Jury Duty

[Chairman_Kaga]

So, how do YOU get out of jury duty?

Not that I was exactly looking to get out of it but being a criminal case that extended into areas where a few of my friends are police officers, I was excused.

The Case (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-08-26/news/0408260390_1_home-invasion-first-degree-murder-william-smith)

I didn't recognize any of the names that were on the witness list but when I started giving names of friends, DA and defense attorneys started nodding. Given the number of detectives and arresting officers I was actually surprised I didn't know anyone but I guess they weren't calling everyone involved in the case to the stand either.

Oh well, should see some of my police officer friends tomorrow. I'll ask if they remember the case.

[Chalybos]

Does Illinois have a death penalty? Because those scumbags certainly earned it.

I was excused due to a personal bias. It was a family suing a large corporation, involving an accident, a defective vehicle part, and a young child's injury (turned out to be a fatality). When asked if I had ever been involved in a lawsuit against a large corporation, my response was yes. The next question was if I would have any bias in such a case. I was honest, and was excused. The other time, some 25 years ago, I worked right next to the courtroom where they pulled the tiles for jury duty. I guess being polite to everybody had a karmic payoff. :)

[cowboy]

Just pretend that you are a psychic and that you saw that if you where to be on the Jury he would be found guilty, and then act like you truly believe what you said. even defend it :)

[batmanuel]

Death penalty is right... they aren't human anyway--animals.

But, damn!

The male victim was shot twice in the head and once in the arm but survived and was able to identify his attackers

My dad said he got out of it once by saying "they wouldn't have been arrested if they weren't guilty." i still think he was serious, but he said he wasn't... so i dunno :-)

[Dawg]

Take the Carlin route.. when they ask you anything, just respond that you would be a great juror because you can tell guilty people just by looking at them.

[Chairman_Kaga]

Illinois no longer has the death penalty as of July 2011.

Yeah, in the odd setup that was the courtroom with so many jurors in the selection panel, I ended up sitting next to the DA's desk and being taller than they, I saw some of their notes they had made to ask jurors questions. Seems like a pretty open/shut case if they don't get a lot of the evidence thrown out.

Things like:
DNA in car - can they understand dna evidence
blood in car - can they understand blood typing and statistics

Granted they couldn't say "DNA was found in the car and it was victim 3's. Can you follow that logic?" These were just the notes they had down to remind them what questions to ask.

I think they were asking other questions trying to find people that like shows like CSI or read detective novels.

[SoterioN]

I was summoned 3 times in LA County and I was active duty military stationed in DC, so that got me out of that.

I did get snagged in Louisville during my graduate training. Most of the time I sat in the "holding tank" of society's best, waiting to be called. The first I called into was a vehicular manslaughter case... 2 days in jury selection, my dad was a cop but that wasn't enough to discredit me. However, morning of the trial, the defendant pleaded out, so back to the holding tank. THEN, I got called in for a civil case of an older individual, families vs. state re: financial issues & mental capacity. Seemed interesting, until I learned that the psych eval was conducted by one of my supervisors - they asked me if I could be objective and I said yes, but they still booted me. But seriously, yes - just b/c my sup did the eval doesn't mean I would agree with him, I hadn't seen the data yet, but that was enough to get me booted and released from jury duty.

[Geri_Arctic]

If they have such good evidence, why doesn't the defence just plea out and save everyone the trouble?

My colleague at work got called for jury duty. She told them she couldn't speak English. Dismissed.

[Chairman_Kaga]

Geri, I can only imagine that since he may not have been the shooter they want to get him off on the bigger charges. That or the DA knows they have a rock solid case and the defense is asking too much in return for a plea bargain.

It is also possible that the others in this case have pled out with the stipulation that they testify in this case b/c this guy was the worst among them.

Just some thoughts. No idea as they don't get into that much of the case in the jury selection process.