Girl, I hope the lawyers don't google YOU!

The whole "contempt for making up an extreme position" sounds kind of scary. I understand the reason for it, so that there's no "get out of jury duty card", but I would hope that they have a way to discern when people are actually sincere about having extreme positions.

What happens when Ron Paul supporters get asked about their positions? Whoever interviews them must think to themselves "Whoa this guy has a pretty extreme position, he must be making this stuff up. Contempt!" I mean, not that there is a problem with Ron Paul supporters all getting cited for contempt or anything.

I was summoned three times in two years. Twice for Federal and once for county. Never picked and, judging from the questions asked I'll always believe it was because I was college educated (in a non-fuzzy subject).

All but the last one (county). That one was a civil case involving a family suing a trucking company because one of their trucks ran over the family's 80 year old grandma.

Details, as presented to the jury pool prior to jury selection:

Grandma was 80+ years old.
She'd run her car off the road (missed the exit from a four lane/70mph highway and ran into a rather deep ditch instead.)
It was night time. (ie: dark!)
She climbed up the embankment and walked out onto (as in not standing on the side of the road but out into traffic. At night.) said 70mph highway.
She got hit by a truck.

During the period where the judge was asking if there was any reason why we felt we should be excused I requested to reply in chambers, so as not to prejudice the rest of the jury pool.

In chambers I asked the judge if the above facts were, in fact, true. Being assured that they were I then stated that I did not understand why this case was even being heard, as walking out onto a high speed roadway at night and expecting a 60,000lb semi to not only see you but avoid you was insane and, while I had great sympathy for the deceased womans family, I failed to grasp why they should profit from her lack of common sense.

The defense lawyer was all excited and was saying that he didn't see why my feelings should in any way bar me from serving. (He probably hates me to this day.)

Needless to say I was 'excused' from serving.

Anyway, hope one this goes as you wish.

If it were our law firm, we would have googled you before you left the courtroom.

Really.

Okay this is straight out of John Grisham, but if it's a death penalty case, can't you get out of it by saying that you have a moral objection to the death penalty and could never vote accordingly? That if the person had a chance of being sentenced to death you would be morally incapable of finding him/her guilty? Might not matter since you say you want to be picked, but would it work?

We were forbidden to do any research about the case, too. Which means that despite my ENORMOUS CONSUMING DESIRE to get on Google right now and look it up, I am compelled not to. Which sucks the balls of 10,000 donkeys.

Best. Metaphor. Ever.

"Which sucks the balls of 10,000 donkeys."

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lissa...she doesn't want to get out of this one. I wouldn't either. I'd love to be on the jury. It sounds fascinating...it's probably not as exciting as I imagine it...but it's gotta be more interesting than my normal life. :)

BlameCandida, it's usually pretty easy to tell who really holds the extreme positions and who is just telling a story for the sake of getting out of the jury. There's nothing wrong with holding an extreme position, in and of itself, it's the lying about holding an extreme position just to get out of service. As a prosecutor, I saw plenty of jury voir dires, and it's not hard to spot. You ask a few questions, explain why what they think is not actually the law, and watch how they react. Their reactions tell you whether they're lying or not.

Lissa, that is indeed the best way to get out of a death penalty case, just to say that you are morally opposed to it and could never vote to impose it, regardless of the evidence presented, even though you understand that the death penalty is part of the law. That will get you kicked off the jury for cause.

Just to clarify how the process works, though... death penalty trials are conducted in two phases, but the same jury hears each phase, one right after the other. First is the guilt/innocence phase, asking only whether he did in fact commit the crime charged. Then comes the sentencing phase, where the same jury then considers evidence about aggravating and mitigating factors and determines whether or not to impose the death penalty.

All I can really say Rachel is:

HA HA HA HA HA HA (deep breath) HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Better you than me toots!

Have fun ;)!

Not to risk your getting thrown off the case, but I am betting it was Mr. Green in the Conservatory with the Lead pipe.

I was the plantiff in a jury trial one time and it was fascinating on how our attorney would decide what questions to ask. He would ask a bunch that had something to do with the case and then for his last question ask how many bumper stickers they had on their cars and what they said. It sounds silly, but it really told us more about the person's character than all the rest of the questions. One guy who looked like your typical San Francisco liberal hippy dippy guy had stickers that said "I didn't claw my way up the food chain to eat salad" "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands" and other NRA type stuff. Who knew?

Deciding to excuse a juror was pretty interesting too. So much going on behind the scenes. We excused one guy because he was wearing bib overalls, no other reason. We were going to excuse the hippy guy until the bumper sticker question.

The whole thing was fascinating.

Maybe you should tell them in your Death Penalty questionnaire that the only thing you disagree with is that they don't do hangings in the public square anymore.

As a prosecutor, I saw plenty of jury voir dires, and it's not hard to spot. You ask a few questions, explain why what they think is not actually the law, and watch how they react. Their reactions tell you whether they're lying or not.

I simply must have an example.

I assume that both sides will do an adequate job in the voir dire, in which case they will both know that you have a blog. They will both check it out and it will be interesting to see which side wants you, and which side doesn't, and how badly.
I have just been called for Grand Jury, it is one day each week for three months.

Jury duty. Feh. I've been up here in the high desert above Los Angeles, CA for nearly four years, and got called for jury duty two years in a row.

Yeah, a hardship excuse is getting harder to get here in lovely So. Cal.

But... I'm a night person and also self-employed. Not only would I not be able to pay rent if I were forced to serve, but I'd never be able to either get there in the morning on time or be able to stay awake through the trial.

Used to be able to get my boss-man to sign for me to excuse me, when I lived down below. Can't do that anymore. Have to protest vigorously to the dragon ladies who do the adminstrative crap in the courthouse, so that they will pretty-please ask a judgie-wudgie to excuse me.

That worked once. The last time, I had to call in each night (to an automated phone system) for about 10 days, to see if I had to report the next day.

It might actually be interesting to serve on a jury, but I hope I don't get called ever again. I just can't afford the time off.

YMMV.

I also had to go to court once over a (to me) bogus traffic ticket, which ended up being dismissed because Mr. Policeman didn't bother to show up to testify against me.

One good thing about the courtrooms in which I've had to sit while waiting for either my case to be dismissed, or for a friend's case to be taken care of... they FORBID gum-chewing in the courtroom, and they enforce it.

Sheeit... that's a habit I hate with a purple passion, and no way would I be happy about being forced to sit next to a f---ing cow-muncher... either on a jury or in the audience.

Your wrong Brian, Mr. Green couldn't have been in the Conservatory at that time. It must have been Colonel Mustard. :-)

Sheeit... that's a habit I hate with a purple passion, and no way would I be happy about being forced to sit next to a f---ing cow-muncher

Good. At least I'm not the only one.

Or maybe the butler did it?

My sister was called for jury duty many times but was never selected. She was a software engineer and very opinionated. Lawyers do not like female engineers.

Since I'm a cripple, I have a get out of jury duty card. I played it once. The other time I would have served but the case was settled.

I always thought it odd that they can ask a potential juror all kinds of questions that they wouldn't be allowed to ask a defendant.

Letting lawyers pick the jury seems a lot like letting the fox guard the henhouse.

Haverwilde... if this were a high-profile case with a rich defendant, you'd be right. But if it's a garden variety murder case with appointed counsel, the odds are that both the defense and the prosecution are too busy with other work to do really in-depth investigations of potential jurors.

Skyler... the lawyers for each side are more likely to identify potential biases one way or the other because they have such a strong interest in the outcome. But the lawyers only have so much say in the jury. Only the judge can excuse jurors for cause, and each side only gets a very limited number of "peremptory" challenges to get rid of jurors they just don't like. The end result is a jury where both sides are satisfied that the jurors picked are not biased in favor of the other side.

... I wonder if the ATF trolls that database of who answered "yes" (or "Y") to having firearms....
Even if they don't have legal access to it, I don't doubt there are people at the ATF who lack the scruples to avoid hacking a bunch of government databases.

I've been called 4 times in the past 10 years in my county in Georgia, and once got as far as final pool selection before being tossed.

Rachel, between the dog pr0n and the Rosie tirades, you're toast.

I know I'd sure as hell NEVER want you on my jury. I'm too pretty for prison.

They WILL Google you, and they will be afraid. Very afraid.

I hate to tell you this, sugar, but right now some lowly minion of the defense attorney is googling jurors right now.

So I agree with Zarba, you're toast. But play along, the process is very interesting, especially in a capital case.

Elizabeth
Imperial Keeper

The previous post shows in exquisite detail why I shouldn't comment when I've only had about 4 hours of sleep.

Sorry.

Elizabeth
Imperial Keeper

One time, I worked on a civil case where we represented a large utility company (no, I won't say which one.) The first thing our client did was take the names of possible jurors and run them through the accounts department. We struck two more people who had experienced service interruptions (for non-payment) from our panel.

As someone who has been cut off a few times (I have the money, I just forgot to pay on time) I can understand why they would be worried about that.

So much for being stalked by the county. Pick Me! Pick Me! I was on a jury once. Had all I could do to stay awake. I think I will tell the Judge about it next time. When you must sleep, you must sleep.

The one time I've had to actually go to court so far, the judge said to the room of potential jurors: "There's too many people here. I'm going to read some names off the bottom of the list, and you folks can go." I'm not sure how I wound up at the bottom of that list, but I was sent on my merry way.

One thing that struck me was how well-dressed the lawyers were, while the potential jurors were all bumming around in jeans and T-shirts.

Milton, my dad was an insurance company claims manager for 30 years. He recounted the story of a multimillion dollar case where his company's lawyer was able to point out to the judge that the ENTIRE jury was asleep in the box.

Can you say mistrial?

Did my first jury duty a month ago, Rachel. Posted on it HERE.

Neglected to add something about which I DIDN'T post: on our case both the bailiff AND judge caught some z-z-z-z-z! I am not making this up.

They run a pretty smooth ship with jury selection, no hoo-hah like you might have in smaller jurisdictions.

Wait - jurors can't bring their hoo-hahs to the court house?

Da-yam! They really don't want any distractions, do they? Except for the moaning and bleeding, I guess.

Rachel,

One of the job professions that guarantees you will not serve on a jury is police officer.

I have had to spend a lot of time in court though :-) either as a prosecution witness, or sitting at the prosecution table when I have been the lead investigator on a given case.

I hope to God you somehow worked the phrase "sucks the balls of 10,000 donkeys" into one of your questionnaire answers.

If you _do_ want to get out of it, during voir dire, let slip that you know what jury nullification is. (They usually ask you in a coded manner so as to not actually explain it, but you'll see a question about "do you understand that your only duty is to judge the facts of the case, not the law.")

On the jury that I served on with my wfe, I gave an answer during voir dire that I really thought would get me excluded. My wife had been in the first bunch of names drawn and she was one of the few the lawyers kept. I was in the second bunch. The defense attorney asked me if I thought it was possible to not give my wife's opinin more weight than I gave the other jurors. I answered honestly, "Well, I would like to say that that I would give everyone's opinion equal weight as my wife's, but I really won't know until I am in that situation." I was being honest.

I just *knew* that the defense wouldn't want me. When they called my name, the defense attorney stared at me and accepted me. Bastard.