Jury Duty

I served on a Superior Court Jury last year. We convicted two defendants, second degree murder and found the third defendant not guilty of all charges because we couldn't put her in the fight beyond a reasonable doubt. Someone brought a knife to a fist fight. The victim tried to back out after he saw the knife.

I have been called for jury duty a time or two, but after having been on the county ambulance for almost 20 years, I am privy to way to many personal secrets to be considered impartial to serve on a jury in such a small community. The chances are pretty good that anyone in the stand will be related to someone I have carried into town at some point. That and I think all people judged as guilty should do hard work to benefit the community while serving their time as a deterrent to coming back to the jailhouse, the DA doesn't want a harsh juror, go figure.

One of my best actions is just to be myself when I walk into the courtroom and go around shaking hands with as many people that I actually know, including attorneys, judges, clerks, bailiffs, bail bondsmen and any family of the victims of crime and criminals if permitted or else I give a shout out publicly to them and of course call them by name.
For the longest we had a stunning District Clerk with green eyes and red hair that I could not resist letting know how stunning she looked in front of everyone.
It helps to get sent home early.
😎

I got to know a really good (and therefore wealthy) criminal defense attorney. He is actually a good guy, but VERY thorough. He wins a LOT more than he loses. He told me he doesn't like to have surveyors or engineers on juries because we are much more logical than emotional. He deals in working the juries emotions.
Andy

a decade or two back I served on a felony case, larceny. The young woman was clearly trying to game the system, easy conviction.
However, her defense atty was Excellent! She was very impressive presenting the case, asking the right questions, and pleading for her client.
In the hallway afterwards the Prosecuting atty and the Defending atty asked us jurors what and why. Typical I think.
I took that opportunity to ask for contact info... an 18 year old family member had just got out on bail a couple days before after being charged with something quite similar... I wanted him to avoid jail time, or minimize it anyway.

Peter Ehlert, post: 392518, member: 60 wrote: a decade or two back I served on a felony case, larceny. The young woman was clearly trying to game the system, easy conviction.
However, her defense atty was Excellent! She was very impressive presenting the case, asking the right questions, and pleading for her client.
In the hallway afterwards the Prosecuting atty and the Defending atty asked us jurors what and why. Typical I think.
I took that opportunity to ask for contact info... an 18 year old family member had just got out on bail a couple days before after being charged with something quite similar... I wanted him to avoid jail time, or minimize it anyway.

We had three defense attorneys. I know which one I would hire if I needed a criminal defense attorney.

Monte, post: 392478, member: 11913 wrote: ...after having been on the county ambulance for almost 20 years, I am privy to way to many personal secrets to be considered impartial to serve on a jury in such a small community.

My wife would have to disagree with you on that one, at least in our county.

We have been married 30 years. She has been on the local VFD/EMS for 32+ years. She was the daytime dispatcher and water billing clerk for 15 years, Municipal court judge for about 10 of those years. No extra pay, just part of working for a small town. She has been a mail carrier the last 11 years. She has testified twice in criminal trials where she picked up the victim by ambulance.

She has been on the Grand Jury once and on a Jury 4 times. I would almost guarantee that if she gets a summons, she will get picked.
One was a boundary dispute and I had done work for one of the families, just not this boundary.
One was a custody case and she was serving on the ESD board with the Childs Grandfather.
The other two were criminal cases.

James

Here, the preliminary questions include such things like whether we know any of the police officers, lawyers, defendants, etc who are involved in the case.

I can ALWAYS spot the guilty ones by just looking at their eyes.

Yep, East Texas has it's own way of doing things.... :beer: And of course I am saying that in good natured fun!

Sometime in the early nineties I was summoned to be a juror and picked for the case. It was a child molestation case. The state did a very poor job of presenting their case, probably because they just didn't have one. What the guy was accused of doing was NOT what one thinks of when hearing "molestation". It was pretty obvious that there were some spite issues between victim's family and defendant. He was acquitted. A forester served on the jury as well and we became good friends. You just never know.

As it happens, Ky state Penitentiary is in my county. There is also a prison farm here, used to be 2. The summer I got out of high school I worked a state job at the prison farm, supposed to be a junior agriculturalist (I assume that meant dealing with the actual farming operation). However, seeing as how they were short on guards, I ended up being the one to ride with the inmates from the farm about 10 miles to the pen with loads of vegetables or sides of meat ( they had a slaughterhouse at the farm and a refrigerated truck). I've been able to use that excuse a couple of times when called for jury duty because the docket usually has several inmate cases and they won't let anybody that's worked there on the jury.

Except several years ago 8 inmates escaped from the maximum security prison. They went several different directions, 3 of them killed a couple in Tennessee, a couple were captured nearby, all eventually got caught. Got called on the jury for the escapes and got off the first case after they individually interviewed each juror. It took 2 days to get a jury. The next guy up the judge just took the first 12 names drawn, and I got drawn. Pretty cut and dried. Charge was for escape, he was supposed to be in the prison and they found him outside the prison. Still had to go thru the process, and then one guy wasn't sure but finally came around. The kicker was it was his 3rd offense and meant a lot more jail time.

That reminds me of another one, early 70s.
Charge was escape.
Convict was on a fire crew in the hills near my home. He was absent, turned himself in a couple days later.
Prosecutor's case was short an sweet: Statute says if not inside, guilty of escape, and that was it.
Defendant showed a copy of the note he provided when he turned himself in: "I was in the woods, one of the others found a jug of (wine/beer) and we drank it. It must have had something else in it, I don't remember anything else before I was at my buddies place the next day. I wrote a letter and went to the police station and turned myself in." or something like that... he gave names and dates and addresses.
So, many hours later, hung jury. something like 8 guilty, 2 innocent, 2 undecided.
In the hall way the prosecutor asked all of us why. I said "did you check out his story? you said nothing about it" ... he said "he was outside! guilty!"

To me, it made no sense that he would try to escape, easy duty on fire crew, had only a month or two to go. Why expose himself to One Year for escape?
was being drugged up a valid excuse? I have no idea, it may have been a strict liability crime, but I doubt it.

JaRo, post: 392569, member: 292 wrote: My wife would have to disagree with you on that one, at least in our county.

We have been married 30 years. She has been on the local VFD/EMS for 32+ years. She was the daytime dispatcher and water billing clerk for 15 years, Municipal court judge for about 10 of those years. No extra pay, just part of working for a small town. She has been a mail carrier the last 11 years. She has testified twice in criminal trials where she picked up the victim by ambulance.

She has been on the Grand Jury once and on a Jury 4 times. I would almost guarantee that if she gets a summons, she will get picked.
One was a boundary dispute and I had done work for one of the families, just not this boundary.
One was a custody case and she was serving on the ESD board with the Childs Grandfather.
The other two were criminal cases.

James

Reminds me of another situation. Neighbor let me clear up a 15 acre basin at the end of our dead end road and then let me rent it for free. Had to clear a road past the dead end to get into it. The Saturday after the dozer left, it rained a couple inches. Neighbor called me early Sunday morning, said a guy had driven up in there and was stuck in the mud and needed a tractor to pull him out. When I got there, the guy was obviously on something. Kept asking if we had seen a "young lady" with him. None to be found. Pulled him out to the blacktop and told him I'd better not catch him up there again, and went back home. After a short while I heard his engine racing and saw him heading down the road at full throttle, IN REVERSE. He was swerving off each side, and the transmission finally blew up about the time I got the cops on the phone. He was about a 1/4 mile down the road, so I went down to see what the story was. He had torn out Drive trying to get out of the mud, then reverse trying to go home. Wanted me to give him a ride, but I told him I had already called one for him.

All that said, my wife ended up on the grand jury when they brought in his case for possession, DUI, reckless driving, and several other things. She was told it was fine she knew the details since it wasn't for the trial.