quote:

Originally posted by SigSentry:
^ thank you for posting. I posted also to help process my experience for the week. On the one hand, my faith in the process, although LE and the detective could have been better in their investigations, it did not significantly affect the case and restored some faith in our justice system. However, on the the other hand, our current society has introduced so many more perils for children and is more difficult to dismiss that.

Understanding that the far majority of cases never make it to trial, your impact and influence is direct evidence of that, and is as important if not more than serving on a jury. I'm still going to need time until this has been filed away, as satisfying as the final result was. Thanks again.

It's a continual reminder of what a great place we have here. I'll always be grateful to those members who urged me to write the statement and notify the local authorities. It was because of their wise counsel that I was able to help bring some justice to that little boy.

I will refrain from posting in detail about my last jury duty this year. All I will say is that jurors are stupid, people in general are dumb. Idiots wanting to give a drunk driver who killed a lady in a head on collision 5 years. Yes, 5 years. And, the drunk driver was here illegally in the US.

My faith in the utter ignorance of some human beings was restored during that trial.

^ Yup.
Our case had a base sentence of 2-10 yrs. 2-20 with 1 enhancement, 20-Life with 2 enhancements.

When asked if they would consider the range of punishment, the majority fixated on the life part of it & balked at giving a life sentence, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it's a range not automatically the maximum

The first time I spent the whole day in the back of the room. Released and not seated. The second time I was seated and served. A criminal case that had no evidence, and the defense destroyed the prosecution. Was really surprised this case was ever before a judge. I was not happy about it, but in retrospect, I'm glad for the experience. The third time I was seated and got kicked off. Medical malpractice case. I just got my daughter home from 9 days in a NICU might of had something to do with getting kicked off.

I’ve been called 4 times in the last 6 years. Two different counties though and in two different states.

I do not mind doing my civic duty but I’m an hourly employee who only gets paid when I work and all of my work is out of town. I’m in live events so taking a week off of work can result in me missing out on an event which can last a couple weeks. It’s extremely expensive for me to take the time off work.

But I’ve done it and been selected twice, and I’ve done my best. You’re right that it’s interesting seeing a group of strangers from various backgrounds and in various demographics taking part in a trial.

The first trial was pretty cut and dried. It was an armed robbery case and there was a ton of evidence including video. The guy stated by stealing a car in AZ and driving it to GA where he began purse snatching. At first he was smart(ish) and robbed older ladies at WalMarts. He was dumb because apparently WalMart has video surveillance that rivals the NSA HQ. They had him on dozens of cameras clear as day.

But he was smart(ish) because he’d immediately dump the purse and only keep the cash. But eventually he got a purse with a gun in it. So the next robbery he used the gun to hold up and young woman outside of a Whole Foods. The young woman didn’t have cash and wasn’t afraid of him so she got a good look at him. Finding no cash he began to use her cards and was caught within 24 hours. He was found sleeping in the stolen SUV with the gun and the young woman’s purse and wallet.

His GF testified against him along with about a dozen other witnesses. After we found him guilty the judge told us that there were additional charges that we needed to consider that we were not allowed to know about originally for fear it would taint our verdict.

Turns out he was a convicted pedophile who had raped a few pre-teen girls so they had added possession of a firearm by a felon to the case. That was obvious too so we found him guilty of that.


The second time was last year and was tougher. It was a child molestation case but had happened in 2013 so the girls were all over 18 during the trial. Thankfully we didn’t have to listen to a young girl testify to his actions.

However that one wasn’t as cut and dried and the girls changed their stories a bunch. I was glad it ended in a mistrial because I truly didn’t want to have to decide that one. I certainly didn’t want to send an innocent man to jail but I definitely didn’t want to let a child molester go free.

Last I looked the trial has been postponed until next year. It will be around 11 years after the incident took place before he sees another jury. I only hope they get it right but certainly don’t envy them.

I'm late 30s, been called twice. First time was 4 rounds of call this number to see if we need you. Never even made it into the courthouse.
Second was empaneled on a grand jury for 6 months, meeting usually once a month. Was the year Juneteenth became a thing as they rushed us through to close down the building. This may be the nicest memory of the whole experience.
Suffice it to say, while I learned a lot about how prosecutions are brought and what simple things to me aren't common knowledge to others, I would like to never do that again in my life. I listened to details of 2 unrelated murders, both with enhancements, a sexual assault, a molestation of a child, a drug deal turned robbery/assault and multiple drug possession, sale, trafficking cases and a DUI. In 6 months. In a town where cows outnumber people.
I did not know there were so many shit-heeled fuckstains present in a county that has a population smaller than some large universities. Or that so many of them would be recognizable to me by name or appearance.