Jury Duty

[stephbg]

A week or so ago I was called for Jury Duty again. Fourth time I think. On all previous occasions I've not been able to attend because of work reasons, but right now my work situation is fluid enough that I could have gone and it might have been interesting. Or it could have been four days of waiting and one trial about unpaid parking fines.



Unfortunately the reason my work situation is fluid is because I haven't been able to work a five day week in months (I write this from home, having only managed 2 days this week). That makes the business of attending a minimum of a week's worth of trials an unlikely prospect, and there's always the prospect of getting tapped for something longer. It wasn't difficult for me to get a medical certificate, and I just received my letter releasing me from duty. I waited to post until this was confirmed.

Such a shame, really. Dedicated fan of CSI though I am, I'm intelligent enough to realise that Real Life doesn't work that way so I wouldn't have expected forensic miracles. Unfortunately due to my background in psych I have zero faith in human memory and motivation, so I'm unlikely to trust any witness-based evidence. I'd have to say I'd also be pretty unsympathetic to a defence based on a "bad childhood" or similar emotional tack.

Actually I'm not sure what I'd do if faced with some 18-year-old career criminal facing his or her first session in adult court after a lifetime of car theft, house breaking and assault, who's clearly brain damaged from substance abuse and has never had a stable home.

I was going to say "and never had an opportunity to learn better" but I think that's the bit that sticks with me - so much effort goes into social services and yet people don't take advantage of it out of pride or stubbornness or fear or shame or whatever. It doesn't work. The world is not a nice safe place for everyone. And we're not even in a war/emergency/natural disaster/heavily urbanised zone!


Frankly I think a lot of idiots out there could use a thwack across the ear. I'm by no means claiming that prison is a "holiday camp" but it's not entirely a punishment for many people who's home life is full of fear and uncertainty (unless they re-open Freo Prison - now that was one nasty place all round). I do not have a solution.

I know you can't reveal case details, but what jury duty experiences can you share? Do my attitudes appall you? I am, after all, white, middle class, educated, privileged etc and very aware of how my upbringing (and seven years of daily exposure to a deeply unpleasant eastern suburb) has shaped my attitudes. I guess this is White Guilt.

Comments

[fred-mouse.livejournal.com]

the one case that I was on, the defendant was charged with an additional small thing, on top of the several large things ze had already been found guilty for. I couldn't in all honesty be sure that the accusation was true - certainly the prosecution didn't convince me. I was certainly convinced that the *other* charges were valid. I was completely appalled when 10 of the other jurors wanted to convict, because the defendant was obviously guilty of *something*, even though they weren't necessarily even sure what the charge was! Fortunately a) I'm a stubborn bugger and b) I had support from someone else who is a stubborn bugger, and eventually we argued the rest of the room down.

Thus, I have a suspicion that there are a number of people serving sentences that they don't deserve, even if they have been Very Naughty about other things.

[krjalk.livejournal.com]

I was on jury duty about six months ago. I got picked (and voted foreman, moohoohahahaha) for a three day trial. The accused had broken up from his wife and the custody battle over their child had turned really, really nasty, even by the standards of such things. He has a restraining order forbidding him from contacting his ex-wife or approaching their former home. He interpreted this to mean that it was okay to sneak into the house at midnight and threaten her with a crossbow.

At first it just appeared to be he-said-she-said, as the crossbow could not be found, and the police had not been called in until 2 days later. But there was one prosecution witness who testified that he stopped while driving past the house and seeing a car parked on the verge outside He searched the car, when he spotted crossbow bolts in the back seat. There were unsubstantiated allegations that he stole the guy's wallet. He approached police after hearing about the case. Regardless of the wallet thing, his testimony was the reason we found the accused guilty, particularly as the defence lawyer (who was just drawing a paycheck, frankly) didn't really challenge him.

After we delivered our verdict, the judge informed us that the accused was already serving time, along with his mother and father, for an offence committed after the one we were trying - namely, that the three of them had tried to hire a hitman to whack the ex-wife so she couldn't testify in our case. Whee!

[talmor.livejournal.com]

I've done jury duty once, almost 10 years ago. The case was a man who had taken his teenage niece off into the bush and raped her - practically everyone who gave evidence was in their extended family, both for and against the accused, so it must have torn the family apart...

The main thing I remember is how incredibly dumb half the other people on the jury were - a few of us spent practically the entire time while 'deliberating' explaining to many of the other jurors what had gone on in the courtroom, what the judge had said, and what we were supposed to do. It made me terrified about the competence level in other juries...

I've always thought it should be harder to avoid jury duty - fair enough if you're physically not capeable, but if someone's work can spare them to go on holiday, or get sick, they can spare them for jury duty. Only 24% of people called up now actually turn up for duty, so the majority of people actually on juries would probably be unemployed (and in todays job market, that tends to mean unemployable).