Just received Jury Summons in the mail. Not really sure how it's going to work with the pandemic, rioters, and homeless all within spittin' distance of the Denver City and County Building.

Sat on a jury once but was the alternate. In the jury pool for a murder case, but jury was seated before I was called. Another time, case was settled just before jury selection and they sent us home. Other than that, just hung out in juror room reading a book, or called the night before and wasn't needed.

I'll play it straight and try to do my best....that's how I'd want to be treated.

What are your jury stories???

What kind of jury?

Served on a Federal jury this winter, a criminal case involving a large amount of cash stolen from an armored-car company. It was interesting, and I learned more about law than I knew. But it only lasted one week. Some take a lot longer.

Don't know yet. Just has address for City and County. Could be traffic court on up to civil or more serious. Not Federal, State, or Grand Jury. I do know I don't go downtown unless absolutely required.

Mine are boring. Never got a cool case. So far I always found a way out of it, I'm not gonna lose a week of work cuz some punk wants to fight his arrest for stealing some sneakers

Was called once. They told me to call before 7 am each morning for a week. Each day I got a recording that said all cases have been settled for today, call back tomorrow. I never got to go in to the court.

I pulled one stint back in the day when I worked for someone else. I rode it out for all it was worth pay wise. 21 paid days for not doing schit.
Our jury pool room was beside the TN river where we could see out at a bridge crossing the river. I was talking to a gal I always sat with and she got a funny look on her face and said "look, there is a guy climbing up on the bridge rail, I think he’s gonna jump!’ I looked around and said "Naw, he ain’t gonna ju....." Damn, there went...
Took about 3 hours to drag him out...

No chit, lol


Well, guess he died doin what he wanted to do. Ats whut they say

I've been on Petit jury as an alternate. That is a real disappointment. Also been on a grand jury. That lasts for a few months. I was doing rotation on the slope so only made it half the time, which was enough for me.

I was "smart enough" to get out of a case a lot of years ago. That was before OJ's case. I saw an example of what can happen when people "get out of it". I am sorry I got out of that case as I've never had another chance since. We have a duty as Americans to do that service for law enforcement. I just hope I get another chance. At almost 70 years old, I don't know if that will happen again, but I certainly will not try to get out of it again. EVER.

Been on 5 or 6. I see it as a duty and an honor. If nothing else, I always hope to make sure someone that needs a conservative juror has one.

Most interesting was in Dallas, Texas. 4 black guys jumped 2 white guys and their dates that were down by a lake. Beat the guys bad. Real bad. Using socket driver, back side hatchet. Raped the two girls for 4+ hours.

One of the dudes was an older brother that had already done time. The defendant on my trial was the younger brother, 17 or 18 years old. Witnesses could not all pick him out of a line up, and some failed to do so in a subesequent line up. Never knew what was up with a second line up. In all the evidence there was not enough to make me believe beyond a resonalbe doubt that he was actually there, although it was his car. But he screwed up and signed a confession saying he was there and how sorry he was and all that. That's the only thing that got him. Had he run for help or just run away I'd have let him walk, heck they likely would not have even prosecuted him. But he did drive the car and did NOTHING for 4-hours while those men were beaten leaving one paralyzed and the other broken and deformed, and while those girls were raped repeatedly.

I don't think he actually took and "active" part in the violence. But he drove the car to the scene of the crime and under the law was like a "lookout" at a bank robbery: just as guilty as the guy that went in and took the cash. Had he not signed that confession I'd have let him walk. He got a life sentence, eligible for parol after 20 years. He could be out now as that was all 35 years ago.

He was found guilty 2-day before Christmas. Broke my heart to here his mother and father cry and beg for mercy. They were decent people. Humble, God fearing in all apearances. But their sons were not.

That was a very bad 5-days.

Guess the west is still wild...
That sounds like a good one to sit thru...

Imagine what next year's cases will be like.

Selection will be a nightmare. Rioters accused of a willful destruction of private/government property wearing a mask, witnesses and also had businesses vandalized ...

January I was selected for jury duty and I served.
But I would not want to do it again, unless it was an important case or a Grand Jury.

To avoid serving on the jury I would ask the Judge about a hung jury, or does the court operate under corporate (maritime) or common law.
If done respectfully you will be dismissed.
The Justice system we live under today is a racket.

I served on a jury for statutory rape. The mexican guy was 30 and the girl was 16. It was consensual on her part, but the law is the law. I was surprised at the low bar the prosecution felt they needed to meet in their argument. Just throw out the "do you want to risk letting a sex offender free" argument and everyone in the jury would have convicted the guy with no evidence. It ended up just being hearsay evidence, just he-said, she-said. I pushed for more convincing and it just barely met my threshold for conviction. It was actually scary how easily the jury was led and how little the jurors questioned anything. One thing for a fact: they say that a defendants choice to not take the stand in his defense cannot be used against them. Bullcrap! Human nature tells a juror that someone not willing to standup for themselves, must be because they're guilty and it will weigh on their decision accordingly. I also didn't agree with the prosecution starting the closing arguments, then the defendants closing arguments, then the prosecution gets to go AGAIN! (the burden of proof is on the prosecution, so they get to close twice). It amounts to the prosecution first going and planting seeds for conviction. Then the defense goes and plucks those seeds. Then the prosecution gets to go again and repair the damage, planting new seeds.

Although I did side for a 4 year conviction of the guy, it did leave me with a concern on how the justice system works and about true "fairness" in our jury of our peers.

Same as you, but kind of like house "arrest" for covid.... lockdown they call it today.
I was commanded to stay home and sit on my phone all day as a potential alternate if someone called off sick. Not allowed to go to work or school. Not even paid a dime. IF I was called in there was a little lunch money for that day.
Weeks of sitting at home under threat of arrest and a big fine if I failed to answer the phone. Never got a dime. Just an attitude and threats from the office.
Gotta love the system.

Lord please come back soon.

Called to serve jury duty only twice for me so far. One time I was on call for a good part of winter and court was cancelled a few times due to weather conditions. As others said a good many cases were already settled. When the cases were settled beforehand and were the only ones on the docket we were emailed or called the night before and told to not report. Those that went to trial were mostly on the tame side, like power of attorney, contesting wills, etc., or else continued to later date.

The one criminal trial case, a DUI vehicular homicide (the accused had multiple prior DUI convictions) I had to ask not to be seated as I was old friends with the defense attorney, plus, I had strong feelings on driving under the influence.

Overall, I thought jury duty was pretty boring for the most part.

Lunch was high-point, though, as there was a little mom & pop restaurant close to the court house operated by a true gourmet chef. Outstanding food!

I love Jury duty, free food and nice hotel. i was on a moderately cool case. met some very hot women. lols

Just once - the defendant was accused of sex crime against a child... Found not guilty.. The dumbass detective, IMHO, failed to do his job or the verdict would have been either 'innocent' or 'guilty'.... And he could have made the case one way or the other within a ten-minute time frame..

57 years old and have not ever been called for jury duty. Not a single time.

was on a murder jury a couple years ago. a raghead hit and killed a Norwegian yute. the yute had robbed him at gunpoint and he chased down the yute in a van. it was the second time this Norwegian had robbed the raghead. from Lebanon.

we had 2 blacks on the jury one of which was very open to evidence and the other was a courthouse worker who felt he was guilty because he hit a black, ah excuse me a Norwegian. i got elected foreman and was about to call the bailiff about the woman who was racist. when she decided to be somewhat cooperative.

the evidence showed the yute jumped on a bicycle and went up a dead end alley so he turned around and hit the van head on. the prosecutor and blacks wanted to say he was ran over from the rear. the rear wheel of the bicycle was intact and the only damage was to the front wheel.

we gave him a few years but only because of the instructions we received. a couple of us would have let him off if it were not for very specific instructions.

I was called for jury selection for a murder trial in 1994 but rejected because I know the children of one of the victims.
Served on 2 different grand juries. The first time was very interesting. The second time it was very disturbing to see what is happening in our little county. Hard core drug sales, child molesters etc. I knew some of the people who came in to testify through their parents too.
A good friend of mine was the DA at the time and I told him I don't know how you sleep at night.

........... Same here. Back in January when they were still operating normally. Was assigned a 3 digit number and had to call every evening the night before for a week and listen to a recording that said what number ranges had to report next day. My number range never came up. Which was fine with me.

I was on case this year where a black man raped a mentally disabled young white man, it was tough hearing the evidence but in the end he was found not guilty on several of the charges and a hung jury on a couple of charges. The state didn't present any evidence other than hearsay. Not long after the trial the same guy got picked up for the same thing, I hope the state gets the evidence this time. I researched him after I heard about the second case and he was recently let out of jail for raping a 3rd kid. The guy was a model citizen he was a drug dealer too.

Summoned and waited till there was a bomb threat. Afterward they sent everyone home with jury duty completed.

Last murder case I was called in for, during the Q & A I told the DA that I was of the opinion the person murdered sounded like they needed it. They said for us to be honest!!!

Judge threw me out of jury in court after I spoke up and said I couldn't be fair in a drug sale trial. I was about the last one called out of jury room and they were in a hurry....didn't ask me much so I volunteered my thoughts.....one truly pissed off judge. Haven't been called back since.

I served on a rape case and an attempted murder case. Both were interesting and I learned a lot. Got kicked off one panel for a DUI case, The prosecutor said that breathalyzer results would be used as evidence and asked what questions I'd have about the evidence. I said I'd want to know that the equipment was calibrated properly and operating per the manufacturers specifications and that the operator was trained in its use. I was gone in a flash, can't have people asking questions about the evidence.

Got seated on a civil case once and it was declared a mistrial within the first five minutes. One of the lawyers mentioned that the insurance company would be on the hook for any damages and that was it. Judge pounded the gavel, everyone in the courtroom knew what had happened, and we were dismissed and told we could leave just like that.

Been called a Bunch of times but during the Q&A session at the beginning they find out I'm K9 and I get sent home. FINALLY, they made a note of it and I don't get summoned anymore...at least not for criminal cases. Got called once for a civil case...

Last one was about a dad that abused his young daughter.

It had been tried before and had a hung jury.

The one i was on had 2 older guys talking in the head even before the trial started.

They could not believe that a dad would/could do anything like that to his kid.

It also was hung and after i told the DA about them but don't know if anything happened to them.

I at least like to hear the evidence first.

Dess,

My grandson is about thirty-six years old. He's been homeless for at least ten years in California. Something came addressed to him so I opened it. The government wanted him for jury duty but first wanted to know if he is a legal resident of the county. I wonder how they put his name with my address since my name starts with C and his starts with S. And we are suposed to respect the government.

I served on a murder trial maybe 30 years ago. It went for about 3 weeks. It was all rather sad: alcoholic wife and ne'er-do-well husband break up. Neither's granted custody of their young child - for good reason - and so the kid ends up going to the wife's parents, who seemed decent folk.

The husband got a rifle, and spent a while thinking about shooting himself, before deciding to go to the inlaws.

The FIL meets him at the gate, and raises his walking stick saying something like "get lost", so the husband shoots him in the belly. Meantime MIL grabs the kid and runs out the back door into the bush. The husband chases her and, according to his story, as he tries to wrestle the child away from MIL she (MIL) grabs the muzzle of the rifle and it goes off, killing her.

He takes the kid back to the hose, police arrive, and there's a stand-off. Eventually he gives up.

His defence raised a few points. Mental illness, diminished responsibility, self-defence in the case of FIL, accident in the case of MIL. Ultimately though we determined that he was a bad bastard who went around to the inlaws with a rifle to shoot them, and did precisely that.

I didn't feel sad for him of course, but sad for the kid mainly, and for her grandparents.