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Monday Jury Duty - Bye Trippy. Thanks for coming! We did not choose you.

Trippy Trekker

Trippy Trekker

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42 years as a registered voter and I don't think I have ever ducked jury duty. Maybe 20 years passed between my last two notices. In light of my travel schedule, I could have bowed out this past Monday. I went out of my way to report to duty. We who drove ourselves must park in designated parking areas and prominently display a perforated potion of the notice on our dashboard. 300+ people reported. We must navigate a metal detector, take an escalator to the 2nd floor, then line up in a single queue. As we enter the large room, several clerks behind a counter greet us. We hand in our filled form and take a jury sticker to place on our clothing. It took roughly 30 minutes to process the line of jurors, then another hour plus to hear instructions and watch a video. A nice old man spent 20 minutes seeking to recruit volunteers to the Guardian Ad Litem program. Thereafter, the same clerk who gave instructions dismissed about 40 of us for an early two hour lunch. I left for lunch with that first group. The clerk broke the others into groups of about 40 jurors each. A bailiff directed each group of 40 jurors to the elevators, then outside a designated courtroom. My group's bailiff called out names to line us up in a presorted order. Something caused a 30 minute delay before we went in the courtroom. The Circuit Court judge greeted us and introduced her staff, the assistant state attorney, the defendant's attorney and the defendant... a 20 year old light skinned 6'3" black kid with shoulder length dreads.. We heard the charge - unarmed burglary in an occupied dwelling. We heard the objective: to sit an unbiased panel of six jurors plus one alternate for a trial to begin the next morning, expected to last one day. The assistant state attorney went first with questions. The voir dire process began in earnest. By the time the defense attorney asked her questions, less than half the original 40 remained in contention. I had hopes of making it onto the jury panel. The judge thanked us for our service and announced she had one final question: The defendant had co-counsel coming in the next day to assist. Did any of us know this attorney? One hand goes up... mine. I know Joe. He's a friend. We've played in the same basketball league. Different day ... same story... "Bye Trippy. Thanks for coming! We did not choose you."
 
Umm...ok....is there something that you wished to talk about here?
 
Kal'Stang said:
Umm...ok....is there something that you wished to talk about here?
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Come on, that was pretty interesting....I have never done that but it almost felt like I was there!

+1
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Come on, that was pretty interesting....I have never done that but it almost felt like I was there!

+1
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I'm not saying anything is wrong with what is posted. Except that if it has no point other than to tell what happened in a facebook/twitter/blog style post then this is not the correct location for this thread. If he doesn't respond with a point for this thread then I will have to move it to an off-topic section of the forum.
 
I could tell this didn't take place in California, Land o Loony Liberals. Unarmed burglary of an occupied dwelling is usually automatic probation here.
 
Kal'Stang said:
I'm not saying anything is wrong with what is posted. Except that if it has no point other than to tell what happened in a facebook/twitter/blog style post then this is not the correct location for this thread. If he doesn't respond with a point for this thread then I will have to move it to an off-topic section of the forum.
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Completely disagree. Not only did I find it interesting... much better than the usual partisan crap-bitch-fests that are so common lately... it is precisely in the correct forum. If jury duty isn't "law & order" then I don't know what is.
 
I had it last Thursday, got released by noon. I brought my laptop and plugged in and did work...:(
 
Trippy Trekker said:
42 years as a registered voter and I don't think I have ever ducked jury duty. Maybe 20 years passed between my last two notices. In light of my travel schedule, I could have bowed out this past Monday. I went out of my way to report to duty. We who drove ourselves must park in designated parking areas and prominently display a perforated potion of the notice on our dashboard. 300+ people reported. We must navigate a metal detector, take an escalator to the 2nd floor, then line up in a single queue. As we enter the large room, several clerks behind a counter greet us. We hand in our filled form and take a jury sticker to place on our clothing. It took roughly 30 minutes to process the line of jurors, then another hour plus to hear instructions and watch a video. A nice old man spent 20 minutes seeking to recruit volunteers to the Guardian Ad Litem program. Thereafter, the same clerk who gave instructions dismissed about 40 of us for an early two hour lunch. I left for lunch with that first group. The clerk broke the others into groups of about 40 jurors each. A bailiff directed each group of 40 jurors to the elevators, then outside a designated courtroom. My group's bailiff called out names to line us up in a presorted order. Something caused a 30 minute delay before we went in the courtroom. The Circuit Court judge greeted us and introduced her staff, the assistant state attorney, the defendant's attorney and the defendant... a 20 year old light skinned 6'3" black kid with shoulder length dreads.. We heard the charge - unarmed burglary in an occupied dwelling. We heard the objective: to sit an unbiased panel of six jurors plus one alternate for a trial to begin the next morning, expected to last one day. The assistant state attorney went first with questions. The voir dire process began in earnest. By the time the defense attorney asked her questions, less than half the original 40 remained in contention. I had hopes of making it onto the jury panel. The judge thanked us for our service and announced she had one final question: The defendant had co-counsel coming in the next day to assist. Did any of us know this attorney? One hand goes up... mine. I know Joe. He's a friend. We've played in the same basketball league. Different day ... same story... "Bye Trippy. Thanks for coming! We did not choose you."
Click to expand...

Jury duty is one of the primary obligations of citizenship. The jury is the conscience of the community.

Thank you for your time and service. :)
 
Kal'Stang said:
Umm...ok....is there something that you wished to talk about here?
Click to expand...

Yes 'Stang, I wanted to talk about my jury duty experience. Where I live.... far far away from Idaho... if we fail to perform jury duty, a judge can hold us in contempt of court or fine us. IMO, jury duty remains part and parcel to LAW AND ORDER... and in the specific case referenced, the young man faced a burglary charge. Law Enforcement types dominated the witness list. I thought, just maybe, others might share their jury experiences. A woman in the courtroom next to me had at least eight prior jury notices and made it onto jury panels five times. I found that interesting. Another woman told me how much different the jury process worked in Ohio. Many a trial lawyer fine tune their skills during voir dire, essentially increasing their odds at prevailing at trial. Please note, I have less than 150 posts... perhaps still very much in the green and noob stage. Thank you for your criticism. Please use your Moderator Power judiciously. Happy Holidays! God bless you and those you love!
 
I have only been summoned twice. Both times I wound up on the jury.
 
d0gbreath said:
I have only been summoned twice. Both times I wound up on the jury.
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Been summoned three time, never ended up on a jury. The last time, the defendent was the son of one my best friends from High School. They had trimmed the crowd down to the 24 jurors (12 and 12 alternates) and there were only two of us left who hadn't been called up for voir dire when they finally concluded. I was sitting there thinking that if they called me up for voir dire, that I'd be get booted in a hot second as soon as they asked if I could be unbiased.
 
faithful_servant said:
Been summoned three time, never ended up on a jury. The last time, the defendent was the son of one my best friends from High School. They had trimmed the crowd down to the 24 jurors (12 and 12 alternates) and there were only two of us left who hadn't been called up for voir dire when they finally concluded. I was sitting there thinking that if they called me up for voir dire, that I'd be get booted in a hot second as soon as they asked if I could be unbiased.
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You definitely would have been let go on that one.
 
I get called once in a while, never ever get put on a jury, which is fine by me. I'm always excused and always will be. Lawyers don't want people who aren't stupid and gullible on juries.
 
Moderator's Warning:
Based on what is said here I have moved this to the Off-Topic Discussion section of the forums. There is no political point being made in this thread which is what the Law and Order section of the forums is for. Political discourse revolving around Law and Order. Since this is more of a "share your experience" type of thread its more appropriate to put it in the off-topic section. I realize that Jury Duty is a law and order type discussion but in this case its not politically linked. We at DP try and separate non-political discourse from that of political discourse in order to better guide discussion down the appropriate path and make it easier for those that want to talk politically (or non-politically) to find what they are looking for.

Trippy Trekker said:
Yes 'Stang, I wanted to talk about my jury duty experience. Where I live.... far far away from Idaho... if we fail to perform jury duty, a judge can hold us in contempt of court or fine us. IMO, jury duty remains part and parcel to LAW AND ORDER... and in the specific case referenced, the young man faced a burglary charge. Law Enforcement types dominated the witness list. I thought, just maybe, others might share their jury experiences. A woman in the courtroom next to me had at least eight prior jury notices and made it onto jury panels five times. I found that interesting. Another woman told me how much different the jury process worked in Ohio. Many a trial lawyer fine tune their skills during voir dire, essentially increasing their odds at prevailing at trial. Please note, I have less than 150 posts... perhaps still very much in the green and noob stage. Thank you for your criticism. Please use your Moderator Power judiciously. Happy Holidays! God bless you and those you love!
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it Trippy, you did fine for someone new to DP. Its not always easy to learn where to place what on any forum and there are always bound to be bumps along the way. ;)
 
Kal'Stang said:
Moderator's Warning:
Based on what is said here I have moved this to the Off-Topic Discussion section of the forums. There is no political point being made in this thread which is what the Law and Order section of the forums is for. Political discourse revolving around Law and Order. Since this is more of a "share your experience" type of thread its more appropriate to put it in the off-topic section. I realize that Jury Duty is a law and order type discussion but in this case its not politically linked. We at DP try and separate non-political discourse from that of political discourse in order to better guide discussion down the appropriate path and make it easier for those that want to talk politically (or non-politically) to find what they are looking for.



Don't worry about it Trippy, you did fine for someone new to DP. Its not always easy to learn where to place what on any forum and there are always bound to be bumps along the way. ;)
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All grins Kal... and a nod to your ample DP tenure (8 years, 200 times as many posts as me). DP has quickly become one of my favorite forums. I gave up my FB account years ago. I have only started a few threads. Thanks for steering me in the right direction!
 
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