re: Ever have jury duty?

I did. Harris County, Texas. It was a state charge, 6 person jury (didn't know a 6 person jury was a thing).

I was fourth on the list of jurors so I got selected. Got checked in, then a bunch of us had to sit outside in a hallway for 2 hours. That sucked. Finally got in, did voir dire or whatever the term is, got selected. Went to a room, they said go get some lunch, come back for 1:30.

Trial lasted till about 6 pm that day, and lasted from 9-12 next day. They brought in pizza for us so we could start our deliberations. By 2:30 I was in the car headed home.

Guy was accused of beating up his live-in girlfriend. Girl had a few scratches. Girl refused to press charges at the scene or after. Entire case was based off of physical evidence and the eyewitness of a neighbor in the apartment complex, who happened to be a female army soldier.

The defense was, girl got lit drunk and high out at a party, she was a big ole gal too, and the boyfriend had to basically carry her into the apartment. She wasn't a happy drunk and was fighting with him and a couple of times he grabbed her and basically pushed her in the apartment (where they both lived). At one point she fell and got a bruise and a cut.

She admitted to being drunk and high and that there was never a problem. The guy had no priors for violent crime.

Two things made it real interesting.

1) When the jury selection shook out, the way it ended up was with an all-white, all-male jury.

2) The defendant and the "victim", neither of them spoke a lick of English. I'm 99.9 percent sure they were here illegally. The only think we were told was that the defendant was of Mexican heritage. His or her immigration status was never mentioned.

Oh, and he was found not guilty. He may have beat her up, who knows, but the prosecution's case was terrible and weak.

I was either 18 or 19 and got summonsed in Jefferson Parish while at LSU. Sent a letter stating that I was away at college. Was registered in EBR for about 12 years and never got summonsed. Shortly after moving to Ascension I got summonsed. We all stood outside the courtroom for about an hour, then the judge calls us into the courtroom and says something like "Thank you for showing up. Sometimes it takes the presence of a possible jury to motivate the sides to settle. You are no longer needed. Go to the office to pick up your check." Not sure what the trial was for. Going on 8 years since that.

I know.

I actually made a concerted effort not to control the room, even when they named me foreman.

They made up their own minds. I just would have fought for unanimous as I'm obligated to do.

I was the foreman on a murder trial. I tried everything to get out of it.

I got summoned as soon as I turned 18, before I even finished high school. Got out of that one and the next two summons with excuses of school (high school, then college twice). I'm expecting my next summons will be soon

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Lazy But Talented

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First day of trial I fainted and pissed myself in the jury box. I got dismissed right after.

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Username checks out.

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But nobody is going to put a lawyer or judge on a jury so they never actually serve on a jury. But they do get summoned.

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IIRC US Dist. Judge Robbie James out of Monroe was summoned one time and had to pay a fine when his cell phone rang in the courtroom.