| Author | Message | ||
     Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
After years of actually wanting to be on a jury and serve my community by actively participating in the system of law through consensual-determined justice, today that yearning is satisfied. Sadly it's as part of a sexual assault trial. 'Rape' for those of you who call those pointed things 'spades'. Needless to say the evidence and testimony aren't going to be anywhere approaching 'pretty'. Why couldn't it have been for some kind of financial abuse or robbery of a bank or... anything? Sheesh. Who's got something funny to tell me? Anyone? | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I've done Jury dury twice - first time it was a scoutmaster who'd been taking unauthorised pictures of his scouts - that went on for the full 2 weeks. The second time I did two separate trials. There was an idiot who'd been arrested at 4am hding in the roofspace of Motorworld in Eccles. He'd been chased up there by police dogs when the police spotted the shutters had been prised off. He tried to claim he wasn't trying to burgle the place. His exact story was that he couldn't sleep so he went to visit a friend - but he couldn't give the friend's address. His friend bizarrely didn't answer the door at 3:30 am so he was on his way home when he spotted the shutter of Motorworld had been vandalised. Being a good citizen, he parked in the next street and walked back to Motorworld to see what was happening. There was apparently already a pile of things on the floor outside just ready to be loaded into a car. He decided to enter the shop for no reason that ever made sense when suddenly he heard the police outside. At this point he claims he hid because he would look guilty if he was found in the shop with a pile of goods outside the door ready to be loaded into a car. This trial took a couple of hours and the jury session took 20 minutes. Most of that was drinking the free coffee and eating the biscuits. The second trial I had in that session was a bar fight where the defendant had hit someone over the head with a chair for pushing his friend. God knows how, but the other 11 on the jury thought this was acceptable behavior and let him off - claiming he was defending his friend. Tossers. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I don't envy you... of all the crimes, including murder, I can only think of child abuse as something more depressing and traumatic to have to sit through - so it could be worse. Good luck!  I've never had to do jury duty either and long wanted to, but the reality is rarely as interesting as one imagines. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
You could try saying in the voir dire that it would distress you too much.  Or that all rapists deserve the death penalty. The defence attorney definitely won't want you then. Here's something silly to make you smile.  | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Start playing with your Ipod in the courtroom, that would get you off the jury in record time. Of course that would probably mean the entire trial being restarted and you being charged with contempt but... | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
http://www.dilbert.com/2010-06-20/ something silly. made em laugh anyway. i'd love to do this to my boss | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
made ME laugh | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.234.38 |
-first time it was a scoutmaster who'd been taking unauthorised pictures of his scouts- For some reason that sounds inexplicably funny. Are you based in America, Weber? | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Well done, Ian. Tell everyone you think the b*****d rapist should have his testicles cut off - that'd sort him out.  I've always wanted to be on jury duty too but never been called up (for a while I worked in the legal profession and wasn't entitled to be). My hubby was on a jury once - an interesting drugs trial. He enjoyed it! Apparently, they were passing around packets of various substances to show the jury what they were talking about. Hubby is a bit innocent, so he didn't know what half of these things were.  When I see some of these high-profile cases on the news - a gruesome murder or whatever - it does make me think that maybe I'm lucky never having been called up for jury service now though. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.204.111.249 |
Good luck with it, Ian. | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
Thanks all, especially Weber and Kate for their content. Well, other people's content which they provided for this. The voir dire takes place away from the jury, as that term is only used here to refer to the process which determines the admissibility of evidence. Obviously if there were material determined to be inadmissible, we shouldn't even know of its existence as its impossible to un-see anything (although it would be occasionally nice). The determination and selection of members of the Jury might be part of that Voir Dire procedure, but it was done on the 1st of June and I declared there were no complicating issues for me. Some excuses, however, were either really pathetic or unimaginative, depending on your view. For instance, no one screamed "All men with penises are inherently guilty of everything!" or even "DEATH! DEATH TO THE INFIDEL DEFILERS!" There were a large number of previously fine individuals who suddenly developed hearing problems and lack of cognitive skills in the English language, however. There was one guy on the 1st of June who stated "I would find it far too stressful, Your Honour", explaining he had "just quit smoking, so..." and I returned to reading my book and ignored the rest of his explanation. Git. From today's evidence, it doesn't seem too evil a set of evidence to be considered, more one of credibility regarding the "complainant's" evidence. Chances are we're past the worst of it already and the rest of this week will be filled with the minutia of who was where when and what they did / didn't drink / see. There's an evil mass-murder case that ran here about a year ago and might be appealed and have a huge number of charges added to it. Willie Pickton is the accused's name of that one. There is no way I'd want to sit on that jury, even with a slight background in horror. when you're dealing with real lives it's all different, isn't it? Mobile phones are literally locked in a briefcase during the day except at lunch, in order to prevent them going off in the courtroom, presumably. iPods would be the same as well, plus eliminating the possibility of people suddenly leaping up and screaming "Yeah! Everybody dance now! Baaaahm! Bahm-bahm baaaaum!" which would be a bit distracting at the best of times. The option to use a jury is given to the defence, and it's usually explained to the defendant that doing so isn't a really smart move as "anything can happen as soon as you introduce a jury to the proceedings". Even entering the courtroom to defend yourself means anything can happen, but when you bring in a jury, then it's less likely to follow legal precedents as a judge-only trial would. So... there we are. Weber, were I to sit on the trial of either of those nit-wit situations, I'd be dragged out of the room for laughing too damned much. Also pointing at the accused and laughing at him, but mostly laughing. |