Grand Jury Summons

[JoeWras]

At that point the judge stopped everything and had everyone but me and the attorneys ( and of course the judge) leave the courtroom.
So there I sat with them asking me this and that. Mostly about the hierarchy within the Hmong community.
They finish and bring everyone back into the courtroom.
Everyone gets settled in and then I got excused from being a juror.
Apparently I knew too much?

You did, but I would say you also provided a valuable service to the process by helping educate all involved. Your time wasn't wasted.

 

[JoeWras]

I would enjoy serving on a grand jury.

Maybe!

DW didn't enjoy it, but she found it fascinating. So much of it was procedural. The bar to approve an indictment is low. The few bills they negated involved situations where every witness/LEO literally couldn't remember a thing.

You will discover what exactly is clogging up our courtrooms.

 

[scrabbler1]

About 20 years ago I got summoned for regular jury duty. I can’t remember if it was murder or attempted murder but it was one.
Of course I get selected as a potential juror and the lawyers are determining who to keep and who to kick.
The defendant and the victim were both of Hmong heritage.
Since I worked in social services I was familiar with the Hmong culture.
Attorneys asked me if I was familiar with their culture so of course I said yes.
At that point the judge stopped everything and had everyone but me and the attorneys ( and of course the judge) leave the courtroom.
So there I sat with them asking me this and that. Mostly about the hierarchy within the Hmong community.
They finish and bring everyone back into the courtroom.
Everyone gets settled in and then I got excused from being a juror.
Apparently I knew too much? [emoji2368]

When I was walking out all the potential jurors were asking what I said to get kicked off!
It was a bizarre experience.

During the questioning in the 2007 civil case I was part of, these private conferences were less formal because we weren't in a courtroom; instead, we were in a small room with a few rows of seats, a juror box, and a small table. The lawyers told us at the start if any of us needed to say anything to them which could prejudice other jurors, or if we had something private to say which we didn't want everyone else to hear, we should just signal to go out in the hall with them. These private chats happened often. Sometimes, the potential juror took his stuff with him because he knew he would be excused. Sometimes, he returned for further questioning. Many jurors got excused this way.

 

[athena53]

<snip>
The defendant and the victim were both of Hmong heritage.
Since I worked in social services I was familiar with the Hmong culture.
Attorneys asked me if I was familiar with their culture so of course I said yes.
At that point the judge stopped everything and had everyone but me and the attorneys ( and of course the judge) leave the courtroom.
So there I sat with them asking me this and that. Mostly about the hierarchy within the Hmong community.
They finish and bring everyone back into the courtroom.
Everyone gets settled in and then I got excused from being a juror.
Apparently I knew too much? [emoji2368]

When I was walking out all the potential jurors were asking what I said to get kicked off!
It was a bizarre experience.

Yes, that is bizarre- my guess is that you could have provided a lot of insight to the other jurors but, oh, well..

That may have been a "peremptory challenge"- they can throw out a limited number of potential jurors for no clear-cut reason such as knowing the plaintiff or the defendant.

I was disappointed that I was throw n out on the one civil case where I got to voir dire- a woman had fallen in a construction area on the grounds of a hospital and was injured. Yeah, I worked for an insurance company but I think I was well-equipped to be a thoughtful juror.

One interesting thing they do now- I've been on a couple of Zoom groups, one I found on FB, one through e-Rewards, running a case by people likely to be in a jury, just to see how the facts and the presentation looked. I got about $200 for each of those. I really enjoyed that, especially seeing how different people had different questions and concerns, and who noticed what, and who noticed "facts" that weren't even there.

 

[JoeWras]

I dunno. It seems like people in the know tend to get released. Seems like the lawyers want mold-able people with blank knowledge of the situation.

 

[Aerides]

I would enjoy serving on a grand jury.

While I would, like Audrey mentioned, my courthouse is about 20 miles away, which means leaving the house by 7 to get there, parked, and into the building by 8, over an hour. (I've done it for regular JD, and I had to expect 15 minutes just to park and get inside).

And then leaving downtown and driving in rush hour home every night? UGH. If mine were closer then a weekly GJ would be interesting. And yes the actual work I would like, but the whole getting up and dressed and out the door that early was why I don't work anymore!

 

[punkinhead]

When I was working I'd have loved to spend 1 day a week on a grand jury but now that I've retired I couldn't handle that kind of restriction. 3-6 months of not being able to travel? No thanks.

 

[scrabbler1]

I dunno. It seems like people in the know tend to get released. Seems like the lawyers want mold-able people with blank knowledge of the situation.

I don't know if this is always the case. But if one side has a weak case, that lawyer may want jurors who can be more easily convinced (or conned) into believing his claims. This was apparent in the 1987 shoplifting case I was a juror on.

At the DA's request, I spoke to him after we reached a verdict. He was a young man, not much older than I was (I was 24 at the time) and it was probably one of his first cases, seeking feedback. He told me he wanted educated people on his jury. He (and I) also noticed that he had excused the few women among the ~25 jurors in the pool to choose from. This was because he would claim his client was distracted by other issues and didn't realize she was pushing a loaded shopping cart around the cash registers and out the door into the parking lot.

The other jurors were all older, middle-aged, married men who had probably never or rarely done shopping alone in a department store. Being young and single, I had, and wasn't buying for a second the defendant's claim because those carts are heavy and tough to maneuver, including making a 90-degree turn to get out the door. I made sure to demonstrate this using a chair in the jury room. The DA never claimed this during the trial, and I told him he was lucky I was in the jury room to help convince my jurors the defendant was BSing.

 

[eytonxav]

I've had jury duty 2X over almost 30 years living in Texas. Never got selected, as most cases were plea bargained before an actual trial. Now being over 70, I can opt out which I would likely do if called again.

 

[Sabaidee]

I did 6 months. I am retired now, but I had a full time job at the time which involved some exhausting travel. So, I was actually relieved to not have to take all of those trips, so just had a 10 mile drive to the Courthouse. Still worked a bit when they didn’t need us. The District Attorney just asked that we call in by Wednesday to see which days we would be required in the following week.

After voting, serving as a juror is the most important duty we have as citizens. We were the first grand jury to be empaneled after the pandemic, so they had a bit of a backlog of cases. No misdeameanors - all capital crimes. Of course even after your service, you never reveal anything about the cases. Definitely not for everyone, but I was glad to have served.

 

[Koolau]

Megacorp was very understanding about jury duty. They paid us our salary and we signed over our jury pay to Megacorp. Had a friend in accounting who begged me not to ask him to separate out the $1.20 or so each day I got reimbursed by the court for parking. (IOW, I think I got $20/day plus $1.20) I gave the whole thing to Megacorp and they gave me my salary. SO, it cost me $1.20/day to serve on a Jury. I was happy to do it AND to help out my buddy with his accounting.

 

[friar1610]

Interesting.. I'm over 70 so I can opt out now, but I prefer to serve when called... Never been called for a Grand Jury though.

I’m 77, have always wanted to serve on a jury but never have. I think it was in late Nov/early Dec I got a notice to be available during a specific week in Feb. The courthouse is about an hour away. I played the “over 70” card and opted out because I didn’t want to be committed to make that drive in snowy New England weather (if that’s what it’s gonna be like this year). Felt like a wimp, though.

 

[swakyaby]

I was summoned to serve on the Grand Jury in California. At that time, the duration of service was one full year, every Tuesday. I was a self-employed physician, so there would be no compensation for those missed days. I really didn’t want to serve for that length of time, but the instructions specifically said self-employment was not an excuse. But I wrote a response stating my reasons for not serving and refused to go. I may have a warrant for my arrest, who knows.

 

[Bamaman]

i would probably enjoy being on a grand jury. I was called up twice for a regular jury, however I was quickly turned down for all the trials they had.

It seems some attorneys prefer not to have college educated jurors with finance company backgrounds. Especially those like me that have been involved in 200+ court cases.

 

[JoeWras]

i would probably enjoy being on a grand jury. I was called up twice for a regular jury, however I was quickly turned down for all the trials they had.

You might, for a while at least.

DW felt she got a good idea about the troubles of society by seeing all the indictments in our county. (Hint: a lot of drug sales, a lot of domestic battering)

After a few months, it got to be a repeating story.

 

[palomalou]

One time we were in Spain and we saw via Informed Delivery that DH had received a regular jury summons.


SAme happened to me in Rome July 2021. I messaged my husband's cousin, a retired state supreme court judge and he said, calm down, just call them when you get home and save all your boarding passes, etc., in case they need to see them. He also said that a huge percentage (33%?) of California jurors just don't show up, so many that they can't do anything.
Indeed, when i called then and explained that when I got home I saw that the report day was the day before we returned, I too was given a postponement of 6 months, no real questions asked.

The real kicker was that when I went (SDNY federal) I ended up as foreperson of a grand jury. Five weeks, M-F, but we didn't actually have a case or cases every day. But you couldn't do anything else because you didn't know until that morning if you had the day off or not.
I came away with a great respect for my fellow jurors, who worked with seriousness, respect for each other, and integrity. It was stressful, sometimes harrowing, but interesting to have experienced.