherent in "death-qualified" juries:

http://criminal-justice.iresearchnet.com/forensic-psychology/death-qualification-of-juries/

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I've been called once for a local case and once for Federal. Didn't get on the panel for either case. Jo Ann was called once for a local case and got on the panel.

We all got quite a chuckle out of one of the regular questions on the local case. The question was whether anyone on the jury panel kew any of the attorneys or the judge. No hands went up. The County Attorney turned to the judge and said, "Your Honor, I think we may be in trouble at the next election."

This thread has gotten me to wondering what SD says about full-timers. I'll have to check that out.

David Lininger, kb0zke
1993 Foretravel U300 40' (sold)
2022 Grand Design Reflection 315RLTS

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