Your Jury Duty Story

[indy007]

Houston runs their jury selection by "lottery". I must be lucky as hell since I "won" 3 times in 1 year. Never made it past voir dire. What absolutely stunned me though was the complete disdain from prospective jurors of the 5th amendment. Most of the people sitting there flat out said if you don't verbally defend yourself, you're guilty.

[DREDger]

Houston runs their jury selection by "lottery". I must be lucky as hell since I "won" 3 times in 1 year. Never made it past voir dire. What absolutely stunned me though was the complete disdain from prospective jurors of the 5th amendment. Most of the people sitting there flat out said if you don't verbally defend yourself, you're guilty.

Mine was in Dallas, I'm sure fairly similar to Houston.

I was surprised during the voir dire as well.  People were bending over backwards to get out of serving, just looking for an excuse.

One question they asked, "This is a capital murder trial, if you find the defendant guilty, you will not participate in the punishment phase.  De fendent will automatically get life w/o parole.  Can you give life w/o parole as a sentence."

So they asked a few people and most sortof shrugged and said yes.  Then one lady says "No, I can't give a sentence like that"

After that, about 10 people recognised it was a great excuse, so the hands began to shoot up...'nope, I can't either'

I wanted to serve on the jury, glad I was picked too.

[Paxil]

I was on a murder trial for 2-3 months. Thank God my work paid for that time... some people are not that lucky. Was a robbery gone bad. Very weird to have the knowledge of all of it in my head since it was very near where I live... all the locations details etc...   I learned a lot about meth and what it does to people.

I was a little upset that during the jury selection the defendant learned intimate details about me... name... where I live... hobbies... where I typically run... where i work etc...  Not sure I like that.

[LCCajun]

I am lucky in a way. Due to my job I am not allowed to be on a jury, but I still have to deal with the nuts on the streets.

[DREDger]

I am lucky in a way. Due to my job I am not allowed to be on a jury, but I still have to deal with the nuts on the streets.

Are you a police officer?

[LCCajun]

Yes sir

[LYNX]

I was on a murder trial for 2-3 months. Thank God my work paid for that time... some people are not that lucky.

Over here in the UK the courts pay your wages and certain expenses. Must provide wage slips and receipts.  Firms are not allowed to fire you because of jury service.

I was a little upset that during the jury selection the defendant learned intimate details about me... name... where I live... hobbies... where I typically run... where i work etc...  Not sure I like that.

The same over here for jurors and witnesses. 

[RTGorkle]

Did a one week stint. Two trials.

First one was a forgery case - an Asian couple selling dodgy education qualifications to immigrants. The jury foreman jokingly said "I'm a racist so I think they're guilty" and another juror who didn't want to be there informed the judge - trial aborted, jury dismissed.

The second trial - volunteer firefighter charged with arson - the jury pool for the trial got the see witnesses - I recognised the main witness but couldn't remember if I new him from my volunteer fire fighting service or from my employment (turns out it was from both!). I was the first person called out of the pool - told them I was a fire fighter - adios!

[Ruler2]

I am in the same boat as Lynx. I have never been called for jury duty. I have a theory about it and maybe you guys can weigh in on it and we can see if it holds true. My theory is I am a Navy Veteran and I was thinking veterans have been taken off the list as they have already served their country. My father-in-law is Marine Vet and served during the Vietnam war and he also has never been called for jury duty. I know it is probably a stupid theory, but mine none the less. 

Are you over 65? I don't think you have to serve on the jury if you're that old.

[Maverick]

Jury pools are drawn from a list of names, in the case of AZ. it's done by drivers license records and or voters records. I seriously doubt there is any reference to whether a person is a veteran or not.

[1pLUs44]

Another lady, bless her heart, was as dumb as a post and her primary contribution was telling us all we have to decide based on the 'evidence'  (That's pronounced Ayy-veh-dints ya'll.....after about the 10th time she said that, I was biting my lip)

Well, were you between Austin and Dallas (hickest place on the planet, no lie, I 'seen' things man), and plus, it ain't all that bad with the accent, if you've lived here long enough, ya get used to it.

[oakranger]

I just received a juror summons!  the only big case that i know of is a college student was murder.  the man is charge of capital murder, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy in the 2007 death of 18-year-old who happen to be a porn model by the name Zoey Zane.

[Becinhu]

I have had jury duty twice.  We are on for 30 days and are then exempt for 2 years.  First case was felony failure to pay child support. These two people had no business breeding in the first place.  The guy had been in jail for malicious wounding, lost an ear in a bar fight, and could barely form complete sentences.  The girl had never worked. When asked why she gave the infamous "I'm bi-polar" excuse.  She too, could barely speak in an understandable manner.  In my opinion the case was cut and dry.  WV law states any lapse in support payment for 12 consecutive months is a felony.  We had to exclude a 3 month prison term and a 6 month hospital/rehab stint. That still left 14 straight and consecutive months of no payment. The guy had made a total of 2 payments in almost 4 years.  We still took almost 10 hours to convict him because one jury didn't want to convict him because if he went to jail he couldn't pay.
Second stint I was an alternate. I had to sit through the trial but got to leave when jury went in to deliberate.

[2ADoc]

I have been called twice, both times I was in Iraq.  When my wife sent the letter back, with it written on the back" My Husband is in IRAQ".  They called back and said, I kid you not,"We will reimburse his Travel expenses"  IT was not till she explained in 3rd grade English that my plane tickets alone were over 3000 dollars, that I got excused.

[Glas]

I done it once over 15 years ago.  before being selected (it was a rape case) everyone could clearly hear the judge and prosecution/defence advocates arguing over the details, and I clearly heard the defence guy tell the judge the guy was pleading guilty to 3 counts' but Not Guilty to the rape charge.  The defence attorney then made a big deal during the trial about his client having no previous convictions.  It wasn't that in particular which made us convict on flimsy evidence, but it certainly never helped him......

We were informed after finding him guilty that he had pled guilty to molesting 2 kids (sisters aged 4 & 5) while he was on bail awaiting trial for the rape charge.  It sickened me to think we were so close to finding the scumbag not guilty too.