Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wasted Days Serving Jury Duty

All of that because a experienced drug addict thief knows how to play the system to the fullest extent.

He knows how to cost the taxpayers maximum money.

He knows how to remain out of jail as long as possible.

He's a maggot that deserves to find a fatal dose of fentanyl so he can enjoy his final high right into the next world.

This was exactly what happened in the jury trial I was talking about above. One was a black woman that cared not about the facts, but only the skin color. The other was a white flaming liberal that was getting paid by our own Postal Service to be there for forever. Fugk both of them. Both a complete waste of flesh.

Once you walk into a court room, to some degree, the judge has control of your life!

Someone crying because the justice system doesn't work the way they believe it should?

Very inefficient use of everyone's time. I spent 20 years on the District Court bench, serving four counties. Jury trials scheduled each Thursday. On Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on which county was up for jury that Thursday, I had final pretrials. That was the last opportunity to enter a plea before trial. If the parties said that a case was going to trial, then, absent serious injury or illness of a party or witness, the case went to trial on Thursday. After the final pretrial, I would only accept a plea straight up, as charged.

Jurors were given instructions on when to call in to confirm whether there was a trial going on Thursday. Jurors were instructed to show up at 8:30am. By 9am sharp everyone was checked in and ready to start. I read initial instructions to the jurors, then seated six, then began voir dire. I did a basic voir dire, then turned it over to council. Didn't let council get too far afield, and, frankly it was very seldom that anyone tried. After challenges, peremptory and for cause, the jury was sworn and pretrial instructions concluded. Don't think I ever swore in the first witness after 10:15. I believe I had one misdemeanor trial that finished up on the second day. Every other misdemeanor trial was a one day only issue for jurors.

I am in a pretty rural area. No real big employers. Lots of small farms, small businesses, etc.... Most jurors didn't get paid for missed work, and couldn't afford to be jacked around by the court. I felt it was my responsibility not to waste people's time.

I don’t know any attorneys that will do a jury trial at any level for anything less than ten or fifteen thousand, at least not on purpose. Not many Defendants want to spend that much for what is usually going to be a fine measured in hundreds of dollars and probation. And misdemeanors don’t count for much on a record. I guess the public defenders probably get a few misdemeanor jury trials. But most of the prosecutors don’t consider them worth messing with either and make reasonable deals.

Yeah, the vast majority of my trials were with court appointed attorneys for the defendants. The attorneys were on an annual contract with each county. I could require some minimal payment from working poor defendants, but not more than a few hundred dollars. For those who were on various governmental welfare programs (like disability for people who weren't disabled), I couldn't require any repayment. Quite a few of those people seemed willing to roll the dice, because they had no financial skin in the game for their attorney. Defense attorney could get a pretty good offer and have it turned down by the defendant because the defendant really had little to lose by going to trial instead of taking the plea. Not like the government was going to kick them off welfare.