Jury Duty Anyone?

[everprincess]

I am not sure if each county is different or what (since we are both in NC) but I was called up this past Nov 1st...
It lasts for a week UNLESS you get put on a jury and the jury pool that I was in was about 75 people. We had to watch a video that was specific to our state while in this court room.
The judge told us what to expect...Then they started drawing names...LITERALY the names get put on a piece of paper and put into a bowl and the judge's first hand pulls a name and you go up and sit in the jury box. I got called up for the first jury (I was actually the very first person-YAY!). Then the others were dismissed for the day.
First let me say it is a LONG process...the attorneys ask general questions and then if you raise your hand then they question you a bit more.
We took breaks every 60 minutes I am not kidding! It was a lengthy process. The judge wants to make sure that everyone is comfortable and can go to the bathroom when needed....

What was my case? Drugs...that is what they all were for that week, and apparently what a lot of them are... A lot of them get pleaded out last minute (that happened to the second and third cases slatted to appear....

We were supposed to be dismissed after the first case but the judge explained that becasue there were so many cases that were slatted to appear we needed to stick around...WE WERE NOT HAPPY! but then 2 cases were pleaded out in a matter of 2 hours and he let us on the first jury go home.. The issue was that they weren't sure they were going to have enough people to pick from in the jury pool for all the cases slated for that week.
BUT after they picked the second jury and 3 of the people were on that jury from the first jury the prosecutor was so ticked that we found the guy not guilty that he didn't want any of us on any of his other cases...

For the record we all felt the guy did it but that they didn't prove the case...I honestly wanted to say he did it but after they brought up the fact that there were no phone records and that kind of stuff I kinda agreed....BUT then the judge came in afterwards and told us that what we see on TV isn't necessarily how they do things in real life especially when it is a smaller county with a much smaller budget....

Oh and I live in a pretty rural county, nothing going on here apparently except drug dealers...I live on the far east side, where there is the highest number of nicer houses...I was kinda unnerved to find out that this drug deal supposedly happened at the McDonalds my kid works at, and the Optimist club my kids played baseball and basketball at...Though all this happened in 2009 so that tells you how long this took to get to court...it was Nov 2011 when I served.

We got paid $16 A DAY...and you have to claim it on your taxes!

This is exactly the way it worked when I served except I wasn't on the jury that found that guy not guilty of murder. The DA was very mad (it was in the paper). This case was the same way-crime happened back in 2008 I believe.

And yes I had to file my $52.00 bucks on my taxes as income.

[judy27]

OK, so some say I am crazy, AND I am certainly not the norm- I LOVE jury duty!!!! I find it truly fascinating!!!! I have had jury duty several times, but never picked to be on an actual jury. OK, I have been up in the box, but they never kept me too long... wonder why????

The last time I did jury duty was about 8 years ago. It was the "Grand Jury". This was SO interesting. The "Grand Jury" is what people go to before an actual trial. The Grand Jury listens to all the facts of the case and as a group decides whether the case should go to trial. We heard 8 - 10 cases per day. I had to go every Wednesday for three months!!! We heard everything from, drug cases, murder, rape - you name it.

I can't wait for them to call me again!!!! I will request Grand Jury again!!!!

[clippyclippy]

Well it's over!
I reported Monday morning along with 300+ others. We were called in groups of ~ 36 others to different trial rooms. I was then one of 12 picked to sit on the jury.

Then between the prosecutor and the defending lawyer, they managed to kick off 18 people, and re-select from the remaining pool. That process lasted until after lunch the second day!! I was one of 2 original picked that never raised a concern with either side, which surprised me.

The defendant was on trial for breaking and entering, assault on a female, and 2nd degree kidnapping. We found him guilty on all 3 counts. Once we read the verdict, the judge informed us that we were not finished. Now we would enter the 2nd phase, because the man was now considered a repeat offender (NC's 3 strike rule) and we would have to hear arguments on that.

Thankfully that didn't happen, because he entered a plea.

During the trial, we were not aware of his prior history. For all we knew (because of his lying testimony), he had never done anything like this.
Well, we found out that he had 9 felonies on his record and had served 20 years of a 44 year sentence already!

So now he's back in for another 12 years.

It was all very fascinating! I believe in this case, our justice system worked very well. The jury I served with was a very thoughtful, reasonable group of people and I appreciated how the selection process made it a very fair and balanced jury. People from all walks of life with different opinions about things, but able to come to agreement on the law and evidence.

We actually finished earlier than expected. Trial was expected to finish on Thursday and we ended at the end of the day on Wed.

Interesting thing was, the incident happened at a Harris Teeter parking lot. That's my main grocery store . The employees and assistant manager caught the guy as he fled after the girl got away... It did make me re-think my habit of late night grocery shopping. This was a very safe, low crime area.

Back to normal life!

[mom2lucas]

I'm glad you had a great experience! I think I'd like to sit in on a criminal trial, but I was summoned to civil court. At least I didn't have to sit through the lawsuits! Everyone settled before they went to the jury.

[peggy47]

I've been called three times..first time was when I was about 50..I live in a very large city....First time I wrote letter explaining I am deaf in one ear and can not determine where sounds are coming from and in a courtroom setting I was afraid I would miss something. That scares me......I sent a copy of my hearing test. After I turned 60 was second time. In between 50 & now, I developed severe RA... I had Dr. write a letter saying I can not sit for long periods of time ..got called again few months ago and so again, had dr. write same letter..I have not improved and in fact, my RA is worse and I am still deaf......they sent me another form to fill out, which I did and have not heard anything more. There is no way I can take a bus downtown (or even drive..I don't drive downtown), park (good luck with that one), walk (blocks), sit for any amount of time.... I never know how I will feel when I get up in the morning. Thank you all that do serve....

[faeryedark]

I could never serve on a jury. I've seen the other side of it, when a loved one was falsely accused of a crime. My pastor and a few others overheard the DA saying to an underling, that she didn't care whether "Mr.X" was guilty or not, she just wanted a win with so little evidence, because it's good for her career.
Then, I overheard her coaching the accuser for rebuttal and basically asking her to lie.
Besides all that, I know how much evidence was never heard by the jury, so they got mostly a one sided view. Our side did manage to keep in one very key piece of evidence, much to the DA's ire. It was that, I believe, that allowed my loved one to get a hung-jury.
Unfortunately, he felt compelled to take a plea to something he didn't do, in order not to go though all that again...and sadly, that's quite common from what I've found since it all went down.
I'd love to serve on a jury, but I would be far too vocal about wanting to hear ALL the evidence.