JURY DUTY
Thread started by
sancho1 at 09.10.09 - 7:24 pm
well it finally happened, i was roped into jury duty. I'm half excited about the experience but I'm trying to figure out if i should drive or ride there. is it safe to leave a bike locked up by the courthouse in downtown? i have a mini U and a cable. i would loooove to bike it there but don't wanna leave anything to chance. advice, comments, epiphanies???HAAAAlp
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All I got to say is cross your fingers and hope the trial is settled before they call the entire jury in.
As far as locking up, do as you normally would.
If they give you any shit about dressing nice, just wear pants.
Last time I got called into that shit, almost everyone was dressed as they would every day.
I mean, why wear a suit when none of that's going to even matter to you in the future.
bentstrider09.10.09 - 7:34 pm
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Depends on your bike. If it is fixed and has nice components - Forget it.
Joe Borfo responding to a
comment by sancho1
09.10.09 - 7:47 pm
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I'd double ulock if you can but I'm just paranoid like that. Speaking of jury duty. I just looked at my old mail and I was suppose to be on call on 9.7.09. I gotta call them and explain i'm not trying to ditch them. Anyone here ever know of anyone that actually got cited for not going to jury duty?
digablesoul09.10.09 - 8:01 pm
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You'd think with all the budget-cuts and case backlogs all the superior courts are going through, one would think that sending deputies after jury-dodgers would be at the bottom of the priority bucket.
bentstrider responding to a
comment by digablesoul
09.10.09 - 8:17 pm
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i got a co worker that said you can tell them what happened. you HAVE to speak to a live person though.
sancho1 responding to a
comment by digablesoul
09.10.09 - 8:18 pm
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ive gotten 4 jury duties all my life...never replied ,never gone..and im still a free man..woop woop!
Huey55509.10.09 - 8:56 pm
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i got a letter, never went . and thats it. actually forgot i ever got a letter till i saw this thread. but if you do go, be very sexist and racist, they kick you out quick. no one wants someone like that on the jury. co -worker of mine went home early doing it like that.
Jeff Yess09.10.09 - 9:04 pm
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i enjoyed jury duty, and I rode my bike there, to the criminal courthouse downtown.
I got picked for a trial last August. We were there a total of 5 days. I rode my old 10 speed four of the days and locked up outside to a sign post. I removed the front wheel and locked it with my back wheel and frame with one u-lock. I took my lights etc with me. The bike was there each day when I got out. The other day, one of my fellow jurors gave me a ride. You are inside from 8:30 til noon, then 1:30 til 4 pm, or until they release you, which will be befor 4 pm. During the 4 days of the trial we were there from 10 am til noon, then 1:30 til 4pm. We often got released early both for lunch and for the day.
The judge did a great job of informing us about our civic duty and how as a citizen it is our responsibility to serve on jury duty. I was also impressed with the intellegence of my fellow jurors. We found the defendent not guilty to 4 felony charges of counterfeiting for being a clerk in a store selling counterfeit goods.
Though the judge will tell you that you can only judge the facts in the case and not the law, in fact you can judge the law. You just can't say it. This was used to horrible injustice years ago and led to some whites getting away with murder because 12 white jurors often wouldn't convict a fellow white man of killing a black man etc. However "jury nullification" can be used to great effect in things such as medical marijuana cases and music downloading cases or any other case in which the law is unjust. Unfortunately most people don't know about this and thus the music industry wins hundreds of thousands of dollars from single mothers and a medical marijuana dealer meeting all of california's regulations and welcomed by Morro Bays's chamber of commerce can be sentenced to many years in prison.
In the trial I took part in, the law stated something like, a person who knowingly sells counterfeit goods is guilty of counterfeiting. The defendent did not take the stand. The arresting detective stated on the stand that the defendent had told him that he knew that the goods were illegal. A counterfeit expert testified as to his training and showed us the evidence seized was counterfeit and how he knew it was counterfeit. We got to touch the evidence in the jury room during deliberations. The prosecution also brought up evidence that the defendent only worked part-time at the store for the past 3 months and made $250 a week. The defense didn't call any witnesses.
As a group we decided that the case hinged on whether the defendent "knowingly" sold the counterfeit goods. Getting to look at the goods, learning that it took special training to be able to tell the counterfeits from the authentic goods, learning that the defendent was a clerk not a purchaser or owner of the store, and the fact that the detective stated that the clerk knew the stuff was "illegal"(thus possibly stolen and not counterfeit) led us to a reasonable doubt as to the defendent's "knowingly" selling counterfeit goods. The first vote in the jury room was 12-0 on 3 of the four counts(Ed Hardy tees, Seven Jeans, and another I've forgotten) and 9-3 on the Nikes. The three thought that since he was a young black man and had admitted to the detective to purchasing the nikes on his own feet for $120, he had to know that selling Air Jordans for $50 that they were counterfeit. However we were able to convice the three soon enough that there was reasonable doubt and within 2 hours we had acquitted the defendent on all 4 felony counts of counterfeiting.
I didn't necearily want to do it when I got called; however I want to do it again. Hope you have fun and learn a lot. I did.
gregb09.10.09 - 11:25 pm
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thats the first jury duty "success" story i think i ever seen. not the trial part, but the jury duty as a positive thing.nice.
Jeff Yess responding to a
comment by gregb
09.10.09 - 11:41 pm
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