Jury selection leaves something to be desired ...

[dogtag]

Juror asks Judge, "what is a Senator?"

I know for certain that potential Jurors are gleaned
from the DMV and NOT necessarily from voter rolls
which is where they're supposed to come from.
I am not on the voter rolls, yet I have a pile of jury
summonses from over the years. Many moons ago
I replied to the first two or three summonses that I was
not a citizen (you had to wait 7 years back then before
you could apply for citizenship - probably a week now)
but they kept on coming, so I gave up.
Is it any wonder OJ got away with murder.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...t-is-a-senator

[Art]

Jurors are picked from DMV records in many states because too many people were not registering to vote to avoid Jury duty (yes its a fact.) As far as I'm concerned if a person has so little civic pride or sense of duty that he would disenfranchise himself to avoid a civic responsibility....well he shouldn't be voting anyway.

I personally have had far too many encounters with fine upstanding citizens who openly admit to giving answers in Voir Dire that they know will disqualify them to avoid serving on a jury, invariably because they have other stuff to do. I consider that an absolute and total dereliction of civic responsibility also. I've served on Jurys in both civil and criminal cases (remarkable since I'm a retired LEO) and I sure didn't find it a recreational activity or go out of my way to get picked but I didn't try to weasel my way out of it either. Unfortunately people who bellyache about their rights too often avoid any exercise of civic responsibility at all costs.

My personal experience with Jurors both as an LEO in cases I've had prosecuted and juries I've sat on is that in the vast majority of cases jurors take their responsibilities very seriously indeed and diligently attempt to follow the facts of the case presented by the lawyers and to apply the law and the rules of evidence as explained by the judge. Bad verdicts happen for a lot of reasons but in my experience they are the exception.

[Vern Humphrey]

A better question is, "what is a judge?" If a juror has a question, it should be answered. If a juror requests a transcript, it should be provided. After all, if there are appeals, does the appeals court read the transcript, or call in the jurors and ask them what they remember?

[RED]

Bad verdicts happen for a lot of reasons but in my experience they are the exception.

Yep, there are a lot of reasons for bad verdicts but the biggest one I have seen lies with the Judges. It is called “jury instructions.” When the evidence has been presented and the trial comes to a close, the Judge reads the instructions to the jury. It is often very detailed, very long, and difficult for the jury to follow the “legaleese,” language.

I was the foreman on a jury in a civil case. An old country doctor went to a young city whiz kid to treat his kidney stones. Bottom line the young doctor screwed it all up and the old Dr. lost all kidney function and required dialysis in order to survive. It was obvious to the entire jury the old Dr. should be awarded damages… Ah then there were the jury instructions.

In short, the judge said we could only find for the plaintiff, if we found that the young doc PURPOSELY INTENDED to hurt the old guy.

That made no sense to any of us but it is what it is and we thought our only option was to obey the judge.

That was a bad verdict. It was not justice, and it was not right, but the idea of NOT following the Judge’s instructions just was not even considered. We had no idea of the concept of “jury nullification.”

If you are a juror, you and your fellows can do whatever they think is right, and screw the judge! After the trial we found out that a previous jury had awarded the old doc with millions of dollars but the verdict was overturned because of faulty jury instructions.

BTW, the judge here was Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr.

[dogtag]

As far as I'm aware, "Judges instructions" can be ignored - probably should be,
but no doubt jurors feel intimidated.

[Vern Humphrey]

This country is fast becoming a shysterocracy -- poorly educated lawyers making momentous decisions based on ignorance and prejudice.