[woollyone]

The reason I post this is because I was recently summoned for jury duty and I wanted a bit more insight regarding juror’s rights, jury nullification and the Voir Dire process. After finding these resources, I figured that other freepers might find this information useful. Hope this is helpful for others.

[woollyone]

Polite ping to you. Though I don't often "shotgun bump", if you're not comfortable being pinged, please freepmail me and I'll be happy to respect your wishes. Hope the article is helpful.

baa

[John H K]

I was amazed how easy it was to sway people. I was on jury duty a long time, only was on one actual Jury, was struck by the defense on another.

An hour into deliberations, it was me voting to convict, 11 to acquit. Two hours later, conviction on 3 of 4 counts. While I was a college debater, I'm hardly Mr. Charisma..I was astonished how easy it was for me to control people and change their minds.

It is INCONCEIVABLE to me I'd enter a jury room with one opinion on guilt and vote a different way. I'd stay there for months or hang the jury before I gave in.

[Frohickey]

So, did OJ do it, or didn't he?

[VetoBill]

Excellent post. I have heard instances of judges instructing juries to base their decision on the law, not on the law itself. In fact I have read stories where judges have become quite incensed if juries try to nullify a law. Does anyone have any links, facts to support these allegations?

[Dakotabound]

OH NO! You'll soon make the anti-libertarian hate list with this post! After all, this is an issue near and dear to libertarians...and according to many here, THAT'S AKIN TO BEING A BABY-EATING, DOG-KICKING LIBERAL!

(Funny, can't figure how the Dems would fit in with FIJA...)

[womanvet]

bttt, especially for my info.

[GretchenEE]

Bump for later read.

I served on one jury in the 1980's and it was a lot of work, even though it was a short trial. The reason? The case was over drunk driving and one of the jurors obviously was married to a drunk and was in denial that her spouse was an alcoholic. The facts were as clear as day, with the defendant getting on the witness stand and ADMITTING he'd downed two drinks of hard liquor, four beers, and one-half sandwich in about two hours, plus testimony from a police officer who trailed the guy for blocks, watching him run up over a curb, driving in two lanes, administering a breathalyzer test, which the defendant failed miserably. The hard part: the woman married to the alcoholic kept saying the breathalyzer wasn't functioning properly, despite sworn police testimony to the contrary. After praying at length silently in the jury room, I had to excuse myself, go to the ladies' room, and pray warfare type prayers for this woman to convict the guy. (No other juror doubted his guilt.) Eventually, and by the oddest circumstances, she voted to convict. But I felt as if I'd spent all day running around a track with no break.

Be prepared for anything. I'm sure you will do an excellent job.

By the way, I doubted I'd get seated on the jury, being a Christian (gasp!), and a member of some conservative groups. But God wanted me on that jury and He used humor to get me there. During jury questioning, one of the questions was, "Have you formed an opinion about people who drink and drive?", and out of my mouth came, "Well, if someone got drunk and hit me, I'd certainly form an opinion." The courtroom erupted in laughter. Another question resulted in a similar response and laughter. To my amazement, I was seated. Our verdict HAD to be unanimous or the guy would have walked. God knew what He was about. You may find yourself in just such a pivotal position.

[connectthedots]

I can assure you of one thing. I will never be allowed to sit on a jury in my county.

[timestax]

bumped for later perusal

[Tauzero]

Good post. Jury duty should not be shirked.

Back in college (about 10 years ago) me and a buddy did a quick in-and-out at the county courthouse and distributed this little pamphlet to the pool of potential jurors. ( I'd recently just served myself and knew the layout of the place.)

Ah, those were the days...

[BADROTOFINGER]

Yeah, I have argued this with a moron lib friend of mine and he swore up and down if you voted against the grain on the grounds that the law was wrong, you would go to jail. Never mind the fact that a person doesnt have to justify their vote to anyone, not even the judge, he was still convinced that a person would go to jail. He is simply lost, believes everything he sees on TV, you know the drill.

Great post tho, everyone should know this stuff...JFK

[Aunt Polgara]

Not exactly jury nullification, but I had a very interesting stint on a jury once. Two hotheads got into a fistfight at a gas station. The one who ended up on the short end of the deal was suing the gas station owner and the gasoline company for a gazillion dollars. I was amazed that the "conservatives" on the panel wanted to give him the store, literally, while the liberals thought he deserved what he got. If I hadn't been on the jury, I'm sure he would have gotten a big settlement. As jurors, we do have more power than we think.

[gnarledmaw]

If only more Americans understood jury duty and how badly the Voir Dire process is abused then we might see some real change.

[VA Advogado]

This is silly. You're only one of 12 votes. The most you can do is hang the jury. Now this really helps the prosecutor because he can go back and interview the 11 sane jurors and find out what he needs to do to insure victory when they retry the schmuck.

[Clintons Are White Trash]

I got a notice for jury duty - have to go tomorrow for orientation. I served on a jury about 6 years ago - extremely stressful! We had a drug case - undercover bust - for some guy selling his homemade meth. I was suprised they managed to get some old hippies on the jury that were hesitant to convict. After 6 hours we finally got a guilty verdict and came to the sentencing phase - maximum recommended was 12 years. My consensus is that there is no difference between a good drug dealer and a bad drug dealer and was ready to give him 12 years. The old hippies came to the rescue again but I did manage to get him 9 years.

[NC_Libertarian]

FMI