[aninjamom]

I've showed up for jury duty a couple of times in Seminole Co, and mostly just sat and crocheted for a day or two. The only time I had to get out of it was when I was a caregiver for my husband, who had Alzheimer's. Jury duty might be inconvenient, but it is a crucial part of our legal system, and is a civic duty. If no one served on juries, we'd have to go to another system. I can't think of an alternative that I'd want if I had to go to trial! And how long would you want to sit in a cell waiting? You hear stories about the slowness of the system; trying to get jurors is probably a big part of the problem.

[ColdNoMore]

Originally Posted by aninjamom

I've showed up for jury duty a couple of times in Seminole Co, and mostly just sat and crocheted for a day or two. The only time I had to get out of it was when I was a caregiver for my husband, who had Alzheimer's. Jury duty might be inconvenient, but it is a crucial part of our legal system, and is a civic duty. If no one served on juries, we'd have to go to another system. I can't think of an alternative that I'd want if I had to go to trial! And how long would you want to sit in a cell waiting? You hear stories about the slowness of the system; trying to get jurors is probably a big part of the problem.

Yep.

While most of us dislike jury duty and find it a burden...it is a small civic duty price to pay.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by aninjamom

I've showed up for jury duty a couple of times in Seminole Co, and mostly just sat and crocheted for a day or two. The only time I had to get out of it was when I was a caregiver for my husband, who had Alzheimer's. Jury duty might be inconvenient, but it is a crucial part of our legal system, and is a civic duty. If no one served on juries, we'd have to go to another system. I can't think of an alternative that I'd want if I had to go to trial! And how long would you want to sit in a cell waiting? You hear stories about the slowness of the system; trying to get jurors is probably a big part of the problem.

My situation is similar but it is two parents and a dog. The dog is great help sitting on laps and the like.

Sumter County has sent me Jury Summons three times now in the 13 years we have been here and on May 19, 2014 I did go down to what was a 13 week case but the defendant plead guilty so I did not have to answer any questions. We never got out of the jury waiting room. I did e-mail them my concerns about my hobby though and talking about that.

In 2014, the judge did ask if any of the jurors were lawyers or law enforcement people. I am neither but I do have a JD and my hobby does involve law enforcement-- web-sites for Sheriffs' and other PD and libraries' holdings and web-sites. But I have been very creative in whom I have asked for help in the past almost three decades with this hobby. I did e-mail the Clerk of Court of Sumter County about this hobby a few days ago as well as a few weeks ago.

This was my sixth Jury Duty Summons and I would like to get a seventh. Not until things improve though.

I would have had to hire a nurse to come in as a care giver for my parents to be able to do Jury Service. I do have several nurse friends here near or in the Villages but would not want to burden them.

I could go down there and talk to a Judge in private about my hobby and see what he or she thinks about it. I had questioned some Criminal Intelligence Detectives about it back in 2002 at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and they told me they had mixed feeling about it. Both of these cops were homicide detectives if my memory serves. I did this in person at their headquarters in Pinellas Park, FL and also later on the phone and maybe via e-mails.

The hobby involves access to practical information for survivors/victims of crimes on library web-sites and that which is housed in these libraries as well as materials acting as a safety net for the mentally ill. My interest comes from some homicide cases in Reno, Nevada in the 1970s and one from 1963 also from Reno, Nevada. I have some kind of personal connections to these murder cases. I did e-mail the Clerk of Court about these and gave them some links to information about them I believe.

[blueash]

Originally Posted by thetruth

I see a lot of merit to the English sytem. Trial is in front of a judge not a group whose qualification is that the CHOOSE to honor their duty or can't generate an acceptable excuse to get out of it. Service on a jury WILL/MUST destroy any faith in our legal system that has remained after life experience.
I would hope a judge will not be as influenced by such thoughts as it is a huge company they can afford to pay the XXXXXXX for their own cause of their own damages.
If, you are paying your atty $300 an hour and do not recover court costs, you can win and still end up with a financial loss.

Almost all civil cases are tried on a contingency basis. The plaintiff's attorney takes all the risk and is not paid per hour. If you win, the lawyer gets a % of the verdict, if you loose, the lawyer gets nothing.
Jurors are not beholden to any special interest except hopefully justice.
Judges are mostly elected in this country unlike England. And elections cost money. When the insurance companies and the big polluters and big manufacturers use their influence to select candidates and pay for your campaign and election do you think that judge is going to be impartial? Give me a jury.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by blueash

Almost all civil cases are tried on a contingency basis. The plaintiff's attorney takes all the risk and is not paid per hour. If you win, the lawyer gets a % of the verdict, if you loose, the lawyer gets nothing.
Jurors are not beholden to any special interest except hopefully justice.
Judges are mostly elected in this country unlike England. And elections cost money. When the insurance companies and the big polluters and big manufacturers use their influence to select candidates and pay for your campaign and election do you think that judge is going to be impartial? Give me a jury.

I have met a lot of judges as the National Judiciary College is on the University of Nevada, Reno campus. They walk around there often especially in the book store. Judges seem more logical than a group of jurors. And it often seems to come down to how adept the lawyers are with their voir dire and how much the judge allows.

Better education in citizenship starting in elementary school would help a great deal.

My neighbor the law professor in Reno, Nevada used to teach at the National Judicial College as did some of my Philosophy professors. One of these Philosophy professors wives was the Librarian at the National Judicial College. Home | The National Judicial College I have a BA in Philosophy and one in History from UNR and had started a dual MA or looked into it but decided on Librarianship instead after dropping out of Law School at Brigham Young University in 1982.

[dillywho]

I served on two criminal trials in Texas several years ago. I was actually shocked that I ended up on one of them. It was a murder case involving a shooting. I was asked if I was afraid of guns, which I was at the time. Then they wanted to know why. It was because I had been accidentally shot several years earlier. I about fainted when I was not eliminated! Juries are really strange, though. This was a clear case of murder, but we had two holdouts for self defense. The defendant had left the residence and the guy inside was hanging out the door, one hand on the screen and one hand on the door jamb, yelling at him not to come back again. The defendant said that when he got to his car, the guy was still yelling. He said, "When he called me a black *******, I reached into my glove box, got my gun, and I shot him dead." We ended up a hung jury because of those two. Instead of a retrial, the guy tppk a plea bargain.

The other trial was a child molestation case committed by a relative on a toddler. Sad!! Another messed up case...or so we thought. We had one gal that would not send the guy away for 20 years because her brother had been incarcerated and she "wouldn't do that to ANYBODY". We ended up settling for 15 years probation. Afterwards, the DA told us that was the best sentence we could have handed down because had it been for the 20 years prison time, he would have served maybe 4 or 5. He also said that what he couldn't tell us during the trial was that the guy had been messing with every kid in the family for the last 10 years; and that he would definitely break his probation. He then would be gone for the full 15 to prison. The judge sentenced him to an additional 30 days in the county lockup prior to being released on probation. The DA said that it would not be pleasant in there, either, since the general population usually takes a really dim view of child molesters. The gal who would not budge, couldn't get out of there fast enough when she heard what the DA said about probation being the better sentence.

Don't Mess With Texas! Probation means something there.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by dillywho

I served on two criminal trials in Texas several years ago. I was actually shocked that I ended up on one of them. It was a murder case involving a shooting. I was asked if I was afraid of guns, which I was at the time. Then they wanted to know why. It was because I had been accidentally shot several years earlier. I about fainted when I was not eliminated! Juries are really strange, though. This was a clear case of murder, but we had two holdouts for self defense. The defendant had left the residence and the guy inside was hanging out the door, one hand on the screen and one hand on the door jamb, yelling at him not to come back again. The defendant said that when he got to his car, the guy was still yelling. He said, "When he called me a black *******, I reached into my glove box, got my gun, and I shot him dead." We ended up a hung jury because of those two. Instead of a retrial, the guy tppk a plea bargain.

The other trial was a child molestation case committed by a relative on a toddler. Sad!! Another messed up case...or so we thought. We had one gal that would not send the guy away for 20 years because her brother had been incarcerated and she "wouldn't do that to ANYBODY". We ended up settling for 15 years probation. Afterwards, the DA told us that was the best sentence we could have handed down because had it been for the 20 years prison time, he would have served maybe 4 or 5. He also said that what he couldn't tell us during the trial was that the guy had been messing with every kid in the family for the last 10 years; and that he would definitely break his probation. He then would be gone for the full 15 to prison. The judge sentenced him to an additional 30 days in the county lockup prior to being released on probation. The DA said that it would not be pleasant in there, either, since the general population usually takes a really dim view of child molesters. The gal who would not budge, couldn't get out of there fast enough when she heard what the DA said about probation being the better sentence.

Don't Mess With Texas! Probation means something there.

One of my cases as a Student Director at Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners involved a local big wig selling some people stock that did not exist. The judge found our former inmate not liable for the monetary damages because the buyers of this non-existent stock should not have been such suckers according to the judge. And the Ivy League lawyer representing the underwriter said that the Securities Laws did not cover securities that only existed in the heads of the con man and the conned.

It was hard looking at these people in the Court Room who lost their life savings because they did not do their home work and checked up on what the local big wig was telling them.

This is public record I believe so I am not breaking any lawyer/client confidentiality and it would be very hard to find anything more about it unless you were one of the people involved in some way.

There was no jury that I recall just the Judge.

[twoplanekid]

I too am waiting to serve jury duty. Several times back in Ohio I was called to serve but then send home as I was good friends with the Judge and prosecuting attorney. The defense attorney didn’t like my associates.

[Schaumburger]

What I find is interesting how some people have been called multiple times for jury duty, and some people never get called for jury duty. I've been called 3 times since the early 1990's in Cook County, IL. Around 1992 I actually served on a jury once for 3 weeks (civil trial). I was selected for another jury about 10 years ago (another civil case), but the case was settled out of court just before the trial was supposed to start. Then about 5 years ago I sat around the courthouse in downtown Chicago and was sent home around 4:00 pm, never getting selected.

Most of the people I know in Cook County who are registered voters around my age have never been called for jury duty or called only once.

I hope I haven't jinxed myself. I have no idea what my current employer's policy is on paying employees for jury duty.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Schaumburger

What I find is interesting how some people have been called multiple times for jury duty, and some people never get called for jury duty. I've been called 3 times since the early 1990's in Cook County, IL. Around 1992 I actually served on a jury once for 3 weeks (civil trial). I was selected for another jury about 10 years ago (another civil case), but the case was settled out of court just before the trial was supposed to start. Then about 5 years ago I sat around the courthouse in downtown Chicago and was sent home around 4:00 pm, never getting selected.

Most of the people I know in Cook County who are registered voters around my age have never been called for jury duty or called only once.

I hope I haven't jinxed myself. I have no idea what my current employer's policy is on paying employees for jury duty.

With everything that has happened to me or to those around me I think I should have a warning label.

My Dad worked insurance claims on just about any hurricane, fire and earthquake in the US from around 1989 through 1995. That includes Hurricane Andrew and the 1989 SF Bay area earthquake.

[lorilorilori]

Jury Duty is archaic. Jurors should be paid a decent wage. On specialty cases - think of it this way - if the attorneys can't get it straight, how do they expect a lay person to ??? Totally antiquated system. Jurors should be professionals or picked with some background or knowledge - relative to the case - to decide a person's fate.
IMHO

[ColdNoMore]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

With everything that has happened to me or to those around me I think I should have a warning label.

I agree.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by dillywho

I served on two criminal trials in Texas several years ago. I was actually shocked that I ended up on one of them. It was a murder case involving a shooting. I was asked if I was afraid of guns, which I was at the time. Then they wanted to know why. It was because I had been accidentally shot several years earlier. I about fainted when I was not eliminated! Juries are really strange, though. This was a clear case of murder, but we had two holdouts for self defense. The defendant had left the residence and the guy inside was hanging out the door, one hand on the screen and one hand on the door jamb, yelling at him not to come back again. The defendant said that when he got to his car, the guy was still yelling. He said, "When he called me a black *******, I reached into my glove box, got my gun, and I shot him dead." We ended up a hung jury because of those two. Instead of a retrial, the guy tppk a plea bargain.

The other trial was a child molestation case committed by a relative on a toddler. Sad!! Another messed up case...or so we thought. We had one gal that would not send the guy away for 20 years because her brother had been incarcerated and she "wouldn't do that to ANYBODY". We ended up settling for 15 years probation. Afterwards, the DA told us that was the best sentence we could have handed down because had it been for the 20 years prison time, he would have served maybe 4 or 5. He also said that what he couldn't tell us during the trial was that the guy had been messing with every kid in the family for the last 10 years; and that he would definitely break his probation. He then would be gone for the full 15 to prison. The judge sentenced him to an additional 30 days in the county lockup prior to being released on probation. The DA said that it would not be pleasant in there, either, since the general population usually takes a really dim view of child molesters. The gal who would not budge, couldn't get out of there fast enough when she heard what the DA said about probation being the better sentence.

Don't Mess With Texas! Probation means something there.

I had a friend who was a fellow Philosophy major at the University of Nevada, Reno and he was good at poetry and speaking Spanish.

He would sometimes try to get me to go out with him on his evening adventures but I declined as some of them were a bit illegal. One of these was that he picked up or tried to pick up the wife of a very jealous husband and that husband stabbed my friend multiple times in the heart area. He was dead for a few minutes but must have been lucky with the speed of the first responders as they got him back or maybe he died in the hospital or in the ambulance.

He lost his use of Spanish and really had to work on Philosophy.

There was a jury trial of the jealous husband for attempted murder and the jury found it was heat of the moment and not an intentional act. So the guy got off very light and the defense lawyer made a big thing about the proximity of Mustang Ranch a legal brothel near Reno just outside the Washoe County line.

This friend and I went to the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark a year or so after that and I was terrified that he would have a post traumatic experience with the knife welding thug facing off with Indiana Jones but he thought it was hilarious especially when Indiana shot him.

I checked up on him at his small house once in a while and arrived without notice and he seemed a little nervous but did show me his collection of love letters and how he would sometimes correct the potential suitors grammar and send them back to the senders.

In walked one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen and I was soon shown the door after my friend introduced us. I did notice that she had a good sized wedding ring on her finger.

I soon stopped coming to check up on my friend as he seemed to be up to his old tricks. He was more attracted to already taken women than the many ones he had available to him.

I checked up on him on Facebook and encountered one of his ex-wives who said he still in 2018 marched to his own drummer. We had a strange exchange that I posted something about him and she made a comment and I asked how would you know that and she replied that she was his ex-wife.

[Taltarzac725]

O.J. Simpson discharged from Lovelock prison | KSNV

The food service partnership that I was sometimes an assistant manager at had two people running it and one of these would later become the warden at the Lovelock Correctional Facility where O.J. Simpson was held for 9 years.

We talked about crime and punishment quite a bit that first summer around 1977 (?) when I worked at Bower's Mansion concession stand near their swimming pool. I was with the other partner working the last day of this job in 1983 before I left for the U of Denver to get study for a MA in Librarianship. This was Memorial Day of 1983 when a snow bank fell into a mountain lake above and just the north of Bower's Mansion. It pushed a huge wall of mud, water, and debris down the mountain into Davis Creek.


I was very surprised when I googled this man's name and up pops all kinds of cases of so-and-so Lovelock inmate vs. this man.

I also worked a winter season at Sky Tavern for their Junior Ski Program for their lunch service and a few summers at the concession at the softball diamond at Idlewild Park in Reno, Nevada. These were while I was getting my two BAs and also taking some extra classes in various areas.

[Taltarzac725]

I will have to call the Sumter County Court number for Jury Service to see if I would have been called. It is close to 200.

The instructions say to call a certain number tonight after 5 PM.

The Judge excused me due to taking care of some of my family members.

I would have liked to have served but we would have had to hire a nurse to come in and deal with stuff a few times a day.