So I went back to the courthouse on Monday. I was immediately called as an alternative juror but it soon turned into juror after everyone but me got excused. The jury selection process and I am talking about the part where you are already inside the courtroom is weird. The attorney's and judge ask a bunch of questions. FIrst you start off with these questions:
Where do you live?
What is your occupation?
Your previous occupation?
Are you married or living with other adults?
Your spouse's or other adults occupation?
Have you been on jury duty before?
Have you been on a case and was it criminal or civil?
Did your jury reach a verdict?
Then the Judge asks random questions to what you can only assume pertains to your case. Then the attorney's question you based on your answers or dismisses you immediately based on one of your answers. One of my questions, "Have I ever had a bad encounter with police officers?" sparked some interest in the defense attorney. I told them my story of how I witnessed some officers racially profile my good friend. The attorney's thought perhaps I was biased against cops. They asked me to explain the story and then asked me point blank if I could be fair and impartial. I said yes. I knew I was screwed when other people started getting let go and I didn't.
It was funny what got people dismissed for. Some gave little to no response to questions and got dismissed and then there were people who obviously wanted to get out of jury duty service and were obviously lying about their answers. I wondered why these people even bothered to answer the summons. If you have no problem lying then throw the summons away and save yourself some time. Now the judges and the attorney's these days must be used to people saying random things so when you do decide to lie be prepared to be grilled. I don't suggest doing it unless you are comfortable lying in front of a room of about 50 people. I am not so much of a good lier so I guess my fate was sealed the moment I walked into that courtroom. We went through about 75 people before they settled on 12 of us. The jury process took about 2 days and then the trial took 5 days. I served 8 days total over Feb 6-20th. There were 3 court holidays in between that time so there were days we didn't go in. Basically it made the process a whole lot longer then expected.
We finally got started with the trial after lunch on day 3. The jury I was on was the best jury ever. For some reason all 12 of us really got along really well. I thought the judge who looked like Andy Rooney and spoke like him thought we were all too friendly as one day he saw us all eating lunch together and afterward he would make it a point to tell us not to speak to each other about the case. In fact, I am friends on FaceBook with two gals and gotten business cards of other people. Who knew you could go to court and make friends? It was the last thing I expected.
Being part of a trial isn't so bad and in fact it's pretty interesting to hear everyone testify and see how they question people. The witnesses in my case were cops and scientists. The state attorney was really good. A lot of people got his business card at the end just in case they ran into any trouble. The defense attorney was a little greener. But all the people involved in the courtroom were really nice and made jokes all the time. That was unexpected.
The case was a DUI case. After hearing everything I wasn't really sure why the kid was fighting it. There were 4 counts. 2 for drinking and 2 for not having a license and for that license being suspended. The evidence that was shown clearly showed he was guilty on all 4 counts. I think I would have saved some money and pleaded guilty. But you I guess the person could be on his third strike and had to fight it. That is the sucky thing, they never tell you what happens to the person. You only read your verdict and go home. You don't get to hear the sentencing and find out what happens.
The kid stopped on Sunset in a lane of traffic which caused an office to pull him over. When the office got to the car he smelled alcohol. The kid said he had one margurita at 6pm which was six hours after he was pulled over at midnight. The kid had to do all the tests and then he blew a .106 and .101. Then at the station he blew a .096 and .093. If you get pulled over and you know you are drunk you are pretty much screwed because there is no way on the world you are going to prove that the machines didn't work right as those puppies are calibrated to within .003 every single week. And there is pretty much no way a police officer can tamper with them. You pretty much should just refuse to take the test and have them arrest you and take you to the station and ask for the blood test and hope that 3 hours go by before they take your blood. Cuz that's the only way you are getting out of a DUI unless you pay big money to a hotshot attorney.
So my best advise people is don't drink and drive. I really don't know how that defense attorney thought there was any reasonable doubt about the kid driving without his driver's license and the fact it was suspended. All we had to do was look at the long rap sheet from the DMV to know he didn't have a valid driver's license and it was suspended. Even though I enjoyed the process, I thought it was a big waste of money to have this whole trial for a DUI case. The legal limit is .08 and when you blow over that 4 consecutive times and they are all over that you are pretty much guilty. The funny joke of the case that had the whole room laughing was when this scientist did this math and said that in order for this kid to blow a .106 and had his last drink at 6pm and it was only a margarita, the drink would have had to be the size of a fishbowl and would have had to have 8 oz of liquor in it. A normal drink is 1oz. That is octoman drink!!!!
It was pretty obvious from all the scientists and their math equations that the guy did not stop drinking at 6pm. He probably would have been better off telling the truth as it might of helped his case and all those science equations. His lawyer was trying to prove that at the time of driving he was not over a .08 but she failed miserably when the state attorney caught her scientist in a lie. That part was like TV.
Anyway, on Feb 20th the jury went into the deliberations but we all immediately found him guilty. We re-read the laws that the judge gave us to make sure we were following the law and took about an hour and a half. The interesting thing was that you can sit and listen to a case and get your own opinion but when you get the actual law verbiage from the judge it might not match what you think and you must always go with what the law instructs you to do despite your opinion. So after we made sure our opinions matched the law we rang for the bailiff who came and got us. Our Jury Foreman gave a folder to the court reporter. Inside were four pieces f paper representing each count and on each paper the Jury Foreman wrote guilty and signed his name. The judge looked at the folder and told the court reporter to read the verdicts. None of us knew what we should do when they read the verdict because we all felt bad for the kid. But after all it was his decision to drive over the limit. The kid didn't react at all. Not sure if he expected it or couldn't believe it. The judge thanked us for our time and we were excused back to the Jury Assembly Room and they scanned our badges and we checked out. We were all glad it was over.
I went back to work on Monday and get home to the biggest cosmic joke ever. Yes, in my mail was another Jury Summons for me. I was beyond livid. So I spent this past Tuesday filling out a bunch of paperwork saying I had already served and needed to be excused. My intern at work summoned it up nicely. He said I must have done such a good job as a juror that the wanted me back. Uha right. Totally random process huh??
Where do you live?
What is your occupation?
Your previous occupation?
Are you married or living with other adults?
Your spouse's or other adults occupation?
Have you been on jury duty before?
Have you been on a case and was it criminal or civil?
Did your jury reach a verdict?
Then the Judge asks random questions to what you can only assume pertains to your case. Then the attorney's question you based on your answers or dismisses you immediately based on one of your answers. One of my questions, "Have I ever had a bad encounter with police officers?" sparked some interest in the defense attorney. I told them my story of how I witnessed some officers racially profile my good friend. The attorney's thought perhaps I was biased against cops. They asked me to explain the story and then asked me point blank if I could be fair and impartial. I said yes. I knew I was screwed when other people started getting let go and I didn't.
It was funny what got people dismissed for. Some gave little to no response to questions and got dismissed and then there were people who obviously wanted to get out of jury duty service and were obviously lying about their answers. I wondered why these people even bothered to answer the summons. If you have no problem lying then throw the summons away and save yourself some time. Now the judges and the attorney's these days must be used to people saying random things so when you do decide to lie be prepared to be grilled. I don't suggest doing it unless you are comfortable lying in front of a room of about 50 people. I am not so much of a good lier so I guess my fate was sealed the moment I walked into that courtroom. We went through about 75 people before they settled on 12 of us. The jury process took about 2 days and then the trial took 5 days. I served 8 days total over Feb 6-20th. There were 3 court holidays in between that time so there were days we didn't go in. Basically it made the process a whole lot longer then expected.
We finally got started with the trial after lunch on day 3. The jury I was on was the best jury ever. For some reason all 12 of us really got along really well. I thought the judge who looked like Andy Rooney and spoke like him thought we were all too friendly as one day he saw us all eating lunch together and afterward he would make it a point to tell us not to speak to each other about the case. In fact, I am friends on FaceBook with two gals and gotten business cards of other people. Who knew you could go to court and make friends? It was the last thing I expected.
Being part of a trial isn't so bad and in fact it's pretty interesting to hear everyone testify and see how they question people. The witnesses in my case were cops and scientists. The state attorney was really good. A lot of people got his business card at the end just in case they ran into any trouble. The defense attorney was a little greener. But all the people involved in the courtroom were really nice and made jokes all the time. That was unexpected.
The case was a DUI case. After hearing everything I wasn't really sure why the kid was fighting it. There were 4 counts. 2 for drinking and 2 for not having a license and for that license being suspended. The evidence that was shown clearly showed he was guilty on all 4 counts. I think I would have saved some money and pleaded guilty. But you I guess the person could be on his third strike and had to fight it. That is the sucky thing, they never tell you what happens to the person. You only read your verdict and go home. You don't get to hear the sentencing and find out what happens.
The kid stopped on Sunset in a lane of traffic which caused an office to pull him over. When the office got to the car he smelled alcohol. The kid said he had one margurita at 6pm which was six hours after he was pulled over at midnight. The kid had to do all the tests and then he blew a .106 and .101. Then at the station he blew a .096 and .093. If you get pulled over and you know you are drunk you are pretty much screwed because there is no way on the world you are going to prove that the machines didn't work right as those puppies are calibrated to within .003 every single week. And there is pretty much no way a police officer can tamper with them. You pretty much should just refuse to take the test and have them arrest you and take you to the station and ask for the blood test and hope that 3 hours go by before they take your blood. Cuz that's the only way you are getting out of a DUI unless you pay big money to a hotshot attorney.
So my best advise people is don't drink and drive. I really don't know how that defense attorney thought there was any reasonable doubt about the kid driving without his driver's license and the fact it was suspended. All we had to do was look at the long rap sheet from the DMV to know he didn't have a valid driver's license and it was suspended. Even though I enjoyed the process, I thought it was a big waste of money to have this whole trial for a DUI case. The legal limit is .08 and when you blow over that 4 consecutive times and they are all over that you are pretty much guilty. The funny joke of the case that had the whole room laughing was when this scientist did this math and said that in order for this kid to blow a .106 and had his last drink at 6pm and it was only a margarita, the drink would have had to be the size of a fishbowl and would have had to have 8 oz of liquor in it. A normal drink is 1oz. That is octoman drink!!!!
It was pretty obvious from all the scientists and their math equations that the guy did not stop drinking at 6pm. He probably would have been better off telling the truth as it might of helped his case and all those science equations. His lawyer was trying to prove that at the time of driving he was not over a .08 but she failed miserably when the state attorney caught her scientist in a lie. That part was like TV.
Anyway, on Feb 20th the jury went into the deliberations but we all immediately found him guilty. We re-read the laws that the judge gave us to make sure we were following the law and took about an hour and a half. The interesting thing was that you can sit and listen to a case and get your own opinion but when you get the actual law verbiage from the judge it might not match what you think and you must always go with what the law instructs you to do despite your opinion. So after we made sure our opinions matched the law we rang for the bailiff who came and got us. Our Jury Foreman gave a folder to the court reporter. Inside were four pieces f paper representing each count and on each paper the Jury Foreman wrote guilty and signed his name. The judge looked at the folder and told the court reporter to read the verdicts. None of us knew what we should do when they read the verdict because we all felt bad for the kid. But after all it was his decision to drive over the limit. The kid didn't react at all. Not sure if he expected it or couldn't believe it. The judge thanked us for our time and we were excused back to the Jury Assembly Room and they scanned our badges and we checked out. We were all glad it was over.
I went back to work on Monday and get home to the biggest cosmic joke ever. Yes, in my mail was another Jury Summons for me. I was beyond livid. So I spent this past Tuesday filling out a bunch of paperwork saying I had already served and needed to be excused. My intern at work summoned it up nicely. He said I must have done such a good job as a juror that the wanted me back. Uha right. Totally random process huh??
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