Civic Duty
by Lee
Just a heads-up that blogging will probably be light tomorrow. I have to report for jury duty at 8:30 in the morning. Ugh! I’ll have my laptop with me, but I have no idea if they’ll have WiFi at the courthouse. (I doubt it, but you never know.) So wish me luck.
Consider this an open post. See you tomorrow sometime.
Update: Well, I’m home on lunch break. (I only live 10 minutes from the courthouse.) We’re still in the voir dire stage, so they haven’t seated a jury yet. Interestingly, though, today jury selection begins on Phil Specter’s murder trial. They said that they had “a big case” which was going to take an estimated minimum 17 days. They then listed off a bunch of reasons which would excuse jurors, such as financial hardship. Unfortunately my company doesn’t pay for extended jury duty, so I had to excuse myself. But I was actually called on the list for Phil Specter. Those who excused themselves from Specter were assigned to another case, so I’m sitting waiting to see if I end up seated on this case, which is about as mundane a case as you can get. Definitely not a celebrity murder trial.
More later today.
Comments
Consider yourself lucky. I once had to do Jury Duty in motherfuckin’ Compton. Seriously. I guess they have some rule where they can make you serve JD anywhere in a 25-mile radius from where you live, and Compton just squeaked in under the wire.
Luckily, I got dismissed on the first day.
But still...Compton!
I can see Lee’s ... er ... forthright nature going down a treat with the lawyers. Reminds me of the Becker episode where he ends up spending days waiting to be on a jury because he can’t shut up :)
Hmmm, jury duty I remember being summoned for that, but I was secretly taken off the list by the judge that swore my group in. Something about me showing up in my security company uniform, I got off work a half hour before I had to show up for JD. It would have been great if it was one of my arrests I was summoned for.
Evan
Speaking of civic duty, Lee. I’m back in uniform after a decade ( or so) of civilian life. I just enlisted in my State Guard, the reserves of our National Guard. The State Guard fills in for the National Guard in the event they are deployed out of the country (as mine is right now) We drill one weekend a month and two three-day FTX’s a year. It’s a far cry from the crazy “state militia’s” of 20 years ago. I even got sworn in at my old grade.
Y’all should check out your own state’s guard. It’s a great way to serve, and you can’t be called for duty out of state. You work at directly for the Governor, and not the President. Best of all, there are no physical restrictions, so even a disabled veteran like me can devote some time serving his fellow citizens.
I used to get summoned for jury duty so often I nearly had my own parking space downtown. It is boring as all hell just waiting around. Bring a book.
Why is the dipsarity so high for JD summoning, SO? I have been called like 15 times in the last 10 years, while my wife has only been called once. I have been on 2 juries, so lots of fruitless trips. The best one was in Federal court where a 3-murder lifer was suing the guards for violating his civil rights. REALLY wierd sitting like 8 feet away from a convicted triple-murderer and telling him (through the judge) that the defendants were not guilty!
Luck of the draw - literally. I’ve also had to serve on county and city jury pools.
What they do is just have a computer run names out of the voter list. Statistically, some people are going to get drawn a lot more than others for any given period of time, but it all balances out for the population as a whole entity. Sort of like watching the roulette wheel and noticing that the same number has come up three or more times out of the last 100 spins - your particular sample size is just too small to see the big picture.
Consider yourself lucky. I once had to do Jury Duty in motherfuckin’ Compton. Seriously. I guess they have some rule where they can make you serve JD anywhere in a 25-mile radius from where you live, and Compton just squeaked in under the wire.
They pulled that shit in the school systems too. The cultural communities created school systems that were almost hemogenous in the LA County area. The school system thought it would be a brilliant idea to just move kids around from school to school. Brilliant.
I’ve been to jury duty a few times. The second they learn that I have a scientific background, I’m outta there.
What they do is just have a computer run names out of the voter list.
I can hear the argument now, if they ever try an illegal alien - “It wasn’t a jury of his “peers"."
The second they learn that I have a scientific background, I’m outta there.
Lawyers hate engineers and love liberal arts ‘tards because they can’t appeal to scientists on an emotional level. They want facts and proven data and won’t be led around by the nose. They also put things together on their own and see the gaping holes in stories. Far better to get some art history loser in there.
They also dismiss crime victims and people wearing NRA T-shirts.
The advantages of being a flatfoot, never getting jury duty. I loaned a buddy of mine my “I’d rather be tried by 12 then carried by 6” tee shirt for his jury appearance, he was home by 10.
Lawyers hate engineers and love liberal arts ‘tards because they can’t appeal to scientists on an emotional level. They want facts and proven data and won’t be led around by the nose. They also put things together on their own and see the gaping holes in stories. Far better to get some art history loser in there.
That is also why they don’t like other lawyers on their juries. Some states actually eliminate lawyers from being considered for jury duty. Some people see that as a special privilege, but really it just saves the court time, as no decent attorney would let another attorney on his jury - just saves them from having to go through the motion of using the peremptory challenge.
Jury duty is so fucking insulting. I can’t stand the way they make you sit at a location, tell you what to think, where to go, what not to say, who to talk to. Then the judge has a bunch of secret conversations. It’s just ridiculous.
The auto accident lawsuit trial I sat on was the biggest waste of time imaginable. We had a decision and everyone shows up in court. The judge says, “okay let’s break for lunch and read the decision after lunch”. Fuck that, we were done! I nearly lost it at that point.
Just throw the notice away unless it is sent through certified mail.
I get called I end up sitting there the whole day only t0 be dismissed at 3:30 or 4pm.
“Excuse me. I sat here all day proudly doing my civic duty and the least you can do is let me hang someone!”
I got called once in San Francisco. I had just started a new job the day before the duty started and I had about $15 to last me two weeks until my first paycheck. The judge asked anyone who had some physical limitation or other hardship that would prevent them from serving to approach the bench and explain. I did and told him that I wouldn’t be getting paid while on jury duty on top of already not having any money. He made a point to shout his response that everyone else was in the same situation. Fucking asshole. It was a drunk-driving case so I volunteered my suddenly contrived belief that drunk-driving should not be illegal. See ya!
Damn, Lee. I might have gone for the book deal case.
Ditto.
But then, it’s going to be pretty straitforward as Specter is as guilty as all hell....
But then, it’s going to be pretty straitforward as Specter is as guilty as all hell....
just describing that nutcase in court and a few good cameraphone photos should be enough for a best seller. And yes, he is guilty as fuck, and there’s no way around it.
I got on a jury for a murder trial once.. wasn’t as big as that, but it was large compared to the typical jury selection process.
This was back in 2000. They mentioned a large trial, said it might take 2 full weeks (my employer pays 10 work days, so that nuked my possible out). They know that too, so you can’t lie… very recognizable local company.
They called a big list of names that I wasn’t on, so I thought I missed it (I actually wasn’t really against being on the trial, I prefer to actually get a trial versus wasting a day and not actually doing anything). Turns out that was the list of the ones not picked. The pool was about 150. We got a huge questionnaire to fill out. After that, which took a couple hours, the judge explained the process for people who wanted to be excused, and since the ‘1 day, 1 trial’ rules had recently been enacted in CA, he jokingly mentioned that people could come up with the slip to his office after lunch and he’d start denying them. It’s much harder to get out of duty with the new rules, but you also don’t have to come back several times without getting picked.
Anyway.. I made it to the court room, was picked for about number 37 or so.. ended up dropping into slot 9 (they had a lot of freebies to pass on jury members).
Case lasted 3 weeks, but not straight through.. was only Mon-Thur and with a few other days off too.
I actually found the whole process very interesting and thought we did a very fair job. Only real complaint I had was how little time is actually put into the trial.. so many breaks and stuff that out of 8 hour days, maybe 1/2 is actual trial time… makes trials take way longer. That, and lawyers repeat the same questions way too damn much, wasting even more time.
After we came to a verdict, we were given the opportunity to sit in the court again without any audience, and just the lawyers to ask/answer questions. That was really interesting. We could ask details about the process, they asked what we did or didn’t like, or did or didn’t believe… why we voted like we did, etc. Only bad thing there was one of the two defense attorneys (there were 2 defendants) wouldn’t even look at us or talk to us… think he was a sore loser.
I’d have no problem doing it again if I had to. Actually, I think I’ll be up in another month or two.. it’s right about this time of year I tend to get it, and they never forget those of us that work here, because they know we can all serve.
How much lying was done by the witnesses? Every time I’ve watched any legal proceedings for nearly anything I’ve always been amazed at the amount of bald-faced lying everyone does. And they aren’t even any good at it, which is really insulting to everyone involved.
Judges tend to have pretty bad attitudes, and I don’t blame them.
Somewhat related, but it looks like Nifong is in deep doodoo with the sNorth Carolina state bar.
No wonder so many lawyers go into politics. How many other professions allow you to keep lying for a living?
Fucking firefox.... Ate my POST again!,…
SO… assuming you were asking me (or in general).. a Hell of a lot on the defense side.
One thing we noticed was the differences in details from un-biased eye-witnesses, which seems normal. Some people brought that up as a possible problem with the whole thing, then we cleared that up. We just asked everyone to write down what the lawyers were wearing that day (details) and there were so many discrepancies it made people realize how people’s memories differ and how the little details are often seen differently from different places. I would be far more suspicious of coaching if too many witnesses had identical details.
But the defensive witnesses were horrible. They claimed things like the shooter didn’t own a specific T Shirt, when there had already been introduced into evidence a picture of him in the shirt. The mother of the driver (shooter and driver were both on trial, was a gang shooting) claimed she had no idea he was in a gang.. despite spending several years in juvie already and all the letters he had in gang script, which she admitted having seen. Claims that the shooter had left the gang months before the incident and didn’t even hang around with them, when there was a picture in evidence of him at a BBQ with several of the members and things in th picture clearly indicated it was long after his claimed leaving the gang. The driver’s mother trying to claim she had the car (it was her car) at the time of the shooting and using a sign-in sheet from some pyramid scheme type thing she’d supposedly been at (one of those things like the vitamin spray companies) and showing a sign-in sheet that was in no way official, her name was, shockingly, last.. and was in a completely different ink then the rest (laughable). I also loved the claims by the shooter’s mother and a priest that he had been going to church every week for months before the shooting (which was even in doubt) as though that somehow meant he could never have done it anyway. Just amazing really.
Some of the prosecutions’ witnesses seemed to be lying somewhat too. These were mainly the members of the victims gang (including his brother at one point) that were helping with the time-line. Though it seemed more like they were adding things to give the shooter more reason to do what he did, or make it entirely one-sided vs retaliation for an earlier non-violent encounter, then anything else. Even with those bits aside, the rest of the testimony and evidence was damning enough.
Our judge was actually not too bad. Wasn’t an old grouch.. would actually joke a little bit here and there.
Lawyers hate engineers and love liberal arts ‘tards because they can’t appeal to scientists on an emotional level.
I thought I might get out of the trial I did because I’m titled an engineer and am a computer geek. No such luck.
Though the prosecution might’ve preferred that since a lot of the case was based on testimony vs hard evidence and they needed people that could put the whole picture together.
My jury had people I’d normally think they’d avoid.. a couple business owners and an engineering student.
Fucking firefox.... Ate my POST again!,…
I’ve learned to highlight the textarea before pushing Submit or Preview.. that way if it happens, I just middle-click to paste it back (linux box).
Harley..
Or install mozex and set an external editor for textareas. I have an xterm popup with vim.. when you save, also save another copy to read back in if it vanishes on post.
When I served on a jury for 3 weeks, I had a part-time job and a full-time one. By a quirk in their policy (now fixed thanks to me), I got full-time pay from both jobs for the whole 3 weeks. I wanted to ask the judge to re-assign me to a complex, 2-year trial. (I would have felt like a French union worker, but still)
Next entry: Juror #6
Previous entry: Run Away from Israel
Who's Logged In
Total Members: 8588
Total Logged in members: 1
Total guests: 54
Total anonymous users: 0
Hal_10000,
Capitalism
Search
Search this site with Google
Search will take you to Google.com, which will display results from Right-Thinking and link you back here. Search using pMachineRecent Comments
A National Tantrum
(16 total, Last @ 12:39)
AlexinCT: It so happens I was informed last week that my employer’s insurace rates were increased by 16%. Mine is only going up by 12%. I am not counting the extra taxes. And my doctor told me he is retiring early and moving to New Zealand, because he isn't ready to…
A National Tantrum
(16 total, Last @ 12:38)
AlexinCT: Truly, have dumber words been posted here? By muirgeo1? He is constantly trying to up the ante and set a new record for stupid. Once you understand his superiority complex comes from the mistaken belief that he is a better person than all of us, because he thinks he has…
Paper and Fire
(5 total, Last @ 10:37)
Seattle Outcast: Yeah, he has the freedom to do it. But why did he want to be such an asshole? Same reason as always - because they can. Ditto for the "Ground Zero Mosque" - it's a big, fat FU to NYC...
Vancouver--The Detroit of Canada!
(1 total, Last @ 10:34)
Seattle Outcast: Historically, hosting the Olympics has always been a massive money loser. Seattle even went so far as to pass a law banning the city from doing so, and I know other places have done similar things to prevent the city council from engaging in such foolish thinking.
Paper and Fire
(5 total, Last @ 07:06)
Orpheus: Interestingly enough, he got a lot of death threats from that.
Last 30 Comments
Hang ‘em high! :-)
In the meantime, I am so looking forward to this movie.