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DrewEckhardt

Jury Duty

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I learned a few things today.

Judges write bench warrants for people who don't show up. I would not want to be that guy.

The county court house is for more than small claims, barking dogs, and DUIs.

At least one such non-trivial trial is expected to last five or six days.

Thankfully that's less than the judge's last trial which went on for months although only 105 out of the 170 potential witnesses were called.

Both lawyers get 10 peremptory challenges which let them dismiss any one for any reason.

Neither disliked me enough to use one.

So today, Wednesday, Thursday, Monday (we get Friday off with the Judge), Tuesday, and maybe Wednesday I'm expecting to be at county court house serving as a jurist. I'll probably get my day job done in the evenings and weekend.

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You can't get out of being called up, but you can get out of serving...if you choose to.

While being interviewed, make sure to let yourself be heard saying..."Fuck the Police...Fuck these GD lawyers...and fuck all these GD judges"

C ya!

359
"Now I've settled down,
in a quiet little town,
and forgot about everything"

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I believe in our judicial system and find jury duty, although sometimes extremely inconvenient and boring, to be one of the honorable ways to give back to your community.

I've served quite a few times and always find a way make it interesting to me. I even had to serve for an extended period on a Grand Jury, actually being a foreman, while having to abstain from voting on a majority of the cases because I was the court administrator who issued the warrants, my Dad, husband or brother were the arresting officers, I "knew" the defendants through my job or I was friends with the other arresting officers/complainants/prosecutors.

I could always try to get out of it using my work position within the judiciary but I think when I am called to serve and do so proudly it is a great example to other citizens of why it's so important to serve your peers.

Yeah, I'm a dork. :P

Always be kinder than you feel.

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I believe in our judicial system and find jury duty, although sometimes extremely inconvenient and boring, to be one of the honorable ways to give back to your community.

I've served quite a few times and always find a way make it interesting to me. I even had to serve for an extended period on a Grand Jury, actually being a foreman, while having to abstain from voting on a majority of the cases because I was the court administrator who issued the warrants, my Dad, husband or brother were the arresting officers, I "knew" the defendants through my job or I was friends with the other arresting officers/complainants/prosecutors.

I could always try to get out of it using my work position within the judiciary but I think when I am called to serve and do so proudly it is a great example to other citizens of why it's so important to serve your peers.

Yeah, I'm a dork. :P


I would think that doing "your duty" would include removing yourself from the jury if there is any hint of complicity or conflict of interest due to the reasons you mentioned, as opposed to abstaining from voting.
You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
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What he said. Yeah, anyone can get out of jury duty if they want to. But dang -- how else do you get a cross-section of who's out there if not by calling them?

Wendy P.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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I believe in our judicial system and find jury duty, although sometimes extremely inconvenient and boring, to be one of the honorable ways to give back to your community.

I've served quite a few times and always find a way make it interesting to me. I even had to serve for an extended period on a Grand Jury, actually being a foreman, while having to abstain from voting on a majority of the cases because I was the court administrator who issued the warrants, my Dad, husband or brother were the arresting officers, I "knew" the defendants through my job or I was friends with the other arresting officers/complainants/prosecutors.

I could always try to get out of it using my work position within the judiciary but I think when I am called to serve and do so proudly it is a great example to other citizens of why it's so important to serve your peers.

Yeah, I'm a dork. :P



After serving on a jury (aggravated homicide) I lost all faith in our judicial system. The original charge was for premeditated murder and something happened during the grand jury phase where the charge had to be dropped down to aggravated homicide. We found the defendant guilty. She was sentenced to 4 years in prison (minimum sentence). She spent a total of 18 months in jail being let out and the remaining 6 months under house arrest.

This woman murdered another person. She went into a house and shot her daughters boyfriend and killed him. There were 3 young children in the house at the time. Three children lost their father and this woman served 18 months.

I saw her in JC Penney right after she was finished with her sentence. Crazy world we live in. :S
Kim Mills
USPA D21696
Tandem I, AFF I and Static Line I

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I believe in our judicial system and find jury duty, although sometimes extremely inconvenient and boring, to be one of the honorable ways to give back to your community.



I agree. I'm surprised how many try to avoid it, and I think they're right to put pressure on people to serve. If the only jurors who turn up willingly are those with no other commitments then they're going to end up with a pretty skewed group.

And from my past experience - while I don't consider myself super-smart, or a shining beacon of justice - having met one or two of my fellow jurors I couldn't help but think, thank God I'm here to help redress the balance.:|

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Put yourself behind the other table for a minute.

If you were behind that table and you were facing even minor charges, wouldn't you want someone with your level of intelligence and belief values deciding your fate? Looking at the facts presented during the case to decide if you are guilty or are you still innocent as presumed?

I have only had the honor of sitting on a jury once, although I will gladly sit again! I know the times I've sat on the witness stand turning towards the jury to answer the questions presented, I fully appreciate what those 6 or 12 people are doing! I appreciate the service that those men and women are providing for their community.
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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no, you're a patriot. thank you. defendants need to be judged by a jury of their peers, not a group af people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.



Last time I got called in (in King County, WA), when the potential jurors were assembled in the main jury room, we got a speech from a judge at the beginning. His example was something like this "when you think about it, there are only four things we ask of you as citizens. 1) obey the law 2) pay your taxes 3) vote and 4) serve on juries." When you put it that way, jury duty hardly seems onerous.

Besides, I know that I am one who is fortunate enough to have an employer that will pay for every day of my jury duty. The irony is that most people who think they are "too important" to serve on juries are also the ones more likely to have a job where the jury duty time off is paid for (since I believe that in most if not all areas, employers are only required to allow you to serve, but are not required to pay you for that time).
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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I have absolutely no faith in our courts or system fo justice. It is not just or fair. I would try to do everything I could not to serve.

I've spent a lot of time in court rooms w/ different jobs over the years. The kinds of things that get handed out would make your head spin. Most of the barking dog type stuff doesn't get a jury, though, at least not in Virginia.
"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

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I would think that doing "your duty" would include removing yourself from the jury if there is any hint of complicity or conflict of interest due to the reasons you mentioned, as opposed to abstaining from voting.



I can see where you're coming from but I respectfully disagree. I pride myself in being impartial when it comes to matters of our system regarding a Grand Jury or any judicial proceeding for that matter.

However, I have been stricken from the jury pool by attorneys who know of my familial connections with law enforcement and my work in the municipal courts where their clients have come through my office at one time or another and they didn't want me to sit on the jury for a criminal trial or a civil trial. It's their right and I respect that to the highest order.
Always be kinder than you feel.

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Put yourself behind the other table for a minute.

If you were behind that table and you were facing even minor charges, wouldn't you want someone with your level of intelligence and belief values deciding your fate? Looking at the facts presented during the case to decide if you are guilty or are you still innocent as presumed?

I have only had the honor of sitting on a jury once, although I will gladly sit again! I know the times I've sat on the witness stand turning towards the jury to answer the questions presented, I fully appreciate what those 6 or 12 people are doing! I appreciate the service that those men and women are providing for their community.




If I was innocent, I would want justice. If I was guilty, I would want mercy. ;)
Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

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Besides, I know that I am one who is fortunate enough to have an employer that will pay for every day of my jury duty.



I sat on the jury for the penalty phase of a capital punishment trial (over a month long). We decided if the guy lived or died. I was the only person on the jury who had an employer who didn't pay for jury duty time.

I'd happily sit on another jury. Not only because it's my civic duty, but because it was very interesting. I learned a LOT about the judicial system and gained a lot of respect for those who work in it.

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Judges write bench warrants for people who don't show up. I would not want to be that guy.



You would think that if they take JD so seriously, they would send summons' as registered mail, with signature required. One time, they sent one for me while I was in college, my mom got it, and being my mom, promptly forgot about it, ended up behind the sofa, and she gave it to me five months later.

Now, I live in the city, and I get about half of my mail. That's why I have a third-party mailbox, and there I get all of it, but that's not where they send a Jury Summons.
Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

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I believe in our judicial system and find jury duty, although sometimes extremely inconvenient and boring, to be one of the honorable ways to give back to your community.

I've served quite a few times and always find a way make it interesting to me. I even had to serve for an extended period on a Grand Jury, actually being a foreman, while having to abstain from voting on a majority of the cases because I was the court administrator who issued the warrants, my Dad, husband or brother were the arresting officers, I "knew" the defendants through my job or I was friends with the other arresting officers/complainants/prosecutors.

I could always try to get out of it using my work position within the judiciary but I think when I am called to serve and do so proudly it is a great example to other citizens of why it's so important to serve your peers.

Yeah, I'm a dork. :P


I would think that doing "your duty" would include removing yourself from the jury if there is any hint of complicity or conflict of interest due to the reasons you mentioned, as opposed to abstaining from voting.


There are a lot of checks and balances in the system to prevent any potential conflict of interest. Plus, the idea is to choose jurors from all walks of life, not just people who have nothing better to do.

I've been called a few times but never even made it into a courtroom for the initial interviews. Luck of the draw really- they had more potential jurors in the pool than they needed and the group I was placed in never got called.

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I learned a few things today.

Judges write bench warrants for people who don't show up. I would not want to be that guy.

The county court house is for more than small claims, barking dogs, and DUIs.

At least one such non-trivial trial is expected to last five or six days.

Thankfully that's less than the judge's last trial which went on for months although only 105 out of the 170 potential witnesses were called.

Both lawyers get 10 peremptory challenges which let them dismiss any one for any reason.

Neither disliked me enough to use one.

So today, Wednesday, Thursday, Monday (we get Friday off with the Judge), Tuesday, and maybe Wednesday I'm expecting to be at county court house serving as a jurist. I'll probably get my day job done in the evenings and weekend.



Who told you that? Unless the Call to duty is handed to you by a person Identified as working for the court, (supeona like) or they have NO PROOF you recieved anything in the mail!

Other than that, show up, and tell them you are a perfect juror, you can tell a guilty person just by looking at them....your dismissed!

I have ignored the last 10 or more calls, they never use me anyway, because I have a record!

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Who told you that? Unless the Call to duty is handed to you by a person Identified as working for the court, (supeona like) or they have NO PROOF you recieved anything in the mail!



Court rules for service and filings vary by state. Here's New Jersey's: http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/rules/r1-5.htm

What works in one state can get your ass in a jam in another. ;)
Always be kinder than you feel.

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Who told you that? Unless the Call to duty is handed to you by a person Identified as working for the court, (supeona like) or they have NO PROOF you recieved anything in the mail!



Court rules for service and filings vary by state. Here's New Jersey's: http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/rules/r1-5.htm

What works in one state can get your ass in a jam in another. ;)


Right-o. Many states follow what's known as the "mailbox rule." Basically, it means that if it can be shown that something was in fact mailed to a person's address, and it wasn't returned to the sender as "undeliverable", then it's presumed to have been received by the addressee. (It's what's known as a "rebuttable presumption" - the burden shifts to the alleged recipient to prove that he did NOT receive the mailing - which, as you can imagine, is pretty hard to do.)

That's how courts have the right to enforce juror summons sent by regular mail only - if it wasn't returned, then they've got you. You better be prepared to prove that you've moved or were on extended deployment or something, cuz "I never got it" ain't gonna wash.

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What works in one state can get your ass in a jam in another. ;)



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Right-o. Many states follow what's known as the "mailbox rule." Basically, it means that if it can be shown that something was in fact mailed to a person's address, and it wasn't returned to the sender as "undeliverable", then it's presumed to have been received by the addressee. (It's what's known as a "rebuttable presumption" - the burden shifts to the alleged recipient to prove that he did NOT receive the mailing - which, as you can imagine, is pretty hard to do.)

That's how courts have the right to enforce juror summons sent by regular mail only - if it wasn't returned, then they've got you. You better be prepared to prove that you've moved or were on extended deployment or something, cuz "I never got it" ain't gonna wash.



That's exactly how NJ handles it. Glad you could break that down into layman's terms because I couldn't. :D
Always be kinder than you feel.

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You can't get out of being called up, but you can get out of serving...if you choose to.

While being interviewed, make sure to let yourself be heard saying..."Fuck the Police...Fuck these GD lawyers...and fuck all these GD judges"

C ya!

359



The last time I was called, I was watching the lawyers question potential jurors. The defendant was black, and one of the potential (white) jurors said that he couldn't judge fairly because he was a "recovering racist." He tried to make some lame explanation, hoping to get kicked off the panel.

It worked. The judge told him he was excused from that jury, but had to report to the jury room from 8 AM to 4 PM every day for the next week. He then asked if any of the rest of us wanted to get cute (my words, not his.) Nobody said a word.
There are battered women? I've been eating 'em plain all of these years...

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It worked. The judge told him he was excused from that jury, but had to report to the jury room from 8 AM to 4 PM every day for the next week. He then asked if any of the rest of us wanted to get cute (my words, not his.) Nobody said a word.



I've seen a Judge do that stuff (not for Jury Duty but late for municipal court for a suspended driver violation, warrant issued, warrant not recalled properly after the defendant appeared later that morning) but I bet if the person appealed the "sentence" that he (the recovering racist) would prevail and not have to appear.
Always be kinder than you feel.

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