I completed my jury duty today. Ask me anything!

[Orrex]

[reyd reid reed]

1. Are you glad to be through with it?

I was so relieved when I was done with mine.

:hi:

[Orrex]

6. Yes, but I'm glad I was able to participate

It was a non-capital murder case, and it was supposed to be pretty brief. It started in June, and after 2 days of testimony went into recess to resolve a matter of admissibility. We resumed on Monday and deliberated for a total of about nine hours.

Very cool experience. All along, the judge went out of his way to praise the jurors for their participation and attentiveness. His admiration for the trial process was clear and infectious.

Still, I'm glad to be done with it!

[reyd reid reed]

7. So you were in recess for six months?

Day-um.

:wow:

[Orrex]

12. Yes we were, alas...

Upon return, we were all surprised that the trial was resumed rather than being started afresh with a new jury pool.

The judge said that such occurrences are rare but not unprecedented, having happened at least several times in Pennsylvania alone.

[Inchworm]

2. I may be in front of a jury in the morning. Ask me wtf!

:9

[reyd reid reed]

3. YIKES!

I think I'd rather be in the box.

[Lil Missy]

4. Was it an interesting case?

I served on one years ago. What seemed to be an easy case turned out to be a total gouge on the part of the plaintiff.

[Orrex]

8. Very interesting, as a matter of fact

It involved the murder of a suspected snitch by a known crack addict who might have used his drug-dealing son's 9mm to do it.

I have a friend who once served on a jury in a two-week-long civil case in which the plantiff contended that the defendant did not complete basement renovations as had been agreed. Two weeks!

[Lil Missy]

13. Yikes! Mine wasn't nearly that exciting!

[friedgreentomatoes]

5. was it interesting? as they show on tv?

or did you have a hard time staying awake.
I am currently watching the Law and Order SVU seasons, so the words "jury duty" gets my eye anytime <:P>

[Orrex]

10. LOL! Well, it won't be on tv, but it's been heavily reported in the local paper

I know this because my wife told me so, and I've gone out of my way not to read any of it.

Quite a cast of characters on the witness stand and named in testimony, that's for sure.

[rug]

9. What consensus did the jury make on what is reasonable doubt?

[Orrex]

11. That's a fine question!

Unfortunately for the prosecution, there just wasn't much evidence available, and the overall quality of testimony was rather poor. As a result, we simply didn't have any solid way to connect the defendant with the crime.

In his closing argument, the defense lawyer made what I think was a good analogy, though I don't know if he came up with it or was simply borrowing it. He asked us if we would buy a house if we were given a description of it only as complete as the testimony we'd heard.

In the jury room, we all ultimately agreed that convicting the defendant on either of the two main charges would be like buying the house after only hearing a description of it over the phone (we came to this after hours of deliberation, so it was much more involved than I'm describing here!).

We convicted on the third charge which was still pretty heavy but not as serious as either of the first two.

[rug]

14. Good work. I always wondered how seriously jurors take the instructions.

I tried a child sex abuse case in Monroe County and the jury convicted on most charges. I was able to talk to two of the jurors afterward and one told me "We weren't sure exactly what he did but we all agreed he did something."

Idiots.

[Orrex]

22. That's an interesting inversion of the way my jury was able to view its case

In the jury room, we all agreed that the defendant was almost certainly guilty, but we also ultimately agreed that the evidence wasn't sufficient to convict.

I have to say that I was proud of my fellow citizens in that little room. When we first began our deliberations, we took a preliminary vote and split 6 to 6 on not-guilty/guilty. That means that six people were able to reassess their conclusions.


We learned afterwards that the defendant did commit the crimes as charged, but in addressing us informally post-trial, the prosecutor agreed that the evidence didn't support a conviction on all counts, and he was pleased simply to get the third conviction.

[madinmaryland]

16. There were three brazilian charges????

:wtf:

Did you get to use that in deliberations??

[Canuckistanian]

15. What's Raymond Burr REALLY like?

I'll bet he eats hot dogs during those recesses.

[Orrex]

19. He kept interrupting to deliver monologues about a giant lizard attacking the city

Other than that, he was fine.

[bigwillq]

17. I have to go next Friday.

Did you get picked?

[Orrex]

21. Initially I was Alternate #1, but I wound up being Juror #1 AND the Foreman

Good thing I listened those first few days!

[blitzen]

18. Was the prosecutor hot?

[Orrex]

20. Not particularly, but the assistant DA was a pleasant-looking fellow

Of the two, he was the better dresser, as well.