First jury summons for me coming up.
Tell stories of your past summons stories, what to expect and such.

The worst part is when the lawyers and the judge takes you in a back room and strips you down. They look all over your body for tattoos that may disqualify you from serving on the jury.

Sit around for a few hours, then go home but tell work you were there all day

One time, I showed up and had to stay for about 45 minutes before they said that the case had been settled. Then I left.

Another time, I showed up and waited to get seated. Then, when they asked if there was anybody that no longer lived in Bryan, I raised my hand and told the judge that I now lived in College Station. Then I left

Another time, I was seated fairly high for a noise violation. Then, when they were able to dismiss people, I was dismissed because I was the youngest person there and they thought I might be sympathetic to the defendant since I said that I had friends who had previously had noise violations. Then I left.

Drove to downtown Houston in rush hour traffic. Sat in a room for 1.5 hours, some guy talked for a while then called people off one by one to go to different juries.

Walked in some underground tunnels to the family court, guy in front of me wouldn't shut up about his new Air Jordans he was wearing. Guy had to be in his late 40's. Sat in the hallway of the family court for about 2 hours. Judge came out, announced they had settled, there would be no trial, and that we could all go home. Huge waste of time but I guess lawyers and judges don't give a **** about wasting other people's time and money.

Showed up... two juries paneled... one trial the detective that was set to testify had died, the other the defense attorneys mother died. We were sent home.

Showed up... two juries paneled... one settled that morning. The other was a contraband in the county jail case. I knew the jailer involved and the arresting officer. I was sent home.

Summer between high school and college and I was summoned to Montgomery County. I knew the defendant, the majority of the defense witnesses, and knew details of the case already.

Turns out my mom managed their practice for Conroe Regional.

I got my $6 and left to go to work.

My jury pool had to sit through another voire dire before that case reached a plea bargain, so I got the tired, grumpy jury pool and no one wanted to talk or participate during voire dire. The prosecution offered me a deal to plead to lesser charges, but I told them to suck my dick. I ended up with an almost entirely female jury with the exception of one male. By the end of the trial all of them had developed a crush on me and couldn't believe I was charged with the crime I was accused of (or because the state's case was very weak). Afterwards they all came up to me to shake my hand and apologize on behalf of the state. I am very appreciative to those people, do your duty, someone's future hangs in the balance.

FOUR THIN INCHES said:

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My jury pool had to sit through another voire dire before that case reached a plea bargain, so I got the tired, grumpy jury pool and no one wanted to talk or participate during voire dire. The prosecution offered me a deal to plead to lesser charges, but I told them to suck my dick. I ended up with an almost entirely female jury with the exception of one male. By the end of the trial all of them had developed a crush on me and couldn't believe I was charged with the crime I was accused of (or because the state's case was very weak). Afterwards they all came up to me to shake my hand and apologize on behalf of the state. I am very appreciative to those people, do your duty, someone's future hangs in the balance.

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FTI is the kind of poster that actually makes me question if this is real or fake...

AgEng06 said:

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FOUR THIN INCHES said:

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My jury pool had to sit through another voire dire before that case reached a plea bargain, so I got the tired, grumpy jury pool and no one wanted to talk or participate during voire dire. The prosecution offered me a deal to plead to lesser charges, but I told them to suck my dick. I ended up with an almost entirely female jury with the exception of one male. By the end of the trial all of them had developed a crush on me and couldn't believe I was charged with the crime I was accused of (or because the state's case was very weak). Afterwards they all came up to me to shake my hand and apologize on behalf of the state. I am very appreciative to those people, do your duty, someone's future hangs in the balance.

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FTI is the kind of poster that actually makes me question if this is real or fake...

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I swear to God it is 100% real. I've posted pics on here before of me wearing my ankle monitoring bracelet while awaiting trial.

Went to the courthouse and went through interviews. Put on a jury for an aggravated assault for most of three days, going in after we were released to do work in the office at night. Found him guilty but they agreed on penalty before we could sentence him.

My last time I was called in there was a guy who was trying way too hard to get out of being selected. He was wearing a button up camo shirt, huge belt buckle and was talking in an overly exaggerated thick country accent. The judge told him to knock that **** off. Said he knew what he was doing and that it wasn't going to fly with him. Said it was a personal offense and if he didn't cut the crap that he would be held in contempt of court. The guy immediately sat up straight and apologized. Somehow his thick accent magically disappeared. No clue if he was selected or not. I was released the first round when they found out I was knowledgeable in the area the case was over.

First time I got to sit around pretty much all day twiddling my thumbs. Told me to come back the next day.

Next day I get picked for voire dire. The defense atty (who had info from questionnaire filled out day 1) says to me "ok, mr Aggie engineer, blah blah blah".

Doubt he gave a **** about my answer because I got to leave not long after.

Apparently defense attorneys don't like Aggies or engineers.

Second time was a petit jury in my small town. I show up at 8:55, clerk tells me we don't need anyone today.

So I went home and went back to sleep because the kids were at school. Charged the day to jury duty and got paid (hey! I went to jury duty)

Hopefully you are in Bexar County. I have been called 3 times. The jury pool is a freakshow. Bearded fat ladies, two headed goat boys, and something that had to be half lizard and half cow. No manbearpig, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him.

First time I was selected for a drunk driving trial that lasted all day. Next two times I was out by lunch. This has been over the past 10 years.

Never received a jury summons. My current job will disqualify me from serving on any jury other than felony or federal cases, and they would be stupid to select me.

My first one earlier this year.I was juror 44/50+. Sat through a long voir dire. Case was lawsuit of an insurance company. Ended up getting selected. Trial was a week long over how the insurance company was trying to get out of paying the plaintiff because the they said the owner of the truck that caused the accident no longer owned the truck. They kept saying he sold the truck to his sister on a specified date, that she owned the vehicle so it was no longer covered by the insurance company.

They stuck with that story till day 3 when the plaintiffs lawyer dropped the bomb that the sale couldn't have happened because the sister had been in the county jail the entire weekend the sale supposedly occurred. Insurance company lost

Showed up... sat through a video and listened to the judge talk. They said 290 people showed up but they only needed 104 and I wasn't called. Quick and painless.

Throw them in the trash. No way for them to track that you've received it

I only got them while I was a student, so I got an exemption. I haven't gotten a notice since I graduated, although I wouldn't mind it...

I went through voir dire a couple of weeks ago in the Atlanta suburbs. Twelve counts including domestic violence, sexual assault, false imprisonment, and disfigurement (via biting the nose). Why yes, meth was a factor. I was the defense counsel's final strike, probably because I went to law school.

If you get picked listen to the evidence...

Things are not what they seem for sure. Have seen complete 180's on what I knew was the truth.

I never get picked.

Something about wearing a suit and having a college degree keeps getting me dismissed.

First time, City court. Go down, sit in a room and they don't call any cases before lunch. Go to 2 hour lunch and come back. At 3:00 they are calling the last pool... I was the last one called before everyone else got dismissed. Quick Voire Dire and I was out by 3:30 because the jury made well before me.

Second time, District Court. Get checked in, get some breakfast and finally get seated in jury room. I'm the 2nd to last person in the first Jury pool. Long, stupid ass voire dire for a personal injury case. Defense asked all 36 people what their passion was and followed up extensively with the first 18 or so. At about juror 24, the judge said to pick it up, you've already gone long past your time. Prosecution was pretty quick. Sent us to a late lunch at 1:00 because the defense took so long. Came back at 2:30 and then waited around for them till 3:15 to go back in the room. They pick the jury and then the judge spends 30 freaking minutes thanking us for our service, how important it it, etc. Freaking whole day wasted.

Side note, from my experience of seeing the jury pools and selected juries, there would be a strong chance I would forgo my right to a jury of my "peers" and go with a bench trial.

Got picked on a jury of 6 for drunk driving case. I was thinking this guy is not drunk during the testimony and arresting officers dash cam video right up until the walk in a straight line for 9-steps..he took 15 steps and walked into a brick wall, stumbled, walked back 20 steps then turned again walked back to where he started. One guy in the jury room tried to convince us it was racism. Except both the arresting officer and defendant were the same race.

The majority of the time, the defendant will decide that morning to plea/settle. Essentially the gravity of it finally hits them when they see all the people waiting in the halls to be jury members.

If it doesn't get settled/plea'ed the pay attention to your jury number. They usually have you come check in... try to see what number is next to your name when you walk up there to check in.

If it is a very high number (above 30), then you probably won't be selected.

However, in almost every jury pool I was part of, one or both of the lawyers will ask to reshuffle the jury pool. So you could go from number 60 to number 4.

The number is important because each side (plaintiff and Defendant) do NOT get to pick who they want from the entire pool.

They have to start at #1 and start questioning them. Then either side can use one of a limited number of "DO NOT WANT" tokens. They can usually only strike 3 to 6 jurors each.

So, if both sides question you and neither side strikes you, then you are on the jury. If each side only has 3 strikes each, and you are juror 19 and they are seating 12 people, then you are most likely safe, unless one of those first 18 decide "Oh, I just remembered, I'm having surgery today".

so you want to be a really high number.

I was number 13 once on a pool that was seating 6 jurors and each side had 3 strikes. I got chosen.

91_Aggie said:

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The majority of the time, the defendant will decide that morning to plea/settle. Essentially the gravity of it finally hits them when they see all the people waiting in the halls to be jury members.

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That last sentence is not true. The reason so many defendants plead out on the day of is because that is when the prosecution offers the best deals. If they offered the same deals further in advance of the trial, then more cases would plead out sooner.

Leading up to a trial, a defendant is basically treated like a convicted criminal with severe limitations on their freedom. The longer the state drags it out, the more they can punish the accused, and the more money the accused has to pay.

I sat around for a couple of hours, then our group was called in for the voir dire process. The Judge explained the process. Through the prosecution and defense lawyers talking/asking questions I figure out that the guy at the defense table dressed like a 1970's used car salesman was the defendant. He was on trial for molesting a child. When the defense lawyer asked if anyone would not be able to be fair without his testimony, I raised my hand and said I will need to hear Slick Rick's side of it to be fair, otherwise he is guilty in my book. I was dismissed shortly there after.

Been called to jury duty twice. First time, armed robbery, settled during lunch. Got sent home after lunch. Wasted day.

Second time. Traffic accident, whose at fault. The whole trial took about 4 hours. Sent home at 4:30pm

Gave this chick 20 years:



http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2013/06/28/jury-weighs-punishment-of-baby-sitter-who-injured-13-month-old-and-claimed-she-choked-on-lego

that is paid content, so i can really only get a sense of what it was by what is in the url.

Made it to the jury box once out of I cannot tell you how many summons. Alleged sexual assault of a 7 year old by a grandfather. I heard things during those two days that I never want to hear again. When a little girl on a video tape forensic investigation says "I didnt know he was going to go pee pee in my mouth" you just want to throw up.

• she was watching the child of one of her daughters friends
• ambulance called because child has massive head trauma
• chick claims child was choking on lego and she was trying to lodge it loose
• police claim she hit child heads on door stop because it would not stop crying
• lego never found after exhaustive search
• child has permanent brain damage and dies moths later as it suffocates in crib because it lacks the motor skills to turn itself back over (not part of the case but very sad nonetheless)
• did I mention pure white trash?

I have been called multiple times and only have been seated for one trial, a DUI trial. The most interesting voir dire were two different instances though.

The first was a child molestation trial. They had probably 100 jurors in the selection room. The judge started the voir dire by the usual "do any of you know the defendant, prosecutors etc." The next question was 'have any of you either been molested in the past or know someone close to you that has been molested" Probably 15 people raised their hand. Even accounting for some liars just trying to get out of jury duty, I was shocked and saddened by the number of people that had been molested or knew someone close to them that had been molested. Luckily I had a high juror number and they seated the jury before they got to me.

The second time was for a prison guard who had sex with an inmate. I had heard about it on the news a few months before and assumed it was some male guard that had sex with a female inmate. Turns out it was a male guard accused of sex with a male inmate. And I was juror number 4. The prosecutor asked if I could believe the testimony of prisoners. I told him, yes but I would have to weigh their truthfulness as there was a possibility that they were looking for payback for something else. It was a truthful answer. For some reason I was not seated on the jury. I suppose he didn't like my answer. The other thing I remember about this is the defendant looked scared sheetless. I actually felt sorry for him.

And in Idaho it is almost impossible to get out of jury duty. I have seen sole proprietors beg the judge to get out of jury duty so they can earn a living. They basically are told to sit down and shut up. Because no one gets out of jury duty the one jury I sat on actually had a pretty good cross section of citizens I would have been comfortable judging me if I was in the defendant's shoes.

Here's the article:


The jury took just 45 minutes to sentence Alice Steele to 20 years in prison for critically injuring a 13-month-old child in her care.
Steele's adult daughter dropped her jaw in disbelief as the verdict was read, breaking into tears as she tried to talk her mother while bailiffs led her away.
Kiajah Shaw's mother returned to the courtroom after breaking down in tears earlier began crying again as the family friend was taken away.
Staff writer Krista M. Torralva reports:
The mother of an infant who was grievously injured by her baby sitter dashed out of a Dallas courthouse in tears this morning as a prosecutor delivered closing arguments in the case.
Alice Steele was found guilty Thursday of recklessly causing serious bodily injury to Raychel Shaw's 13-month-old daughter, Kiajah. Steele faces between two and 20 years in prison or between two and 10 years with probation.
"Giving Alice Steele probation is probably the worst decision anyone can make in your position," prosecutor Doug Millican told the jury during the punishment phase of the trial.
Steele, a close friend of the child's father, pleaded not guilty, saying Kiajah choked on a Lego block on Feb. 25, 2008, the day she called paramedics to her Richardson home. She said the girl suffered the head injury three days earlier when she fell out of her bed.
The block was never found, and doctors saw no evidence Kiajah had choked, instead tending to the critical injury to her forehead.
Kiajah, who was left blind and brain-damaged by the injury, suffocated to death in her crib eight months later because her injuries prevented her from turning over.
While both sides delivered closing arguments, Steele's daughter, Cassandra Dool, held her boyfriend's hand across the room. Her boyfriend was at her left, and her brother at her right. Each of the young adults testified in Steele's defense earlier.
Dool said her greatest fears were losing her mom and having nowhere to go. Dool lives with Steele and said she does not have any contact with her father.
The jury is expected to begin deliberating at 1:30 p.m.

Every time I get a summons I just plan a trip out of town for work...

ColinAggie- 5
Civic Duty- 0