Posted on 04/06/2011 7:14:11 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
A female juror in a high-profile American mafia murder trial was sentenced to indefinite jury duty after giving racist answers to a court questionnaire.
The Asian woman in her 20s was asked along with hundreds of others to provide answers to the survey prior to serving on the jury for the trial of crime boss Vincent Basciano.
But the woman enraged a Federal Court judge in New York by answering the question, 'Name three people you least admire', with the answer: 'African-Americans, Hispanics and Haitians.'
When asked by a judge at Brooklyn Federal Court to explain her answer, she replied: 'You always hear about them in the news doing something.'
The woman, known only as 'Juror No. 799', went on to claim all police officers are lazy, and only use their sirens to bypass traffic jams.
Lawyers in the case successfully requested she be removed from jury duty in Basciano's trial due to her 'inappropriate' comments.
A furious judge, Nicholas Garaufis, held up the woman's questionnaire in court and told her: 'This is an outrage, and so are you!' Referring to her racist answers, Judge Garaufis sarcastically asked the juror: 'Why didn't you put Asians down also?'
The woman replied: 'Maybe I should have.'
Jurors in America have been known to try to escape jury duty by providing outlandish answers to jury questionnaires.
But the Asian woman's views evidently backfired, as she has since been told she will serve on the jury until the judge deems her ready for release.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You can make one of two assumptions:
She’s lying.
She’s telling the truth.
If she’s lying you are insisting that someone who commits perjury would make a good juror.
If she is telling the truth you are insisting that someone who clearly hates ‘those people’ can be fair to them.
In which case would justice be best served by having her sit on a jury?
Actually, my tagline just popped into my head after seeing another of those “Somewhere in Texas...” bumper stickers. I couldn’t imagine that it hadn’t occurred to lots of other people and sure enough when I googled “Somewhere in Kenya” I got like a thousand hits.
“I have never been called back for jury duty since.”
I think most prospective jurors who assert a strong belief in capital punishment or other “no-nonsense” views about how to deal with criminals likewise don’t typically get called to serve.
That would have been about the time that *I* would have said, politely, but firmly, that it was "we the people's" court, and not his personal, private fiefdom...
the infowarrior
I succeeded in concealing my contempt of court.
My son was on jury duty 03/21/11 my wife will be on jury duty 0523/11.
I believe, here in Florida jurors names are pulled from driving records.
Judge Nicholas Garaufis the Doofus is a Clintoon appointment, of course.
Recently (in the NYC Firefighters Hiring Case) he ruled that "out of every 5 entry-level hires, the New York City Fire Department must agree to reserve 2 hires for black applicants and 1 hire for a Hispanic applicant until 293 minority candidates have been offered a position."
Looks like Oriental firefighter candidates don't have too good of a chance in the Big Apple. No wonder the Asian potential juror lady was ticked to the max.
And what about Samoans, Indians and Injuns? Where's their quota?
Leni
I havn't been called for jury duty in about 5 years... even then I wasn't seated. The jury was fulfilled before they got to me (it was for a case where some guy was self-defending regarding the running of a traffic light).
Last jury I actually sat on was over 12 years ago in Denton, TX... a dude was accused of punching a female bartender (he self-represented... he claimed he hit the female bartender because she was being harassed by the bar's owner (what?).
We found the dude guilty of assault in maybe 30 seconds.
Moved way out to where I live now and was summoned to county court in the county I live in now....I think they put you on what my dad use to call "the sucker list".
Had a great reason to get out of jury duty, except for the first day....I am a bad insomniac and told the judge I could be in the court house by 9 but couldn't guarantee I'd be awake by noon, as I don't get to sleep until about 5 in the morning.....:O) truth and it worked...
I don't understand how one person can be summoned to jury duty so many times....
But sitting in Federal court (30 days) was one of the most interesting things I have done...its impressive..
Thanks for the link...this really does shed more light on the story and the incorrect title of “eternal jury duty”.
ROFLMAO! That scene is one of my all time favorite scenes. Incredibly funny!
The judge will not let her sit on any jury. She gets to go back to jury pool limbo for a couple of days or a week. The judge is just pissed off at what looks like someone eager to shirk judge duty using a fairly transparent ploy. He could have found her in contempt of court and given her couple of days in jail, if he felt like it.
I like your reasoning...but I love your tagline!
From the link at 119:
He landed on the page where she had said she had a relative who was a member of the Chinese Ghost Shadows gang in the 1980s, convicted of murder and still in prison.
So he's wasting her time and the court's time out of pure spite?
If he really thought she perjured herself, why did he let the felony slide?
Does he have no faith in the judicial system enforcing its own laws? If not, why should we?
It would be interesting if the judge would jail someone if they answered “Jesus Christ, the Pope,any priest”
Not at all. And she will not be part of a jury either. But the judge can just keep assigning her to different jury panels for as long as her term lasts.
She won't be dismissed. But she will get $40/day.
"It didn't take long for her to start looking worse than the defendant."
Get that? A woman's un-PC views, according to the NY Daily News, make her look worse than a known murderer, extortionist, and torturer.
You don’t get paid unless you are selected for jury duty.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.