Ever been on jury duty?

[Jon P. Inghram]

A while back I got called for jury duty and had the pleasure of discovering the festering bedsore that is the jury selection process.

I was a potental juror for two cases, one criminal and the other civil. I didn't get on the criminal which was disappointing since the outcome was laughably obvious just from the absurd questions the defense lawyer asked us (and afterwards it became clear the inital reaction was correct: we saw some people from that jury the next day and they had already decided.) As for the civil case, you know it's gonna be a pain the butt when the plaintiff's attorney spends most of their time asking if people have a problem with him because he works for a notorious ambulence chaser, which became rather humorous when one of the potential jurors turns out to be a police officer and that they most assuredly did have a problem with anyone working for that particular law firm. It got to the point that the lawyers started objecting to the others questions to the potental jurors! I got lucky and wasn't picked for that case either, and was dismissed the next day.

The real problem I have with the process is that they pick a group of "random" people and essentally force them to answer whatever questions the attorneys think they can get by with to weed out people they think won't vote their way, and they do it with all the other jurors listening and watching which is a pretty significant invasion of privacy IMHO.

[UtwigMU]

We have judge senate system here (not anglosaxon law), jurors are only on the lowest level cases and they are pensioneers who sleep most of the time on cases, so my lawyer friends tell me.

I did testify once (my friend was robbed) though.

[Dilitante1]

if you dont want to sit on the jury, look aggravated, and shout kill them all

[KvHagedorn]

During the preliminary questioning the prosecutor was such an ass hole and grilled me rudely with so many ridiuclous hypotheticals that I stood up and told the judge I couldn't render a fair judgement because I couldn't stand the guy. I was excused.

[Gurm]

Yeah, I've been tempted to use my grandfather's jury recusal tactic.

"Sir, is there any reason you can think of that you couldn't render a fair and partial verdict?"

"No, your honor. Unless there were niggers involved. 'Cuz I hates them niggers. Or Jews. Or Spics... etc. etc."

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The last trial for which I was a juror was also laughable. It was a criminal matter, and the defense's only tactic (this was right after the OJ trial) was to try to make it a racial matter - as though the DA had it out for the defendant because he was black. Of course, the injured party (it was a home invasion case) was also black - as were the arresting officers and half the jury. Oops! Then the guy shows up for court wearing the EXACT outfit that he was wearing on the night of the crime, down to the funky sunglasses and knit cap that the witnesses described. Talk about your pathetic defense lawyers.

[xortam]

You can involve yourself in the process or just sit back and b*tch about the jurys' findings. Guess where most peoples decision's reside?!

[Jammrock]

Yeah, I've been tempted to use my grandfather's jury recusal tactic.

"Sir, is there any reason you can think of that you couldn't render a fair and partial verdict?"

"No, your honor. Unless there were niggers involved. 'Cuz I hates them niggers. Or Jews. Or Spics... etc. etc."

"No, sir. I can pick out a guilty person just like that *snap*"