Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss May first chance at jury duty coming up

Not sure if I'll be selected but I've never done it before. Anyone else do it, and what was your experience?

My first experience with it was right after I turned 18 and started voting. I'm a machinist and it seems a machine shop had burned. Twice. The owner had three different insurance policys or at least three different insurance companies were involved. The 4 attorneys(three were together against his) would get into an argument and the judge would dismiss the jury, we would return to court for about 15 minutes and then they'd argue again and we's go back to the jury room again. It went on for 2 1/2 weeks. Good thing was the balif was a lady and brought cookies, cakes, pies, etc! The shop owner was trying to get paid for machines from the SECOND fire that were still out being rebuilt from the first fire. What a scam but I did find out about how the justice system worked and about how it was suppose to work. All in all, I thought it was a good expierence. I been back to jury duty many more times and only picked one other time.
Sorry for a long story Cecil but you asked!!

I got a letter once, back in the early 90's to set up an interview for jury duty. I waited till the very last moment to call them and they politely said something like Thank you for responding, If we need you, we will be in contact. Something like that... Never heard from them again.

JKB's experience was mine as well. And I was looking forward to it.

Here in Dallas, you have to go in and sit until they call you to be interviewed for the trial. If either side has a problem with you, you go home. I always wanted to get picked though.

I've been called several times but never served up until this past June when I served on a ridiculous DUI case in Collin County just north of Dallas. The guy was tested at the Police Station and shown over twice the legal limit, he failed the field sobriety test we watched from the dashcam, a witness saw him sideswipe the highway divider and his car showed damage, the witness also observed him going an estimated 90 mph before pulling off on the exit ramp at 3AM....and the dude marches into the courtroom with his court appointed interpreter and court appointed attorney and pleads innocent. The non-stop interpreting was an annoyance but did not effect our fairness. His court appointed lawyer claims the test machine at the police station "must have malfunctioned". We find out after the case this was his 2nd DUI arrest. They were not allowed to tell us that during the trial. We wasted 2 full days in the courtroom and found him guilty....it should have been a 1/2 day trial. Waste of taxpayer money and time. Afterwards I check the court website and it showed that he had already filed an appeal to our conviction.

ps: Many courts now have an online system where you check in the night before
and at that point they tell you if they even need you to show up the next morning.

Cecil, regular or Grand Jury?

I've never served but have been called various times. When hey find out that my Wife is a Litigation paralegal I never get picked.

I seved once. If I am ever brought up on charges; if I am innocent, I want a judge-only trial, if I a guilty, I want a jury trial. I was amazed at the level of logic skills present in the average person selected for a jury. Wow!

I've served twice in the last 10 years. The first time was a DUI on an evening where we had 21 inches of snow (a record for us) and on the surface you would of concluded he was guilty, but after hearing the case against him and understanding the letter of the law and what "beyond a reasonable doubt was, he was found innocent.

My second time was a murder trial that involved gangs and bunch of kids at a party. It is amazing to really understand what goes on in our society. 10 bottles of hard liquor was stolen by a 15 yo and was consumed at the party that evening. Each day there were 5-7 deputies watching over things and then the evening we came to the verdict, there were over twenty officers guarding us and escorting us out of the court house via a back entrance. That was a bit unnerving and I made sure each night I wasn't followed. There was no doubt of his guilt but we had to determine whether it was first or second degree murder and after 4 hours we found him guilty of first degree. It was hard having 15 - 20 year olds testifying and changing their stories. In the end it was a sad state of affairs, but again you are presented with the law and you are to follow the law.

So that's my story.

Outstanding post, bossone. As a guy who makes my living largely by defending people accused of crimes, I have to tell you that your post defines the quality and true essence of what a juror should be. I wish I could always get juries with folks like you who are willing to actually do the job the right way and are not afraid to vote the facts, not the hype that so often is injected into the criminal process by special interests and the media. It sounds like you did exactly the right thing in both cases. Good for you.

Oh no, I love long stories although I really don't consider that one a long one. You should see the ones on the political sites I frequent. Really long rants and you can lay out the facts and they ignore you. If they're too long I just respond with a zzz...

So what was the decision if you don't mind saying? Do you think the guy was doing an insurance scam or was the insurance company just trying to get out of paying him?

Regular.

I did get a questionnaire to fill out about 20 years ago. I told them I was would be happy to serve on jury duty, but if possible not the last two weeks of June as that was when I go on vacation. Guess what? Sometime later I get a letter saying to come in on a date that was the last two weeks of June! I call and the country clerk and she says not to worry, as I'm disqualified anyway due to religious reasons. Huh? I didn't question it, but there was nothing about religion in my questionnaire, only perhaps that I was against the death penalty, but I don't recall saying it was due to religious reasons. I decided not to push it as I was now free to go bluegill fishing in New England!

Reminds me what happened to a taxidermist friend in Iowa that raises deer. His neighbor shot one of his expensive deer through the fence just for kicks. It went to a jury and Tom said they just had to have picked the dumbest people they could find for the jury. He said it really shook is faith in the justice system.

Anyway, Tom's expert witness that also raises expensive deer, was not able to show up at the last minute because his father suddenly died. Due to the lack of an expert witness he got a paltry amount of award money as the jury wouldn't believe that deer could be worth so much. If I remember right the shooter got off with a slap on the hand too.

Cecil, I have severed on three juries and was selected forman of each one of them. Not sure what about me makes people do that. Anyway try not to get selected forman, it is a thankless job.

That's been my life experience for volunteering.

No jury duty! Case was settled out of court.

That's a bummer Cecil, there goes your vacation.

Yeah Cecil, You missed that 10 dollar pay day. Bummer

For some reason, every time I get picked for jury duty I never get selected during Voir Dire and get sent home... HAHA

You is a bad, bad, boy CJ. Glad I never got nailed speeding in WV, that would a hurt. My cruise control was at 80mph and occasionally you had to go around someone. IMO, the worst drivers on the planet live in Ohio. It really sucks going through that stretch, and even worse if they are on 75. I spent a couple days in Charleston, nice place and nice people. I had a good time down there, enjoyable. You need to get wider roads out there so I don't have to turn my truck around in a ditch, Really!

Just had jury duty Monday, third time never picked...

Yeah haven't had a vacation in years. It would have been something different from the daily grind.

Being a cop they know you've seen it like it is and can't be manipulated!