Jury Duty Yesterday ...

[aspeck]

First time actually sitting on a jury. One thing I learned is if you ever have to go to court, be careful of the attorney you chose. It took the jury 7 minutes to come back with a guilty verdict. We all kind of faulted the attorney for not bringing a decent refuting of the States evidence. There were some things that we wondered about, but we were only allowed to weight the answers that were given and the evidence admitted. The defendents attorney took 3 hours to say and ask nothing that was pertinent to the case. Being wordy is not always a good thing for an attorney.

I feel bad for the young man, 25 and convicted of a felony, a misdemeaner, and 8 summary offenses.

 

[royal0014]

Re: Jury Duty Yesterday ...

Public defender?? Underpaid, overworked, and not much else.

Had Jury Duty three times in two years. Was sat on one case, it turned out that I had sold the Defendant his getaway car! Judge almost threw me out the window It had been two years earlier, I met the guy once, I didn't have the foggiest who he was until the judge called me up to the bench!


<<)))(((>>

 

[lncoop]

Re: Jury Duty Yesterday ...

I sat this week (last Tuesday). Somehow I ended up serving with a guy I work with and know very well. Both sides asked us about it, but I guess no one thought it would be a problem. Charges were possession with intent to deliver (guy was caught with an eight ball), battery, and resisting arrest. We all agreed there was most likely intent to deliver, but the only evidence was the amount of crack he had (apparently significantly more than one could consume even over the course of a week). We reduced it to simple possession. We also agreed there wasn't enough evidence to convict on battery, but did agree on resisting. During the short deliberations someone expressed regret that we weren't told whether there were priors. I explained that priors were inadmissible because they would unjustly impact our verdict. After the verdict was read the sentencing hearing commenced. Eight prior felonies (including possession with intent to deliver, several burglary charges, domestic battery, etc.) and numerous serious misdemeanors. Sentencing deliberations didn't take long.

 

[heycods]

Re: Jury Duty Yesterday ...

Court appointed atourny?

 

[aspeck]

Re: Jury Duty Yesterday ...

2 juries in one week ... second one had a GREAT court appointed attorney and it was the [Assistant] DA that was bringing the charges. Even though my thoughts were that the guy WAS guilty, we just couldn't convict because the Commonwealth did not prove their case. After we brought the verdict of "Not Guilty" we were praised by the judge. Apparently the defendent wouldn't appear in court because he felt he would not get a fair shake ... he was incarcerated in a state facility for theft and then raped another inmate while there. He allegedly assaulted a guard. We HAD to acquit. The case was just not there.

 

[swaycleveland]

Re: Jury Duty Yesterday ...

he said duty

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Jury Duty Yesterday ...

aspeck, my jury duty experience was the same as yours. I nit picked the prosecution, as to how they could have presented their (slam dunk) case better. But the defendent's attorney was an idiot and borderline incompetent. Granted, his client was even worse. She hired him!

 

[mscher]

Re: Jury Duty Yesterday ...

First time actually sitting on a jury. One thing I learned is if you ever have to go to court, be careful of the attorney you chose. It took the jury 7 minutes to come back with a guilty verdict. We all kind of faulted the attorney for not bringing a decent refuting of the States evidence. There were some things that we wondered about, but we were only allowed to weight the answers that were given and the evidence admitted. The defendents attorney took 3 hours to say and ask nothing that was pertinent to the case. Being wordy is not always a good thing for an attorney.

I feel bad for the young man, 25 and convicted of a felony, a misdemeaner, and 8 summary offenses.

Was there some doubt on the defendant's guilt, in this case? Otherwise, wouldn't refuting good state's evidence, be wasting valuable court resoruces? Court appointed attorneys, probably handle dozens of these types of cases every month.

I was once a juror on a two day trial for, a posession with intent to sell case, in CA. Half of the jurors were either ignorant, or biased, some were both. I see why they don't allow firearm in the jurrors room. One of the biggest wastes-of-time, I have ever experienced.

The whole defense, was to just bring up enough meaningless garbage (oops "evidence"), to confuse the simple minded jurors. The strategy worked as he got a lesser jail term.

Jurors should be professionals, not "peers", IMI. Just look around. How many "peers" do you know that are idiots.

 

[PGFISHER]

Re: Jury Duty Yesterday ...

If the jury is supposed to be your peers, and the case is the state, county etc. vs. ; how can they pick a jury? In a court where we have government by the people, the jury would be the prosecution!