Jury Duty Anyone?

[Diogenes Of Pumpkintown]

I agree that fortunately most people seem to rise to the occasion in jury duty. As was said above, it is easy to watch TV and make snap judgements or comments when you have no responsibility. It is a very different situation when you actually have the responsiblity.

I have never sat on a jury and probably never will (unfortunate, since I would like the experience of that perspective) but I deal with juries frequently from the perspective of someone trying to persuade them. It is extremely interesting for me to see feedback of this sort.

The Jury system gets a lot of criticism from time to time, but on the whole I think it works. It is very difficult to get 12 randomly chosen people to agree on anything. If they can all agree on a unanimous verdict, it is likely to be the right result.

Jurors have a remarkable degree of power -- being on a jury can give a private citizen a much greater influence in government than a single vote among millions during elections.

One of the greatest things about our jury system is the power of nullification -- how a jury can simply to refuse to follow the law in a criminal case and return a verdict of not guilty regardless of the evidence. This has the potential to act as an extremely important check on the power of arbitrary government.

[Redblueflare]

No one in my family have told me that they've been on jury duty, and I haven't been either. I can't say I want to. What if I was wrong and proclaimed someone guilty when they were really innocent? The jury system may work, but there's always a small chance that you're putting an innocent person in jail, or letting a cold blooded killer walk free. I really don't want to deal with it.

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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I just don't have to listen.

[Larry_OHF]

Ok...Maybe this is going a bit off of the original topic, but I would like to call all of you into the position of jurers, and tell me whether or not my wife should be sued in the upcoming October court for rear-ending a guy. Ready?
On Feb. 2000, my wife was driving home on 52 South. In front of her was a city Pickup truck, with a man engaged in conversation on his cell phone. He takes the exit ramp, and my wife follows. He suddenly comes to a dead stop on the ramp, and my wife hits the brakes, but still hits his car. Another person hits my wife's car from the back. The guy in front that stopped finished his converstaion on the phone, and got out of the car. My wife noted that he was rubbing his neck. The police came and took notes of the situation. It was noted that no damage besides a paint scratch had occured on his car. When the ambulance arrived, nobody asked for medical help.
The man filed neck injuries with the insurance, and claimed to be going to a doctor for treatment. We had inside sources tell us that he never was diagnosed with any problems at that time.
A year later, the same man was tired of waiting for a desision, so he decided to sue my wife, personally. A lawyer was hired. Questions were asked of the prsecuting man like "Have you ever been injured, prior to this accident." He answered "No." It has been discovered by my wife's attorney that he had recieved back injuries 5 years ago in the military, and that he has been diagnosed previous to the accident, with 10% disability in his back. This information has not been made known to the prosection. My wife's attorney is saving it for the trial. We also have the third guy involved in the accident as a surprise witness in our behalf. Now tell me...is my wife guilty or innocent?

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Loyal guardian of the OHF
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[This message has been edited by Larry_OHF (edited 08-22-2001).]

[Diogenes Of Pumpkintown]

I assume you are referring to a civil case for personal injury damages, on the basis of a claim of negligent driving by your wife.

The terms "guilty" or "not guilty" do not apply in this type of case. Those are possible verdicts only in criminal cases, where the question is whether the defendant violated a criminal law.

What the jury will be called upon to decide is 1) was your wife driving negligently by following too close to the vehicle to avoid an accident if it stopped suddenly (the answer is likely yes) 2) did this cause an injury to the plaintiff 3) if so, how great an injury 4) what amount of monetary award will fairly compensate the plaintiff for his medical bills, pain and suffering, etc.

To decide these questions, obviously we need to be on the jury and hear all the evidence, from all parties concerned, not simply one side's version.

[Cloudbringer]

Hey Wendy, great topic!

Yes, I've done the jury summons thing! Being a State Employee, I'm on an easily identifiable roster for the pool. They've even called me at work to verify my address and phone number for future use!

Let's see, the first time I was called for jury duty was easily 10 or so years ago. I sat around in a huge room full of potential jurors all day and listened to middle aged ladies complain about how they wouldn't do a rape trial (the criminal case before the court that day was a violent assault and rape) and to others complaining that civil cases were worse than criminal as far as the juror was concerned but that Grand Jury duty was the worst as far as time consumed. I had no idea who was right and who was wrong, I was just there to do my duty as a citizen. Ended up going home at the end of the day and calling in the rest of the week. Didn't need to go back in, the case load must have been low or the available pool very large!

Two yrs later I got called and this time I was chosen as an alternate in a civil case. A woman was suing the bus line (city) for an injury. I sat through the calling of numbers, the defense attorney's questioning us all and the prosecutor's begining to question us all. I was the second alternate (only 8 of us needed for the civil case- 6 jurors and 2 alternates) so I really was feeling mighty superfluous but paid attention anyway. One man was excused because he was a carpenter and had a wife and three kids who depended on his income. Being self-employed, he couldn't afford 4+ days of no pay. Another woman was excused because she'd had an injury suit at one time and said she'd be biased. New jurors were called up to fill those slots (alternates remain alternates) and then we broke for lunch. After lunch, we were informed that we were dismissed (and had credit for SERVING on a jury- meant I could not be called again for at least 2 yrs) by the judge. Seems the transit authority and the complainant reached a settlement while we were out.

I was very impressed with the caliber of person who was on that jury, just from listening to their answers to the lawyers, you could tell the majority were there because the wanted to do the right thing.

I have received several 'juror selection' forms to verify my status and county etc for the jury selection rosters since then. In fact, just sent one in last week! Also got called to be 'on call' again but never summoned to the courthouse.

There you have it, my civic duty history. Well, insofar as jury service is concerned!

Cloudy

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