Two girls at work spoke on this today. One said they were called in for two days only on a really minor case, someone not paying a fine. So not impacted.
The other said at the time they were working in an incredibly stressful and toxic workplace. And their boss said to them “even though I can’t legally ask you this, if this case lasts longer than a week, you need to figure a way to get out of it”. And then the case was about a woman who was brutally beaten by her partner to the point she was blind in one eye.
But the man who beat her was a police officer. So the case was about what level of consequence was “acceptable” for him based on him effectively being told off but allowed to go back to work.
She said it was like two thumbs were pressing her down into the ground on both sides.
There was no disturbing evidence at the trial I was part of. It was frustrating that the police had probably caught the right guy but didn’t have enough evidence to prove it beyond reasonable doubt so we had to find him not guilty.
I’ve served on a few different juries. Nothing crazy there. But while in college I had to observe and report on both federal and state court proceedings. The one I think about a lot was the expert witness to a manslaughter trial. There were images from the night of the incident—a large parking lot with a motel, trees, and some lights. The expert brought a rendition of the same scenario but as it would have looked at the actual time the car struck the victim. They answered questions about moonlight, headlights, lamp lights, trees casting shadows, reflections from the other cars in the lot, windows of the motel. It was just crazy to me that there was an expert on just the light/visibility. And they interviewed the guy for two days. Then brought him back in for clarification on a few things the jurors wondered about. I’ve never forgotten that. It’s been 16 years.
I was on a grand jury. We had a case where an individual broke into his parents home, killed them in a rather gruesome manner then called 911. The police responded and shot him. We were deciding whether to charge the police officer.
As part of the presentation we saw the video taken by the crime scene investigators which included the mutilated corpses, and various body parts strewn around the house.
It was more than 20 years ago but sometimes I still think about it.
The 2 times I’ve been in a jury, most of the other jurors didn’t want to consider evidence or discuss the case at all. They just wanted to vote guilty and go home. THAT’S frightening.
I’ve been called to jury duty four times in my life. I ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The first time I got a letter telling me to report to the clerk of the court. I went, black leather jacket, beard, long hair and all. She took one look and said, “Mr. Kabar, you’re excused from jury duty.” Didn’t serve.
The second time I went to the jury venire (the shape-up where jurors are selected.) I was eliminated almost immediately. Didn’t serve.
The third time I made it on to the jury (my philosophy was “Would I want somebody like me on the jury if I was accused of a crime?” “Yes.”) but it was a civil case and they settled the case in the judge’s chambers.
The fourth time, it was a juvenile case: a 14-year-old black kid charged with felony possession of powder cocaine for sale. The kid and a bunch of his friends were hanging out at a dope house in their neighborhood where all the older teenagers and young adults hung out. Cars would roll up and the kids with drugs would sell to the motorists. I think the adults were using the juveniles to hold the drugs. The adult would take the money and the kid would give the customer the drugs, so the drugs and the money were never in the same place at the same time, and never on the same person.
The cops raided the place and everybody ran every which direction. My defendant and two of his friends ran and hid on the balcony breezeway of a nearby apartment project. The cops found them and arrested them, but the drugs were found on the ground back in front of the drug house. The cops tried to say my defendant tossed the drugs and ran.
Maybe. Maybe not.
But the state has to PROVE it, and they didn’t prove it. So we voted not guilty and the kid walked. He was so grateful he was weeping. I told him later in the courthouse lobby, “Man, you better change the way you are living your life before you wind up in prison for real.”
Who knows? He was probably right back out there the very next day. But I sure hope not.
Got put on a case where we had to decide if a guy was guilty of aggravated reckless driving. He had been chasing another car down the highway and veered into the bike lane hitting a rider and dragging them which broke their back and fractured their skull. It should have been an obvious guilty verdict, but a lot of fuckery went on during deliberation and the half that wanted not guilty got their way. I’ve always regretted not digging my heels in.
The jury couldn’t agree on a rape case. 2 men said that it isn’t rape bc she went on a date with the guy. A female jury member shared her story and the guys still didn’t get it. The case got dismissed bc under my country’s law, the rapist has to know the other person isn’t consenting and the rapists just lie
I was in a 2-week civil case of medical malpractice. The plaintiff went in to emergency surgery with an arterial aneurysm. He was 75 years old and a diabetic smoker. On the operating table his arteries basically blew apart due to his age and medical history. The doctor saved his life but the guy woke up paralyzed. Someone told this guy that he could probably make a ton of money suing the doctor for the paralysis. The surgery, which should have been an hour long, had turned into a 10 hour long bloodbath. The man essentially lost 100% of his blood and received it back and more through transfusion over the course of the surgery. They showed us pictures of the operating room afterwards and I’ve never seen so much blood in my life. It felt like a scene from The Shining. We had to take a quick recess because one of the jurors ran to the bathroom to vomit.
As a civil case we had to decide if the doctor had followed the standard of care (lots of testimony about that) or had acted recklessly. It was ridiculous. The only reason the guy was alive was because the doctor spent 10 hours relentlessly replacing and repairing the arteries the guy had damaged by smoking for 50 years. Yeah, I’m sure it sucked to wake up paralyzed but he would have been dead in the hands of any lesser surgeon.
It took us longer to pick a foreperson than to find that the doctor DID follow the standard of care (and more) and absolve him of any liability.
But I’ll never forget the pictures of that operating room. Holy shit.
Young girl was raped by her step dad and a lady on the jury that was 80 said, well she should’ve known it was wrong because she was a christian… I think every other jurors jaw fell to the floor.
I haven’t served jury duty, but back in 2013 I was subpoenaed to appear in court for a deposition as I was the sole witness of a case.
A guy on a motorcycle overtook my car on a rural road in the middle of the night. As he merged back into the right lane, he lost his balance and overcorrected. He careened to the left, and made a head-on collision with a residential mailbox. It was like an action movie scene. The motorcycle went airborne, sparks flying everywhere, as I watched it fly into the heavily wooded front yard of, I swear, the only house within several miles.
I was flabbergasted. What were the odds? I had clearly just watched a man die. I pulled over immediately and called 911. The operator asked me to investigate his medical condition. I was very hesitant to approach a mutilated corpse, but eventually I sucked it up to do the right thing. I ventured into the trees, saw a motorcycle wrapped around one of them with a body laying next to it. Sure enough, as I approached, that sonofabitch stood up and tried to get back on his motorcycle like nothing had happened. I couldn’t believe he had survived the wreck. I convinced him to stay put while the authorities arrived. It was only a minute or two before we were surrounded by cops & firetrucks, and they pulled me far away from the crash site for questioning.
I’m not sure exactly what he was cited for, but I have always assumed it was drunk driving.
Weeks later, in court, I gave my account of what happened. The judge had such a tough time imagining the scene that she requested a dry erase board to be wheeled into the court room so I could illustrate the event step-by-step.
The man on trial was representing himself. After my explanation, he was given a chance to question me. He said he mostly agreed with my report— but did I see the squirrel that ran out in front of him, which caused him to overcorrect?
I said no, I did not see a squirrel.
After my deposition, I took my seat in the courtroom and a police officer was called to the stand to give his. I didn’t recognize the officer.
Upon questioning, the plaintiff asked if he was the responding officer that night. The officer said no, but he was there. The guy dug into some legal code asking the officer if he knows it’s against the law to represent a police department if he wasn’t the officer who reported the event or whatever. I swear, guys, the police officer started crying on the stand and said he didn’t know any of that.
Comments
Two girls at work spoke on this today. One said they were called in for two days only on a really minor case, someone not paying a fine. So not impacted.
The other said at the time they were working in an incredibly stressful and toxic workplace. And their boss said to them “even though I can’t legally ask you this, if this case lasts longer than a week, you need to figure a way to get out of it”. And then the case was about a woman who was brutally beaten by her partner to the point she was blind in one eye.
But the man who beat her was a police officer. So the case was about what level of consequence was “acceptable” for him based on him effectively being told off but allowed to go back to work.
She said it was like two thumbs were pressing her down into the ground on both sides.
There was no disturbing evidence at the trial I was part of. It was frustrating that the police had probably caught the right guy but didn’t have enough evidence to prove it beyond reasonable doubt so we had to find him not guilty.
I’ve served on a few different juries. Nothing crazy there. But while in college I had to observe and report on both federal and state court proceedings. The one I think about a lot was the expert witness to a manslaughter trial. There were images from the night of the incident—a large parking lot with a motel, trees, and some lights. The expert brought a rendition of the same scenario but as it would have looked at the actual time the car struck the victim. They answered questions about moonlight, headlights, lamp lights, trees casting shadows, reflections from the other cars in the lot, windows of the motel. It was just crazy to me that there was an expert on just the light/visibility. And they interviewed the guy for two days. Then brought him back in for clarification on a few things the jurors wondered about. I’ve never forgotten that. It’s been 16 years.
[deleted]
I was on a grand jury. We had a case where an individual broke into his parents home, killed them in a rather gruesome manner then called 911. The police responded and shot him. We were deciding whether to charge the police officer.
As part of the presentation we saw the video taken by the crime scene investigators which included the mutilated corpses, and various body parts strewn around the house.
It was more than 20 years ago but sometimes I still think about it.
The 2 times I’ve been in a jury, most of the other jurors didn’t want to consider evidence or discuss the case at all. They just wanted to vote guilty and go home. THAT’S frightening.
I’ve been called to jury duty four times in my life. I ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The first time I got a letter telling me to report to the clerk of the court. I went, black leather jacket, beard, long hair and all. She took one look and said, “Mr. Kabar, you’re excused from jury duty.” Didn’t serve.
The second time I went to the jury venire (the shape-up where jurors are selected.) I was eliminated almost immediately. Didn’t serve.
The third time I made it on to the jury (my philosophy was “Would I want somebody like me on the jury if I was accused of a crime?” “Yes.”) but it was a civil case and they settled the case in the judge’s chambers.
The fourth time, it was a juvenile case: a 14-year-old black kid charged with felony possession of powder cocaine for sale. The kid and a bunch of his friends were hanging out at a dope house in their neighborhood where all the older teenagers and young adults hung out. Cars would roll up and the kids with drugs would sell to the motorists. I think the adults were using the juveniles to hold the drugs. The adult would take the money and the kid would give the customer the drugs, so the drugs and the money were never in the same place at the same time, and never on the same person.
The cops raided the place and everybody ran every which direction. My defendant and two of his friends ran and hid on the balcony breezeway of a nearby apartment project. The cops found them and arrested them, but the drugs were found on the ground back in front of the drug house. The cops tried to say my defendant tossed the drugs and ran.
Maybe. Maybe not.
But the state has to PROVE it, and they didn’t prove it. So we voted not guilty and the kid walked. He was so grateful he was weeping. I told him later in the courthouse lobby, “Man, you better change the way you are living your life before you wind up in prison for real.”
Who knows? He was probably right back out there the very next day. But I sure hope not.
Got put on a case where we had to decide if a guy was guilty of aggravated reckless driving. He had been chasing another car down the highway and veered into the bike lane hitting a rider and dragging them which broke their back and fractured their skull. It should have been an obvious guilty verdict, but a lot of fuckery went on during deliberation and the half that wanted not guilty got their way. I’ve always regretted not digging my heels in.
Not me but one of my close friends.
The jury couldn’t agree on a rape case. 2 men said that it isn’t rape bc she went on a date with the guy. A female jury member shared her story and the guys still didn’t get it. The case got dismissed bc under my country’s law, the rapist has to know the other person isn’t consenting and the rapists just lie
I was in a 2-week civil case of medical malpractice. The plaintiff went in to emergency surgery with an arterial aneurysm. He was 75 years old and a diabetic smoker. On the operating table his arteries basically blew apart due to his age and medical history. The doctor saved his life but the guy woke up paralyzed. Someone told this guy that he could probably make a ton of money suing the doctor for the paralysis. The surgery, which should have been an hour long, had turned into a 10 hour long bloodbath. The man essentially lost 100% of his blood and received it back and more through transfusion over the course of the surgery. They showed us pictures of the operating room afterwards and I’ve never seen so much blood in my life. It felt like a scene from The Shining. We had to take a quick recess because one of the jurors ran to the bathroom to vomit.
As a civil case we had to decide if the doctor had followed the standard of care (lots of testimony about that) or had acted recklessly. It was ridiculous. The only reason the guy was alive was because the doctor spent 10 hours relentlessly replacing and repairing the arteries the guy had damaged by smoking for 50 years. Yeah, I’m sure it sucked to wake up paralyzed but he would have been dead in the hands of any lesser surgeon.
It took us longer to pick a foreperson than to find that the doctor DID follow the standard of care (and more) and absolve him of any liability.
But I’ll never forget the pictures of that operating room. Holy shit.
Young girl was raped by her step dad and a lady on the jury that was 80 said, well she should’ve known it was wrong because she was a christian… I think every other jurors jaw fell to the floor.
I haven’t served jury duty, but back in 2013 I was subpoenaed to appear in court for a deposition as I was the sole witness of a case.
A guy on a motorcycle overtook my car on a rural road in the middle of the night. As he merged back into the right lane, he lost his balance and overcorrected. He careened to the left, and made a head-on collision with a residential mailbox. It was like an action movie scene. The motorcycle went airborne, sparks flying everywhere, as I watched it fly into the heavily wooded front yard of, I swear, the only house within several miles.
I was flabbergasted. What were the odds? I had clearly just watched a man die. I pulled over immediately and called 911. The operator asked me to investigate his medical condition. I was very hesitant to approach a mutilated corpse, but eventually I sucked it up to do the right thing. I ventured into the trees, saw a motorcycle wrapped around one of them with a body laying next to it. Sure enough, as I approached, that sonofabitch stood up and tried to get back on his motorcycle like nothing had happened. I couldn’t believe he had survived the wreck. I convinced him to stay put while the authorities arrived. It was only a minute or two before we were surrounded by cops & firetrucks, and they pulled me far away from the crash site for questioning.
I’m not sure exactly what he was cited for, but I have always assumed it was drunk driving.
Weeks later, in court, I gave my account of what happened. The judge had such a tough time imagining the scene that she requested a dry erase board to be wheeled into the court room so I could illustrate the event step-by-step.
The man on trial was representing himself. After my explanation, he was given a chance to question me. He said he mostly agreed with my report— but did I see the squirrel that ran out in front of him, which caused him to overcorrect?
I said no, I did not see a squirrel.
After my deposition, I took my seat in the courtroom and a police officer was called to the stand to give his. I didn’t recognize the officer.
Upon questioning, the plaintiff asked if he was the responding officer that night. The officer said no, but he was there. The guy dug into some legal code asking the officer if he knows it’s against the law to represent a police department if he wasn’t the officer who reported the event or whatever. I swear, guys, the police officer started crying on the stand and said he didn’t know any of that.
The whole case was thrown out.