I have been summoned twice so far and when I arrived they had already cancelled or filled.

Getting jury duty would be a huge mess for me at work. I get paid for what I do so if I am not in clinic those patients do not get seen and I do not get paid. A prolonged trial would be a huge expense to myself and the group I work for. Super annoying but I doubt that I would ever be selected anyway. Even taking the 1/2 day or full day is pretty annoying and costly.

It was a big pain for me and I'm not a doctor. At the time, I worked as an independent contractor and so my work is travel and a week at a time. So I couldn't schedule that week which was a $6k revenue loss. I've been called 3 times. 2 times I show up and they take my name and dismiss me. 3rd time I get selected to hear the masturbating indecent exposure case, get selected, come back the next day, wait for 6 hours in a room because supposedly the previous trial had not ended and then finally get called into the courtroom at 3pm. After all that, the accuser that accused the guy of masturbating didn't show up to court. Without his testimony, there was no case. So the charges were dropped. So I never got to hear the full details of the case and I wasted 2 days and lost $6k.

But the poor guy who got accused had to probably spend $50k in attorney fees, he had accepted a law enforcement job of some sort before the accusation and his offer was rescinded due to the charge, he suffered the humiliation of being trotted out in front and had to face 35 potential jurors where all the males chuckled joked and laughed and all the females were disgusted about his case.....so I guess it could have been worse.

I actually researched the cases going before the judge before I arrived at courthouse. Was just curious. Some girl had two court cases assigned that morning. One for dwi and one for Marijuana possession.

I got selected but she was only being tried that day for the possession. She was guilty.

Followed the stuff online after that. Lawyer appealed and got the appeal assigned to a court way out in West Texas. Then while that was on appeal, they had the trial for the Dwi. I guess the plan was that she wouldn't be a convicted criminal for the DWI trial.

She got convicted for DWI. Then the appeal for Marijuana was dropped. Her parents spent a lot of money on their stupid daughter.

KidDoc said:

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Super annoying but I doubt that I would ever be selected anyway.

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You probably shouldn't assume that. People that are intelligent and highly educated in technical fields can often be desireable on juries. If you're really adimant about responding to your jury summons, you should speak up early and often that you have an entire practice that shuts down if you're not there. Be sure to let them know that everyone from you the doctor to the guy who sweeps the floors doesn't get paid if you're not there.

Had just duty last week... the defense attorney asked everyone in the jury pool to promise they wouldn't Google the case.

On a related note... I didn't get selected, but I am very interested to know what the result was....

Can someone tell me where I could find the results from the 174th district court trial last week?

State of Texas vs Jeffrey Killebrew?

BadAzzBohemian said:

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Had just duty last week... the defense attorney asked everyone in the jury pool to promise they wouldn't Google the case.

On a related note... I didn't get selected, but I am very interested to know what the result was....

Can someone tell me where I could find the results from the 174th district court trial last week?

State of Texas vs Jeffrey Killebrew?

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Dwi?

February 24, 2014 driving driving wrong way on Franz at 99. Accident results in death of another driver.

That was all the details we got.

After Googling... found out It was 2:45 pm on a Sunday afternoon. No collision, but motorcyclist dies.

State of Texas prosecuting on criminal negligence or intent with a deadly weapon... can't remember which. State wanted him in prison for 2-10 years.

No word of alcohol being involved during jury pool questioning... but as you can see from Googling... he has quite the history with it...

That's not the one I found.

The judge doesn't care what you have waiting for you at work. I'm a self employed contractor, I've made my case before that jobs shut down if I'm not there, especially for a week or two. It hasn't gotten me out of a jury yet, though knock on wood, I've been lucky not to get a summons lately. For a while it seemed like I'd get one every time my legal time between summons would pass. And my wife seemed to never get one.

How did the judge know people were googling the case? Or did she just suppose and make a scene until people fessed up?

I always want to actually be one the jury, but always get bumped.

I think he said that someone in the jury pool ratted the others out.

OnlyForNow said:

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I think he said that someone in the jury pool ratted the others out.

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Generally when this happens its because during the break the idiot doing the googling says "HEY GUYS THIS CASE IS ABOUT X, Y, AND Z AND I TOTALLY THINK HE DID IT! I CAN'T WAIT TO BE ON THIS JURY!"

blindey said:

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agcrock2005 said:

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Quote:

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Jury trial lawyer here.

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So how does one go about being selected for a jury several times? I'm intrigued.

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luck, I suppose. I've never gotten out of the harris county jury center to an actual courtroom. I presume when the attorneys got their juror list that I would be number one to strike on one side or the other's list.

Lawyers have different theories and motivations for cutting prospective jurors. Some will cut you for taking too much and others will cut you for not talking at all. Some will cut you for being a teacher or a doctor or an engineer and others will want to keep you for the exact same reason.

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I've been selected for jury duty twice (once was a petit jury in Parker county and when I showed up they told me to go home). But, the other time in Tarrant, I somehow made it to void dire. I was about the 2nd person that the defense attorney questioned.

His question started out exactly like this: Ok, Mr. Aggie Engineer.....

I was gone shortly after that.

Funny story: someone I know was just on a jury, and the Texas Law Hawk was one of the attorneys involved.

The last time I got called, I was number 4 in the pool and the baliff had told us that lower numbers were more likely to be picked. I didn't volunteer anything when they asked if anyone had any special concerns and I answered the only two questions I was asked:

1 - What is your highest level of education?
2 - Do you have a home mortgage?

They asked this of about the first 30 in the pool then sent us to lunch. I was the lowest number not selected and I was happy because the case sounded boring as hell.

My wife spent a few weeks on a jury that sent a former MLB player to the pokey for likely the rest of his life for inappropriate relations with several young women.

Mel Hall?

they'll start with a ~64 member panel.

With this, I'm thinking my 2nd theory is it, they intentionally did not warn us. We had 65 on the panel, not 64. They called in 1 juror for 3-4 minutes, he came out, they brought us all in. They had always sat us by numerical order but this time they told us to sit anywhere but make sure to go to end of row. I would like to know if that 1 "juror" was still there! Then she said she was aware of googling.
And I asked 2-3ppl if we were warned and they said no. I think it's pretty cool if that's what they did. It's become a big problem. In this case, it would have been a problem. I'll post why after it's over.

There's no rule that a jury panel starts with 64. That's just the number that Harris County has arbitrarily chosen. In Travis, it's ~50.

uneedastraw said:

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From my experiences, when they call the jury pool in, you are already ranked before you even speak. They call you into the courtroom in order. So you already have some idea of your chances of selection.

The one time I was selected, i was the 10th person in the room..::they focused on the first 8 people with questions. 5 intentionally gave answers to disqualify themselves. I was selected without answering a single question because 5 of their first 10 were eliminated by answers they gave.

My case was a guy was alleged to be masturbating in his car in the parking lot. Another GUY walked by and saw and called the cops. The guy was being charged with indecent exposure. So, yeah the questions and answers were quite humorous during jury selection.

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Prosecutorial overreach

(Excuse the pun)

At my county courthouse we can't even get beyond the front door with a smartphone or anything capable of taking pictures. The lobby looks like a post office with all the little boxes where people can secure their phones before going through security screening.

Judges are taught to instruct prospective jurors about impermissible conduct during jury selection and trial. If this Judge failed to do so, that's on her. Not likely anything sinister or planned, but because this Judge has been on the bench for only 3 months, served as District Clerk for years before that, and didn't have much trial experience before that. That's the problem with partisan juducial elections - the public as a whole doesn't know much, if anything, about Judges and typically elects politicians rather than the best lawyers the bar has to offer. Appointment followed by non-partisan retention elections are used by most states and that system generates greater overall competence in the judiciary.