Jury duty
I managed to get selected for jury duty last fall and put it off until yesterday. There were about 25 people held captive in a room through the morning. We got to listen to the judge for a bit, and then watched a video (that appeared to be made in the 80's, given the hair) describing the jury process. Many, many times we were told not to take it personally if we were excused from a jury. All I could think was that I would acutally like to be excused, as then I would have the rest of the afternoon free. Of course, I managed to be the last person chosen for the jury.
We proceeded to hear the stupid case yesterday. It was a criminal case, meaning that all six of the jurors had to agree on the verdict. There were actually two charges: 1) assault and battery; 2) assault and battery with a lethal weapon, a shod foot. (Yes, the lethal weapon in this case was, in fact, a white shoe). The lawyers were very different. Several of us were confused by the baby ADA referring to the defense attorney as her sister; this appears to be some type of legal speak and not an indication that they were actually sisters. The defense attorney was tough and had a lot of attitude. She was wearing a short red suit yesterday that showed a little too much leg for our comfort. The baby ADA, by contrast, was wearing a beige, ill-fitting suit. The left pant leg had a thread hanging down, and the hem appeared to be ripped. One of the hooks on the waist of the pants was also undone. She was very tentative, using a lot of "umms" and "just a minute, judge". She actually messed up her closing argument, asking the jury to find the defendant "not guilty...I mean, guilty".
This was basically a case of she said/she said, in which the victim and the defendant each presented their stories. I didn't really like either one, although clearly the defendant had been much better prepped by her attorney. The defense attorney really badgered the victim during her testimony, and the baby ADA didn't object until about the 15th time she was interrupted. There was a lot of extraneous information presented, and at several points during the trial the judge even looked bored.
I managed to get randomly selected as the foreperson. We went to deliberate around 3:45. I thought it was pretty open and shut, given that the defendant basically admitted to the assault but there was no evidence of the lethal weapon aside from testimony from the victim (who didn't even seek medical attention). Well, it turned out that two jurors felt that the assault was in self-defense. Sigh. They wanted to declare a hung jury after about 10 minutes, which I kept explaining wouldn't work. So we sat there for 40 minutes and then got to come back again today. Oh goodie. (We did have two items that were considered evidence: a pair of white shoes and thirteen hair braids. We did not touch these, despite the fact that the judge opened the bags for us. I was put in charge of making sure that all thirteen braids made it back into the bag. Great.)
Overnight, I researched the definition of self-defense last night and brought that with me. Another member of the jury drove by the house where the incident occurred and took photos. One juror arrived about 25 minutes late, just as the police were about to go to her house. She had made a comment to another juror yesterday that she wouldn't be in today due to child care for her son; this did turn out to be a joke. We managed to determine that the defendant was guilty of assault after about half and hour and then got to go home. And, of course, the two people that initially argued against it were both unemployed and therefore getting paid more to be a jury than they would to sit at home. Sigh. At least I have three years before I can get called again.
We proceeded to hear the stupid case yesterday. It was a criminal case, meaning that all six of the jurors had to agree on the verdict. There were actually two charges: 1) assault and battery; 2) assault and battery with a lethal weapon, a shod foot. (Yes, the lethal weapon in this case was, in fact, a white shoe). The lawyers were very different. Several of us were confused by the baby ADA referring to the defense attorney as her sister; this appears to be some type of legal speak and not an indication that they were actually sisters. The defense attorney was tough and had a lot of attitude. She was wearing a short red suit yesterday that showed a little too much leg for our comfort. The baby ADA, by contrast, was wearing a beige, ill-fitting suit. The left pant leg had a thread hanging down, and the hem appeared to be ripped. One of the hooks on the waist of the pants was also undone. She was very tentative, using a lot of "umms" and "just a minute, judge". She actually messed up her closing argument, asking the jury to find the defendant "not guilty...I mean, guilty".
This was basically a case of she said/she said, in which the victim and the defendant each presented their stories. I didn't really like either one, although clearly the defendant had been much better prepped by her attorney. The defense attorney really badgered the victim during her testimony, and the baby ADA didn't object until about the 15th time she was interrupted. There was a lot of extraneous information presented, and at several points during the trial the judge even looked bored.
I managed to get randomly selected as the foreperson. We went to deliberate around 3:45. I thought it was pretty open and shut, given that the defendant basically admitted to the assault but there was no evidence of the lethal weapon aside from testimony from the victim (who didn't even seek medical attention). Well, it turned out that two jurors felt that the assault was in self-defense. Sigh. They wanted to declare a hung jury after about 10 minutes, which I kept explaining wouldn't work. So we sat there for 40 minutes and then got to come back again today. Oh goodie. (We did have two items that were considered evidence: a pair of white shoes and thirteen hair braids. We did not touch these, despite the fact that the judge opened the bags for us. I was put in charge of making sure that all thirteen braids made it back into the bag. Great.)
Overnight, I researched the definition of self-defense last night and brought that with me. Another member of the jury drove by the house where the incident occurred and took photos. One juror arrived about 25 minutes late, just as the police were about to go to her house. She had made a comment to another juror yesterday that she wouldn't be in today due to child care for her son; this did turn out to be a joke. We managed to determine that the defendant was guilty of assault after about half and hour and then got to go home. And, of course, the two people that initially argued against it were both unemployed and therefore getting paid more to be a jury than they would to sit at home. Sigh. At least I have three years before I can get called again.