Jury Duty

[Pappy13]

You might want to rethink your approach to getting out of jury duty by making outrageous comments.  You could end up being charged with contempt of court or obstruction of justice.

According to this link you should try Jury Nullification instead.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/3328

[StL FinFan]

We are just joking around.  Well I am anyway.  I wouldn't really do that.

[Dave Gray]

I got excused (our whole group did) after I talked along the lines of nullification, not knowing that's what it was.  It was a drunk driving case and the prosecution was reminding the jury that it's still drunk driving if the drunk guy is in the car with the keys, but parked (not actually driving).  I told him that I didn't care, I would never find someone guilty of drunk driving if they weren't actually driving.

[Landshark]

I get called for jury duty quite often.  At least because I teach college, they allow me to defer it to a time during a school break. 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

It is pretty easy to avoid jury duty w/o going overboard.  In fact in a murder case where the death penalty is an option, simply saying that you oppose the death penalty and could never vote to impose it will get you excuse -- and is what the person in this article should have done, instead of lying. 

This person lied and lied about something verifiable.  There are lots of things you can lie about that are not verifiable.  Like you don't trust cops and think they all lie -- will get you excused from any criminal trial, and many civil ones as well.   The opposite will get you excused as well.  That you trust cops more than most people and would always take their word over someone elses -- works just as well.  Pick which ever one is closer to the truth and when the judge asks can you put your bias aside for this trial, say "no."

All you have to do is claim you have some sort of bias against one of the witnesses (or their class).  E.g. you think all doctors commit medical-mal and get away with it in a case about medical mal.  No one can dispute that.  But if you lie claiming that you once sued a doctor and got screwed over.  That is a verifiable fact that can be verified as false and get you in trouble. 

You might want to rethink your approach to getting out of jury duty by making outrageous comments.  You could end up being charged with contempt of court or obstruction of justice.

According to this link you should try Jury Nullification instead.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/3328

[BigDaddyFin]

Too late.  I'm on the Jury.  I can't write anything about the case but I can say I felt bad for the judge and the attorneys having to ask us the same questions over and over again and the defendant who really can't do anything but sit there must have been bored out of his mind.

I dozed off in the gallery like 4 times before I actually got called.

[Phishfan]

Please give us an update after the case is over.

[BigDaddyFin]

day 2, trial should be over pretty quick

[TonyB0D]

it's really easy to get out of jury duty.  i was the plaintiff in a jury trial and I went through the whole process of selecting the jury - it took over a day!!  Some of the things the people said to get out were just genius - you usually just have to imply you have some hardcore religious beliefs or whatever.   All jurors are given a paper pre-test so answering those whackily is an easy way to get your paper tossed.

[BigDaddyFin]

^^^ Not gonna lie, Tony but I did hear some pretty hysterical things to get out of jury duty. 

So it was a crack dealer trial.  We couldn't nail him on intent to distribute but we got him on possession. 

The essence of the case was the police busted into a known drug and prostitution house which is about 500 yards from my place (those of you who wonder why I carry a gun, now you know).  They executed the search warrant and really found nothing except one guy with ten dime bags of crack on him. 

To me it seemed like a no brainer.  You don't carry ten bags of crack for "personal use."  But I was outvoted during deliberation.  So we got him on possession with a year in jail instead. 

what I found out later was that crackheads often go through that much rock in two or three days so even though I stand by my initial feeling, I still feel like justice was done.

Overall a very positive experience.  The prosecutor had a difficult job because you can't just draw a bubble over someone's head and go oh look he wants to distribute it.  But his defense attorney left some questions in my mind.

I understand he tried to raise as much doubt as he could and I understand why the defendant didn't take the stand.  It's their right not to.  But the defense kept arguing personal use.  Where was the pipe/lighter?  None was ever found.  Did the defendant enter a rehab program while in jail?  Seems to me if you're going through that much coke, you'd be dead within a few years unless you went into rehab and I don't know anybody who smokes who doesn't leave the house without their "paraphernelia" even if it is just a lighter and a pack of marlboros.

At the end after the trial the judge talked to us about what we thought and how we came to the verdict we did.  It was pretty cool to hear all the testimony and what the judge had to say afterwards.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

To me it seemed like a no brainer.  You don't carry ten bags of crack for "personal use."  But I was outvoted during deliberation.  So we got him on possession with a year in jail instead. 

Doesn't jury decisions need to be unanimous?  Did you change your vote or did you return guilty on possession and hung on distribution? 

[BigDaddyFin]

we were hung on the distribution charge.  We were unanimous on the possession.