Random musings

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tlombard
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Re: Random musings

Post by tlombard »

stlouie_lipp wrote:
Jocephus wrote:
Diddy wrote:
Jocephus wrote:i got a jury summons for 1/2/18

f***
That’s my anniversary if it’ll help get you out.
it says "for the week or a whole trial". i'm nervous because wichita has been getting a lot of murders lately, think we're up to 36 or 38. i just know i'm gonna get one of them. i have to fill out a questionnaire and it gives you an place to say "why you shouldn't be selected"...i'm thinking of writing like, "criminal justice only works for the wealthy, elite and politicians". something like that. a co-worker said her husband had to do it earlier this year and ultimately got selected but she said that they (attorneys) like quiet people so i might make a ruckus too. i keep thinking of tina fey on 30 rock dressing up as princess leia to get out of it once.
Can I ask why you are dreading it so much? I think it would be kind of fun to serve on a jury. Unfortunately I'll probably never get the chance.
I am also one of the weird people who would like to experience serving on a jury once. The only time I've been summoned just resulted in me sitting around reading 3/4 of the day before they called a bunch of us to a room downstairs and told us were were done and could go home.

Freed Roger
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Re: Random musings

Post by Freed Roger »

On my duty, i was called into the 1st jury selection pool of the day gratefully. It was a drunk driving case, which I later learned DWI, DUI cases going to court are pretty rare. From the line of jury selection questioning, I suspected it was a wealthy guy nabbed in a sobriety checkpoint who refused the breathalyzer. I didn't end up in the jury for the case -they took the 12 plus a couple alternates out of 35 available. I was juror # 31 or something like that, so math was on my side - they started striking jurors at #1, and by the time they got to juror # 17 or so they had it filled.

It was interesting as heck though. exceeded my expectations on most levels. The pool really did seem like a fair cross-section of St. Louis county in a line at the DMV sort of way. For only striking a few jurors, they spent 2+ hours questioning the pool and rooting out biases/conflicts procedurally or relationship wise, who had involvement with police, or drunk drivers. There were some carefully crafted hypotheticals by the lawyers posed at us.

It was amazing some of the things that came up, room went silent when one woman relayed that she had a miscarriage after being hit by drunk driver. One guy had DUI on his record, and told about how he was lawyer-coached to get out of them going forward. One guy had gone to law school and worked in the same firm as the judge. One guy said he was seriously hospitalized after getting [expletive] kicked out of him by police. Another guy, when asked about rules that he considered unjust (lawyer obviously referring to a sobriety checkpoint) he went on a spiel about marijuana being illegal was unjust. Then after these reveals, they all get asked whether they could be impartial in the case and they all say yes they could, IIRC.

I was asked something about my thoughts on if a defendant had a chance to provide evidence to exonerate them self but didn't, would I infer anything from that. The question was worded better than that but I said, "Do you mean like refusing a breathalyzer?" The lawyer (prosecution) didn't expect me to be so direct on it, I guess - they can't try the case in juror selection - and had several followups to me to obfuscate that out before letting me loose.

Anyways, the judge and the lawyers thank the jurors repeatedly and sincerely and it was a decent experience.

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JL21
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Re: Random musings

Post by JL21 »

I've been called in for jury duty three times, and sat on a jury twice. Both times, it was for terrible terrible [expletive].

#1: Shaken baby case, the guy did all kinds of brain damage to the baby (the kid eventually died well after the trial)... I can't even remember the charges. I'm pretty sure it was manslaughter, maybe? and child abuse. I think we gave him 2nd degree manslaughter. It wasn't the maximum because the defense attorney did a great job convincing us that it wasn't intentional.

#2: Child abuse and child sexual abuse. We found him guilty on 8 of the 11 child abuse charges and 2 of the 3 sexual abuse charges. Then as we were reading the verdict, the dude flipped his [expletive] and charged the jury box. Actually, first, he started saying "Man, [expletive] this" and then screaming "You're ruining my life!" The judge told him to shut up, his lawyer told him to shut up, he wouldn't, then the bailiff had to step in. THAT'S when he charged the jury box. The authorities tackled him and the judge made us all leave the room, heading back to the deliberation room (which was very close to the courtroom).

We stood in the deliberation room for 5-10 minutes listening to him wailing for his girlfriend to help him, crying out, swearing, banging on [expletive]... It was so out of control that many jurors actually asked for authorities to walk them to their car after we were done. They were afraid of repercussions from some of his friends (who had not been there for the trial but showed up on the last day to hear the verdict)

It was crazy as hell.

Now... I'm glad I did the jury duty thing once. It's good to see the process and see how it happens. It's kind of fun to try to get into the prosecution and defense's head and see how they're presenting the case. But I've done it twice now and I don't feel the need to do it again. And for [expletive]'s sake, if I do it again, please please please don't make it any more child abuse or child sex abuse trials.

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CardsofSTL
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Re: Random musings

Post by CardsofSTL »

I was called for jury duty once but it coincided with a surgery date so I was excused. I would totally go 12 Angry Men on a jury room though.

tlombard
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Re: Random musings

Post by tlombard »

[SHOW]
JL21 wrote:I've been called in for jury duty three times, and sat on a jury twice. Both times, it was for terrible terrible [expletive].

#1: Shaken baby case, the guy did all kinds of brain damage to the baby (the kid eventually died well after the trial)... I can't even remember the charges. I'm pretty sure it was manslaughter, maybe? and child abuse. I think we gave him 2nd degree manslaughter. It wasn't the maximum because the defense attorney did a great job convincing us that it wasn't intentional.

#2: Child abuse and child sexual abuse. We found him guilty on 8 of the 11 child abuse charges and 2 of the 3 sexual abuse charges. Then as we were reading the verdict, the dude flipped his [expletive] and charged the jury box. Actually, first, he started saying "Man, [expletive] this" and then screaming "You're ruining my life!" The judge told him to shut up, his lawyer told him to shut up, he wouldn't, then the bailiff had to step in. THAT'S when he charged the jury box. The authorities tackled him and the judge made us all leave the room, heading back to the deliberation room (which was very close to the courtroom).

We stood in the deliberation room for 5-10 minutes listening to him wailing for his girlfriend to help him, crying out, swearing, banging on [expletive]... It was so out of control that many jurors actually asked for authorities to walk them to their car after we were done. They were afraid of repercussions from some of his friends (who had not been there for the trial but showed up on the last day to hear the verdict)

It was crazy as hell.

Now... I'm glad I did the jury duty thing once. It's good to see the process and see how it happens. It's kind of fun to try to get into the prosecution and defense's head and see how they're presenting the case. But I've done it twice now and I don't feel the need to do it again. And for [expletive]'s sake, if I do it again, please please please don't make it any more child abuse or child sex abuse trials.
After those two stories... I amend my desire to serve on a jury by saying that I don't want to be on a case that has ANYTHING to do with a child being hurt/molested/etc. I don't know that I could handle that without getting extremely angry.

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Radbird
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Re: Random musings

Post by Radbird »

I served once when we lived in Houston. Child custody case. Mom vs dad. Both were made out to be horrible parents and generally terrible people by the other. Poor kid was maybe 9 or 10. I forget who we ruled for but the judge threw it out because the kid didn't have a lawyer. I think I'm remembering it correctly anyway - it was in the '80s - long time ago. An interesting process but a waste of six days.

tlombard
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Re: Random musings

Post by tlombard »

Whoever took the time to size and print out an image of a Budweiser can and then tape them around all of the Diet Coke cans in the fridge at work is going to be my new best friend if we ever find out who did it. They don't hold up to close inspection but if you just glance in there, it really does look like somebody stocked the fridge with Budweiser.

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cardinalkarp
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Re: Random musings

Post by cardinalkarp »

tlombard wrote:Whoever took the time to size and print out an image of a Budweiser can and then tape them around all of the Diet Coke cans in the fridge at work is going to be my new best friend if we ever find out who did it. They don't hold up to close inspection but if you just glance in there, it really does look like somebody stocked the fridge with Budweiser.
that's hilarious

tlombard
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Re: Random musings

Post by tlombard »

People are getting a good laugh over it today for sure. Brought a little fun into the office. I didn't even realize they were fake until I asked the girl in charge of the stuff about the Budweiser and she laughed and said she has no idea who did that and pulled one out for me.

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IMADreamer
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Re: Random musings

Post by IMADreamer »

Winter can suck a dick already.

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