warning this is long.
First off I went and fucked up - I'm on jury duty and ... I forgot to call in Thursday night to see if we had anything scheduled for Friday. Turns out we did. I called the court house on tuesday (Monday they're closed) and they said to just come in the next time and that for a single miss they don't punish. (thus implying that if it happened again there'd be punishment).
Since it's just district court - disability hearings & misdemeanors - we only have 6 jurors. They pick 12 randomly (lotto ball thingy) and then from that 12 pick out 6.
Until last week we've only done disability hearings - determining how disabled (all, none, partial) someone is in order to determine what sort of help they can get etc. Only the Judge asks the jury questions to determine eligibility and then they pick the final 6. (heh makes it sound like BSG).
Today was the second actual criminal case we've had (i missed the one on friday )but it was interesting to see how it differed from the ones we usually get.
First the Judge asked the 12 questions to see if they knew anyone involved in the case. Then the Prosecution asked his questions - and conducted opening remarks. I think... It sure sounded like opening remarks, discussing what kind of evidence we'd be presented with. Then the Defense asked her questions, and did her opening remarks, asking if we felt it was possible to get in the situation the Defendant was in, through no fault of your own.
By the end of that part they'd already switched out, I think 5 jurors, with the new ones asked a summary of the previous questions.
Juror 1: Grew up with the defendant
Juror 2: Cousin to Arresting Officer #3
Juror 3: Previous experience with friend or family member over a similar charge (discussed in private with the Judge & both counselors)
Juror 4: Replaced Juror 3 but... he knows the Defendant
Juror 5: Singled out by Prosecution & openly said what he felt about the law in question. (also discussed in private with the Judge & both counselors)
Finally they had 12 Jurors who had no connections to anyone involved in the case who felt they could fairly judge him. So the Court Clerk gave both the Prosecution & the Defense paperwork to use to strike jurors - they get 3 each - if they want. Then we sat and waited...
For the rest of us in the unselected jury we pretty much knew we were off the hook now. Unless something really strange happened they weren't going to pick any more people to fill the jury.
Notably, I also thought that once you served on a jury you wouldn't be picked until everyone else had a chance... but apparently that isn't so. I haven't been picked once, but one of the jurors had already served on Friday's trial (ended up in a mistrial they said). Actually a couple of them got picked again for todays... weird.
Anyway...
Something strange happened, but not what I was expecting. The Judge and counselors and all parties involved came back into the courtroom to proceed and ...
Maybe it was knowing that the cops had video evidence to support their claims. Or facing people he personally knew in the jury... but for whatever reason, the Defendant changed his mind and changed his plea.
I don't know what punishment he'll get - fines or another hearing for sentencing perhaps, but I'm just guessing. I do know he's responsible for paying the court costs & juror pay though. The Judge explained that part, and that the Defendant was made aware of that prior to the case.
Part of me is curious as to what else is going on here. But not enough to go and buy one of those "recent arrests" newspapers for a dollar. maybe after i'm off jury duty. they didn't say anything about not reading those but... i'd rather not cloud my judgement either
First off I went and fucked up - I'm on jury duty and ... I forgot to call in Thursday night to see if we had anything scheduled for Friday. Turns out we did. I called the court house on tuesday (Monday they're closed) and they said to just come in the next time and that for a single miss they don't punish. (thus implying that if it happened again there'd be punishment).
Since it's just district court - disability hearings & misdemeanors - we only have 6 jurors. They pick 12 randomly (lotto ball thingy) and then from that 12 pick out 6.
Until last week we've only done disability hearings - determining how disabled (all, none, partial) someone is in order to determine what sort of help they can get etc. Only the Judge asks the jury questions to determine eligibility and then they pick the final 6. (heh makes it sound like BSG).
Today was the second actual criminal case we've had (i missed the one on friday )but it was interesting to see how it differed from the ones we usually get.
First the Judge asked the 12 questions to see if they knew anyone involved in the case. Then the Prosecution asked his questions - and conducted opening remarks. I think... It sure sounded like opening remarks, discussing what kind of evidence we'd be presented with. Then the Defense asked her questions, and did her opening remarks, asking if we felt it was possible to get in the situation the Defendant was in, through no fault of your own.
By the end of that part they'd already switched out, I think 5 jurors, with the new ones asked a summary of the previous questions.
Juror 1: Grew up with the defendant
Juror 2: Cousin to Arresting Officer #3
Juror 3: Previous experience with friend or family member over a similar charge (discussed in private with the Judge & both counselors)
Juror 4: Replaced Juror 3 but... he knows the Defendant
Juror 5: Singled out by Prosecution & openly said what he felt about the law in question. (also discussed in private with the Judge & both counselors)
Finally they had 12 Jurors who had no connections to anyone involved in the case who felt they could fairly judge him. So the Court Clerk gave both the Prosecution & the Defense paperwork to use to strike jurors - they get 3 each - if they want. Then we sat and waited...
For the rest of us in the unselected jury we pretty much knew we were off the hook now. Unless something really strange happened they weren't going to pick any more people to fill the jury.
Notably, I also thought that once you served on a jury you wouldn't be picked until everyone else had a chance... but apparently that isn't so. I haven't been picked once, but one of the jurors had already served on Friday's trial (ended up in a mistrial they said). Actually a couple of them got picked again for todays... weird.
Anyway...
Something strange happened, but not what I was expecting. The Judge and counselors and all parties involved came back into the courtroom to proceed and ...
Maybe it was knowing that the cops had video evidence to support their claims. Or facing people he personally knew in the jury... but for whatever reason, the Defendant changed his mind and changed his plea.
I don't know what punishment he'll get - fines or another hearing for sentencing perhaps, but I'm just guessing. I do know he's responsible for paying the court costs & juror pay though. The Judge explained that part, and that the Defendant was made aware of that prior to the case.
Part of me is curious as to what else is going on here. But not enough to go and buy one of those "recent arrests" newspapers for a dollar. maybe after i'm off jury duty. they didn't say anything about not reading those but... i'd rather not cloud my judgement either
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