Jury Duty

[JBG]

Here in New South Wales, as a lawyer, I cannot be selected for jury duty. Maybe the theory is that I know all of the tricks. Then again, it means that I cannot be, given all the other exemptions, tried by a jury of my peers.

Jonathan

[ChrisF202]

Originally Posted by JBG

Here in New South Wales, as a lawyer, I cannot be selected for jury duty. Maybe the theory is that I know all of the tricks. Then again, it means that I cannot be, given all the other exemptions, tried by a jury of my peers.

Jonathan

Here exemptions are becoming harder and harder to get. I can get one as a full time student. I am not even sure if cops are exempt, teachers/professors and doctors were at one time exempt but I think even that has been changed.

I personally would not want to be tried by a jury, I feel that too many people think with their hearts rather then their brains. I just feel that many people cant be impartial in some cases.

[Parihaka]

Originally Posted by ChrisF202

I personally would not want to be tried by a jury, I feel that too many people think with their hearts rather then their brains. I just feel that many people cant be impartial in some cases.

It's bloody scary sitting in a jury room and listening to the reasoning some people use, and recounting what they thought they'd heard in court. I actually requested that the Judge repeat his summing up because some of the people there had interpreted his remarks about reasonable doubt in such a way that I simply couldn't believe they'd been sitting in the same courtroom as me.

[gunnut]

Originally Posted by ChrisF202

Yes but it is kind of complicated. The "county police" department is really only a regional police department that covers towns and villages in the suburban part of the county that dont have a town or village police department. In the rural part of the county every town and village has their own police department and the county sheriff handles specialized services like aviation support, SWAT, K9, marine unit in addition to countywide highway patrol.

It also has alot to do with politics, the county executive cannot fire an elected sheriff when the sheriff does something that he/she disagrees with but they sure can fire and set rules with an appointed police commissioner who is almost always one of their political stooges!

That has to do with jurisdiction issue.

Sheriffs department is county level, with county money, and an elected chief.

Police is city funded, under city control, with an appointed chief.

As you can see only rich cities can afford a fully functional police department. My city actually has its own crime lab. Not bad for a city of 150,000. Unincorporated cities contract sheriffs to enforce the law.

Above the county we have CHP, similar to your state trooper, under state government control.

[Southie]

About 4 years ago I was selected for jury duty. I received my notice in the mail with the number to call the night before to confirm that I was to report the next morning. I got to the court house, signed in, went through all the processing, and sat and listened as the crime was told. It happened to be an armed robbery situation. No one was killed though.

It brought back a lot of memories of a similar situation that my brother-in-law was involved in. He must have been on drugs, because what he did was so unlike him. He went to a jewelry store and held up the owner and his son, with a toy gun. The owner didn't know it was a toy gun, and when David took them to the back of the store and looked for some rope to tie them up, the owner got out his own gun, which was real, and shot David 5 times, killing him.

I felt like I was reliving the whole situation all over again.

After being there all day, I was talking with one of the clerks and asked if I was chosen, would there be frequent breaks, because I have fibromyalgia, and can't sit still for long periods of time. She looked at me, and said I was excused and if I ever get a summons again, to indicate my fibromyalgia.

I wasn't looking to get out of the case, but I'm glad I didn't get selected for that particular one!