Sat on a Grand Jury once. Interesting to have a frenzied array of crimes presented by a handful of prosecutors for 8 hours daily straight for 3 days.

jhe888, I am green with envy.

-Rob

Several years ago I was called on a case involving charges of serial molestation of a mentally handicapped minor. My response included the information I had been a social worker in child protective cases for a number of years in two different states, and didn't think I could act as an unbiased juror.

The judge sent me home. Now I'm on the age-cut-off list.

jhe888, so glad to hear that you’re dispensing justice. It is only right.

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Originally posted by signewt:
Several years ago I was called on a case involving charges of serial molestation of a mentally handicapped minor. My response included the information I had been a social worker in child protective cases for a number of years in two different states, and didn't think I could act as an unbiased juror.

The judge sent me home. Now I'm on the age-cut-off list.

What is the purpose of that list, and what's the cutoff age, more or less ? Is this like 60, or more like 80 ?

I know a state court judge who was called to serve on a federal jury. He only lasted during jury selection to the part where he stood up and told the federal judge what he did. OTOH, I know a state court judge who served on a state jury in his district. I still haven't figured that one out. This was about two years ago so no historical nonsense involved.

Me too, although my experience on the Grand Jury was just a single, long day.

Met a lot of good cops, heard a lot of stories filled with human frailty and stupidity. Very enlightening.

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Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Sat on a Grand Jury once. Interesting to have a frenzied array of crimes presented by a handful of prosecutors for 8 hours daily straight for 3 days.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:
Several years ago I was called on a case involving charges of serial molestation of a mentally handicapped minor. My response included the information I had been a social worker in child protective cases for a number of years in two different states, and didn't think I could act as an unbiased juror.

The judge sent me home. Now I'm on the age-cut-off list.

What is the purpose of that list, and what's the cutoff age, more or less ? Is this like 60, or more like 80 ?

I am not sure whether the cut-off is a state (Florida) or county (Seminole) thing, but once I passed 70, I was able to opt out of jury duty.

I served on one trial, a DUI and it was interesting. We went on break and when we came back it was announced some agreement was made and we were dismissed. At the time I was leaning toward not guilt as the only real evidence presented so far was a video of the guy in the holding cell where he was walking around and looking out of sorts. I thought that behavior was not a far reach for someone in the slammer being accused of DUI.

While I was still working, I dreaded receiving the jury duty notice and always prayed I would not be selected and released by 10 am. Now that I'm retired I wouldn't mind serving, but Texas cuts the requirement off at 70

I have been called for jury duty multiple times, but have never even been sent to the jury box for questioning.

Only ever been called once, in San Antonio, but never got selected. Just had to sit in a large room for a few hours and wait to see if enough cases needed juries that they got to me. They didn’t, so I sat there for several hours playing Snake on an old Nokia flip phone. Didn’t really feel like I was doing my civic duty, but at least they paid for parking.

-Bret

Thanks for serving your civic duty, Mr. jhe888!

Years ago, I had to opportunity to dispense some justice as well. I was selected for a jury involving insurance payments; Plaintiff wanted thousands and thousands in insurance money because she had never received reimbursement. We, the jury, poured through the testimony and insurance records and it was PLAINLY evident the plaintiff had been reimbursed.

I believe we handed down a judgement of something like $650 for current bills that had yet to be reimbursed. To this day, I still can't believe that case made it to courts. But it was actually very interesting to see our legal system in action, though it does seem to grind EXTREMELY slowly at times.

But seeing exactly what the courts have to deal with on a daily basis, I get it. Had to go to court for an accident in which I was involved (the hittee) and it looked like a monkey humpin' a football. I don't see how these judges put up with the dregs of our society day in and day out. God BLESS America!

I got called a few times in college from my home county, but the second I said I was 2 hours away in college I got immediately dismissed over the phone.

In 2012 I got called for jury duty and ended up getting picked for a week-long murder trial. They even made an episode about it for Investigation Discovery's "Handsome Devils".

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3880828/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

It was an amazing experience, to say the least.

(One of funnier things said, if anything can be funny in a murder trial, was uttered by the Defense attorney. He basically said - "Yeah, my client is a lying, cheating, scumbag asshole. But he's not on trial for that." More than a few folks chuckled at that one. )

I've served on both federal (once) and state court (twice) juries. It is very interesting to participate and also observe the whole process.

Unfortunately the two state cases involved sexual assault to a minor and injury to an infant. The assault case pleaded out before we heard testimony. The injury to an infant went all the way through. Again very sad but fascinating with all the components involved.

The federal case involved a state prison inmate suing for damages due to an injury allegedly cause by a guard going hands on during an interaction for a rules violation. Again, an interesting process and case. We did not find for the plaintiff. I had a very distinct impression that the lawyers for the state and the prison personnel were very familiar with the Federal Courthouse.

My last jury duty call was last year. Again for a sexual assault of a minor. One of the District Attorneys was a young lady who was a former neighbor in her childhood days. She identified me as such when she asked me to answer a rhetorical/illustrative question about testimony in the case. This was a sexual assault case and the incident happened in the past, but was just now being reported and adjudicated. The panel was asked if they could accept the delay or lapse in testimony based on the nature of the crime and that people are reluctant to talk about things of a sexual nature. The DA asked who in the panel would be willing to discuss their first sexual experience and said "I'll pick on Mr. Gullette since we were neighbors once". Of course my answer was a resounding NOPE, which made her point. That was probably enough to get me struck from the jury list, although I was the last person about to be called back for additional questioning by the judge before they had enough jurors.

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what's the cutoff age, more or less ? Is this like 60, or more like 80 ?

more like 70; have forgotten now whether it is a county option or state.

I’ve been called a couple of times and made it through a few questions before I was dismissed (lawyer). It is eye opening and a little scary to hear some people’s reasoning for guilt.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ruger357,

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As usual for me, watching any court proceeding is interesting, and seeing from inside the jury box is even more interesting.

I agree.
Thank you for being willing to serve.

I've been summoned, but never had the opportunity to serve. During undergrad I received my first notice, but was 275 miles away at school and my week to serve was during finals week, so they scratched my name from the list when I called them.

2nd time was when we lived in Texas, I had just moved from Collin county to Denton County and that was the first piece of mail we got at the new house (mail forwarded). I called and they wouldn't even let me serve, even though I still worked in Collin county.

3rd time was 4+ years later, and I got notice from Denton County to serve, however we were moving from Texas back to Idaho the week before I was supposed to serve.



In the almost 9 years we have been back in Idaho, I haven't received any summons.

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Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Thanks for serving your civic duty, Mr. jhe888!!

Damn straight!!

You did one of the core functions of a citizen of The United States of America, the others being (1) voting (no voting, no bitching); (2) defending The Constitution of The United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; (3) protecting natural human rights through exercise of those rights and the limits placed on government; and (4) passing to subsequent generations the knowledge of what makes The United States of Americs the greatest nation in history and the form of government established by The Constitution of The United States of America the greatest form of government in recorded history.

Thank you again for your service to the State of Texas and The United States of America.

Feel free to take some bookers and hlow from petty cash.

The last time I was called in San Antonio, I was selected for a panel.

When they asked if anyone in the panel knew anyone up front on the prosecution or the defense side, I raised my hand.

When they asked me who I knew, the prosecutor started chuckling. I said I know MR. XXXXX. When asked how I know him I replied that I once sold him a firearm and we had also been to the range to shoot together a few times.

I was dismissed.

Ironically, the prosecutor is a member here as well and I sold him another firearm a few months ago.