I just had the pleasure ...

[kaitsdad]

to multiple felony counts. 8 to be exact.

Involving the use of a semi-automatic weapon.

One more POS off the street. Felt good.

The best part of the experience? One of my fellow jurors was a Korea war veteran Marine. With shrapnel in his back. And he appeared quite capable of beating the crap out of anyone in the room, with perhaps the exception of the baliff. You could tell it hurt him just to move - but he was there, doing his bit for the country. I thanked him for his military service, and wished him well. Semper Fidelis.

Jury Duty - a civic responsibility that does have a warm and fuzzy attached to it.

 

[FJRBluesman]

Good job Hal! Book e'm Danno. And throw away the key. :yahoo:

 

[SacramentoMike]

Good on ya, Hal. Not sure, but I suspect forum membership here might be reason enough for defense attorneys everywhere to consider using up one of their peremptory challenges, if they really knew. I dunno, maybe it's just me.

I've had that warm fuzzy feeling myself. And I liked it.

 

[doug5551]

Great to see this. :yahoo:

Sometimes the system works the way it is supposed to...

 

[wfooshee]

I've only been summoned twice. years ago, right out of high school, actually, I was summoned for a widely publicized **** case.

"Did you read about this in the paper, or see news reports on TV?"

"Yes, I did."

"State excuses this juror on grounds. . ."

Then a couple years ago I sat through one as the 7th juror of a panel of 6, knowing I didn't get a vote unless somebody crapped out and died, or left for some less serious reason. End of the trial I find out I don't even get to participate in the deliberation! ****!

Guy in his late 50s was accused by a mom, distantly related to the man, of fondling her 2 daughters, elementary school age. State put the girls on the stand, older one couldn't remember anything, younger one recited the script she'd been taught with every question. Didn't matter what the question was, her answer was "He came to me and put his hand on me here." Biggest waste of court time I can possibly imagine, obviously something personal against the man from the woman. I hope the rest of the jury saw it that way, I don't know how it came out.

I have a problem with the state pursuing a case with nothing but an angry woman's claim and recited "testimony" from a child, no other witnesses. That guy will always be the one that fondled the girls as far as that family is concerned, but it never happened. But because it's an alleged "***" crime against a minor, it goes all the way. So to speak.

So while I can only imagine the satisfaction of helping put the bad guy away, I do know how it feels to sit and watch a hollow case dissolve before the state's very eyes as they present it, and we're forced to show the guy as innocent, falsely accused.

 

[1FJR]

In my job I will never be able to serve on the jury in my county. Must have some thing to do with me being a deputy. my wife got called for jury duty. The judge asked her if she was married to me, this was shortly after we got married. When my wife said yes, the judge dismissed her. Well the defense got upset about this. So the judge asked the defense to please read the name of the arresting deputy and look at the name of the person she just dismissed. Defense looks at report and then my wifes name and goes "never mind your honor, that might have been a problem"

 

[LowAndSilent]

Thanks for doing your duty. We appreciate it.

Due to my job, I'll probably never get to serve on a jury. I'd love to have the experience though. Yesterday my job did allow me to help put away someone for seven years, though. Some guys just will never learn. :blink:

 

[dcarver]

What? You didn't tell the judge you had something more important to do: :lol:

Good on yah Hal.

 

[BikerGeek99]

About 15 years ago, I served on the local county grand jury.

I must say that that was 2 of the most interesting weeks I've ever experienced.

I learned:

1. If the police suspect you just bought drugs, they'll follow you, wait for you to not signal a turn or something dumb like that, then pull you over and bust you for the drugs.

2. The price for a rock of crack can really vary!

3. People on crack are stupid. As in, we wanted to charge a few of the idiots with aggravated stupidity, but the prosecutor wouldn't let us.

4. I never, ever want to be arrested. We got to tour 2 of the local jails and they are not my kind of place.

4a. Who in their right mind would EVER wanna fight one of the deputies who work at the just-arrested processing area? Those guys were HUGE!!

 

[ultimateanswer]

Unfortunately I will never be able to serve on a jury for one reason. My wife is a forensic investigator for the OSBI a state investigative agency.I have however gotten to sit in on quite a few trials my wife was an investigator on. The whole justice process fascinates me! Its a blast any time i get to take a few days away from work and see her work her magic in the courtroom!

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

I was called and dismissed in January. They never tell you why (second time for me). Just wish it hadn't taken them an hour to get to me. Good going Hal.

 

[HotRodZilla]

About 15 years ago, I served on the local county grand jury.

I must say that that was 2 of the most interesting weeks I've ever experienced.

I learned:

1. If the police suspect you just bought drugs, they'll follow you, wait for you to not signal a turn or something dumb like that, then pull you over and bust you for the drugs.

2. The price for a rock of crack can really vary!

3. People on crack are stupid. As in, we wanted to charge a few of the idiots with aggravated stupidity, but the prosecutor wouldn't let us.

4. I never, ever want to be arrested. We got to tour 2 of the local jails and they are not my kind of place.

4a. Who in their right mind would EVER wanna fight one of the deputies who work at the just-arrested processing area? Those guys were HUGE!!

About 7 years ago, we popped this party and found 42 grams of cocaine, 2 AR15 rifles, and 14 or 15 kids between the ages of 14 and 20 drinking at this house. The guy the cocaine and rifles belonged to threw the party and was arrested for numerous counts related to the drugs and giving of alcohol to minors.

At Grand Jury, I testified and the jury forewoman kept berating me with questions about how old the 14 year old girls looked and why it was illegal for them to drink, and why I thought 42 grams of coke, 500 plastic baggies, a diary and computer with customer spreadsheets was reason to charge the guy with trafficking. The more she talked, the more I thought something was wrong. She looked high.

So...The GJ took a break and when she stepped out, I watched her wander around. Her build, clothing and constant tics really got my suspicions up, so I asked the DA how the GJs are picked. Turns out, it is by driver's licenses issued in that county.

I told him my concerns and he watched that lady too. He agreed with me, so as the rest of the jurors filed in the room, he asked the forewoman to hang out. Once the door was shut, I asked her if she was carrying drugs. She said yes. I asked her if she was willing to give them to me and she also said yes. She then presented me with about 5 grams of Heroin.

Needless to say, she was removed from that Grand Jury, but I gave her a free trip to jail. The DA about crapped his pants, and I got a True Bill on my party guy. 8 days later I got a True Bill on my forewoman too.

Moral...You gotta watch juries, cuz you just never know.

 

[SkooterG]

I served on a jury during a trial once. Cool experience. I was lucky though, the whole thing was a one day affair. The truly incredible thing? I was an LEO at the time and the defense attorney STILL wanted me. I couldn't believe it. I was all ready to go home. It was a minor aggravated assault (felony) charge where some dufus threatend a Kmart security guard with a screwdriver after shoplifting an item and on his way out of the store.

Since I was a cop, they elected me foreman and I was able to see why the defense attorney wanted me on the jury. Everyone wanted to vote 'guilty' without any discussion. I was like, this is important, and we should at least discuss this whole thing for a while as somebody's life really depends on the outcome. So I made them all talk about it for about twenty minutes and THEN we voted him guilty. Turns out it was his 3rd felony conviction and he went to the pokey for a while. Dufus.

Very interesting experience.

 

[Bounce]

Actually made it to a jury once out of all the different times I've set bench warming allfuckinglyboringdaylongfor$6. It was to determine if a convicted felon would be turned over for phych eval at some high security/risk facility. The expert said yes (he should), the prosecutor agreed, the defense agreed, I made the point in deliberations that there was little we could do other than rule so, since there wasn't any additional info provided to us to contradict things and no position arguing against. Kind of lopsided. 15 minutes of instructions. 5 minutes of position statements by both sides. 10 minutes to get put into our little conference room and reach a conclusion. Once done, we got to pick up our $6 check and go home. Much better experience than spending all day sitting on horrible chairs waiting to be sent home after doing nothing.

 

[BikerGeek99]

A couple of other memories from my experience:

1. The bailiff could not make a decent cup of coffee to save his life.

2. One morning, just before we started, one of the Sheriff deputies came in to make sure we all made it to the room OK. Turns out there were trials underway for some nefarious types who had rioted at a prison in southern Ohio and there had been 'issues.' Hell - I didn't even notice.

2a. I'm pretty sure that the deputy above coulda beaten me to a pulp with just his left pinky, even though I was about a foot taller and 30 years younger than him.

3. I do not want to see pictures from a murder scene ever again.

4. The cases that involved children made my skin crawl.

Moral...You gotta watch juries, cuz you just never know.

And THAT, AJ, is a prime example of aggravated stupidity.

 

[Crash Cash]

3. People on crack are stupid. As in, we wanted to charge a few of the idiots with aggravated stupidity, but the prosecutor wouldn't let us.

Heck, 70% of folks at my current place of employment would be permanently in jail on that charge...

4. I never, ever want to be arrested. We got to tour 2 of the local jails and they are not my kind of place.

I went to a strict Lutheran high school. My social studies teacher was apparently a very attractive male, judging from the female students' comments. For some reason, we went on a field trip to the Lowell Womens' prison.

Whoa nelly, I sure learned some stuff on that field trip! Man. It took me several years to understand some of the things the inmates said to him. Apparently he's worth more than 5 packs of cigarettes.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Whoa nelly, I sure learned some stuff on that field trip! Man. It took me several years to understand some of the things the inmates said to him. Apparently he's worth more than 5 packs of cigarettes.

Nice!

On our first jail visit, we went to the workhouse - lower security for the not-as-bad people. They had a group segregated from the general population - they were the cross-dressers / trans-gender group. Wow... I think the deputy giving us the tour was highly amused by our reaction to their hoots and hollers from their cell.

Old Michael reminds of that group, but OM's .... even weirder.

 

[Old Michael]

On our first jail visit, we went to the workhouse - lower security for the not-as-bad people. They had a group segregated from the general population - they were the cross-dressers / trans-gender group. Wow... I think the deputy giving us the tour was highly amused by our reaction to their hoots and hollers from their cell.

Golly, Andy. You'd do FINE in prison.

(NOT a Photoshop.

)

 

[HotRodZilla]

Golly, Andy. You'd do FINE in prison.

(NOT a Photoshop.

)

Holy **** Andy!! Two things: 1: Why would you talk **** to a guy that was holding that kind of picture in his possession? :huh: 2: Don't ever go to prison...Run to a non-extradition country. I love ya man, but you'd end up being someone's *****!