Just got off of a Jury...

[MechAg94]

Good story 4some.

I have sat as a juror for a murder trial and once for a BS little small claims case in JP court. I have only been called twice, but selected both times. In neither case was I asked about my knowledge or education. I guess I just look gullible or something.

A friend at work recently had to serve for an assault case. the defendant attacked and stabbed the person over 50 times and caused permanent damage. One juror flat out refused to award any prison time. She agreed on guilty, but would not agree to any prison time on sentencing. The judge dismissed them and they had to select another jury to determine the punishment.

 

[Mojo-jo-jo]

College / Jury Duty

When I go off to college, out-of-state, who I need to let anyone know, so I do not get called in my home state, and called in my college state?

You only serve as a juror in the jursidiction of your official place of residence (ie. the address on your driver's license). While away at college your legal residence will most likely remain at your home. If you get a summons back at home, just send the court a letter explaining that you attend college out of town and the court will defer your service.

Happened to me twice. No big deal, I just served when I was out for summer break.

 

[Master Blaster]

You folks scare me.

The jury system, trail by a jury of your peers (fellow citizens) is the foundation of our legal system. I dont know of a more fair legal system anywhere n the world. The levels of proof are appropriate for the consequences of the decision/ area of law.
Beyond a reasonable doubt for criminal cases and by Preponderence of the evidence for the civil cases. You can also opt to have a judge or a panel of judges rule on your case. In civil cases you can choose arbitration, or heck you can settle it yourself by mutual agreement.

I served on a medical malpractice case jury in federal court a couple of years ago. We had a panel of 12 intellegent jurors who did not shirk their duty. We listened to the evidence and returned a $4 million award which was appropriate to the case, and fairly compensated the victim of gross negligence on the part of a neuro surgeon. The thing was he could have settled it out of court for much less, so the trial, and the judgement renedered by his fellow citizens protected the interests of the victim, the interests of future patients, and those of society.

I feel proud to have served on the jury and proudly spent an entire week with my fellow citizen jurors making our great system work.

The real problem as I see it is a lack of participation by intellegent citizens who do their best to avoid this important civic responsibility.

 

[stlgunfan]

They would never select me for Jury duty LOL, at least not where I currently live.

With my strong views on gun laws, and other subjects, including my distaste for stl county police and how they run a joke of a PD and break laws many times when it comes to the way they handle views on firearms, they would have a field day intervewing me as a canidiate for a jury spot. Prob their jaw would fall to the floor when I tell them how the Democrats run St Louis

 

[Sir Aardvark]

The current system certainly has its faults, but tell me where in the world you'll find anything better?

 

[ksnecktieman]

stl gun fan????? do you mean it is okay with you, if I avoid jury duty? IF YOU personally could pick your jury,,,,, IF/WHEN YOU HAVE TO BE JUDGED BY ONE,,, Do you want to be judged by the ones too stupid to avoid jury duty? Or do you want us??????as your peers to judge you?

Freedom is not free. we choose right and wrong, if we do not decide, we will look back, and decide it was wrong.

NO, I DO NOT want to judge him, or to have him judge me,,,,, but someone will have to. When there is an accusation.

It is late here in Kansas, and bedtime for me,,, have a nice night all, and sweet dreams, bye4now

 

[BGlaze250]

You only serve as a juror in the jursidiction of your official place of residence (ie. the address on your driver's license). While away at college your legal residence will most likely remain at your home. If you get a summons back at home, just send the court a letter explaining that you attend college out of town and the court will defer your service.

Happened to me twice. No big deal, I just served when I was out for summer break.

Thanks for the information.

 

[Sleeping Dog]

I've been called six times, three times sat in the jury pool, never got called, dismissed twice by attorney after questioning (voir dire? something like that). The one time I sat for two days on a lawsuit. Agonizing, listening to the same questions and answers over and over. At least it didn't last too long.

From a lot of the responses, I can visualize John Kerry saying "If you do lousy in school and are pretty much brainless, you could end up in Iraq or on a jury". I'm not very good at dodging jury duty, just like I failed to dodge the draft.



Regards.

 

[Art Eatman]

Anybody who cares about the condition of our society, about our justice system, yet avoids jury duty, is then contributing to a lessening of the quality of our society and the justice system.

If good people refuse to serve, who, then, remains? And if you then come before a court and jury, what are your chances?

I've been dropped off a couple of times by the voir dire process. I've served on two federal juries and two state juries as well as having been a witness in a murder trial. I like to think we did good work in our decision-making efforts.

I've come to see jury duty as a personal responsibility to the community in which I live, based on my experiences. I have little respect for those who shun duty.

Art

 

[Dave Schutz]

Lawyers lie (they're paid to), cops sometimes lie, judges sometimes are biased, and laws strictly applied sometimes lead to unfair outcomes. Juries are a safeguard against any of these miscarriages IF the jurors are conscientious.

I wound up as foreman of a jury in which a defendant was accused of four felony counts of dealing sexually with a minor. The evidence was so thin that it made it difficult to believe that the acts would even have been possible and the "factual" testimony was clearly divided along the lines of an existing rift.

We found the defendant not guilty on all counts in less than two hours of deliberation, prolonged by the fact that I polled the Jurors three times to be certain that nobody had any reservations about the verdict that was apparent to all of us going into the jury room.

I later found that the DA had wanted to lower the charges in hopes that a jury would be enraged by the allegations enought to go for a misdemeanor penalty without questioning the facts too closely. I doubt that this would have worked either, but the Judge told the DA "NO! Try him as indicted or drop the matter".

The DA apparently wanted a conviction on some attention-getting charge to invest in the coming election. This predates the Duke LaCross case, but the real "principles" may be the same.

I wasn't real happy when I got the jury notice (my third time sitting on one), but seeing the way the jury worked and the outcome of this trial versus what could have happened made me take it a lot more seriously as a duty. (My first two times on juries were a guilty plea after the trial had hardly begun and a week on a grand jury indicting some truly deserving people and not indicting another).

Those who have bad experiences with how juries work may have had them because too many dregs who can't contribute to debate or anything else didn't want to be there and weren't smart enough to get off. Overall, my experiences were positive, although I did get excused once due to a legitimate business conflict.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I couldn't disagree with professional jurors more. What a disgusting thought. Are we that lazy and stupid as to completely turn over our justice system to govt workers? How pathetic our country has become. Makes me wonder if my kids will have a chance of living in the same free country I have.

Let's see, we just voted in a Democratic Congress and have a second term President who can't properly pronounce the word "nuclear" and we have one of the most overweight populations on the planet. We supposedly value the democratic process of voting as a very important right but find it hard to get 50% of the eligible population to show up and vote. On top of that, a lot of those who vote will vote based on a singular issue of a candidate's platform or even vote on a candidate's looks. A lot of folks don't even go to jury duty when called.

So, yes, we may be that lazy and stupid (as a group).

With that said, I am against professional juries, but I am not sure how good peer juries really are either.

 

[MechAg94]

I agree about the problems, but I don't see how eliminating citizen jurors will make it any better.

I guess if things are that bad, we could just go back to having a Dictator or Kings and other aristocrats.

 

[roo_ster]

Duty Is a Four Letter Word

It is pretty obvious that lotsa folks cherish their rights but are not too keen on shouldering responsibility.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

 

[bogie]

If you ever want out of jury duty, get a t-shirt made up with www.fija.org on it... Neither side will want you.

Sad.

 

[paramedic70002]

2 things I'd change about Jury Duty. I'd be paid at my work rate, and I would be allowed to ask questions, just like the lawyers do.