Tales from Jury Duty . . .

I was summoned to a case that appeared to be a DUI on prescription medicine (ambien I believe but we never heard the facts). They asked a bunch of questions like, do you know anyone on medication, have you ever been on medication, do you know anyone in law enforcement, do you trust law enforcement, etc. I just said that I was arrested once by overzealous cops and the charges were eventually dropped because I had done nothing wrong. "Ever since then I have not been able to trust law enforcement because they are always trying to take advantage of innocent people." That line will get you cut by the prosecution every time.

If it is a civil suit you will just need to be creative with your answer. Whatever it is, though, make sure you show strong bias.

I was summoned in walton county and all I had to say was "I can tell if someone is guilty simply by looking at them" and keep a completely serious face.

I was on a jury in Dekalb County for a DUI case. We found the guy guilty. After the verdict we found out it was his 4th DUI. Judge gave him 1 year and they cuffed him right there and took him away.
Was also on a civil case about an auto accident. Car hit by a Pepsi Cola distributor truck. Plaintiff was obviously the cause of the wreck but she had a neck brace ans a chiropractor to tell us all about her severe neck and back injuries. We ruled in favor of the defendant.
It's a pain, but it is a rewarding duty.

Hell, you guys make me damned near ashamed to admit I've been selected twice! Once in Federal court for a reverse discrimination case. White manager of the Albany Longhorn's got fired while his black asst. manager got demoted. The gist, asst. was running restaurant on the day in question, manager was off. One of the waitresses was having a birthday party and the mgr. called the asst. and told him to close up early and all come on to the party. Corporate found out, fired mgr. demoted asst. The mgr. filed suit, he was only fired cause he was white. We did not find in his favor.
Next time was in Sylvester, Worth county court. Couple burned down a house they were renting on purpose. She burnt it or he burnt it, can't remember which one was Left Eye and which one was Andre Rison... anyway, jury selection was made, we reported to court next morning, heard lawyers talk all morning. Broke for lunch, came back and were dismissed cause the arsonist had plead guilty during lunch.
Damn, do I look that F'ed up that I keep getting picked? Just damn.

upvote for the Andre and Left Eye reference!

Before I answer, I want to make three points - (1) I'm an attorney; (2) You never know who, including yourself, your family, or friends, is going to be sitting in front of a jury one day so I don't recommend taking the approach of "how fast can I get disqualified." Next thing you know, you're going to turn around and be sitting there yourself, or you'll be a witness on behalf of your employer, or your kid will do something stupid and be charged, and you'll understand the desire to have a good jury pool where everyone isn't competing to get excused as quickly as possible; and (3) before you're asked questions as a jury you swear to an oath that you'll give true and accurate answers. You do not want to find yourself in a position where you perjure yourself to get out of jury duty, have that somehow get back to the Judge, and have him or her haul you in to explain yourself and/or get rung up on charges by the local prosecutor over it.

With that said - Barstools has the correct answer to get disqualified, at least where I practice. You can be struck for cause, meaning the court rules that your beliefs are so biased you couldn't possibly be fair or impartial to one side or the other, and wouldn't have to sit. In a criminal case for instance, it would either be "i don't trust cops" or "i think the police are great and i'm sure they're not bringing anyone here on charges that isn't guilty." If your jurisdiction is like mine, you'll get asked follow-up questions by one attorney or the other, or the Judge, along the lines of "i understand you said so and so, but would you be able to set those beliefs aside if the court told you to and follow the law as the court instructs?" And then you have to say something like "no, I don't think i'll ever trust cops" or "no, i just don't see why we'd be sitting here if this guy wasn't guilty."

With that said, all the other thoughts are really "it depends" answers. Generally, dressing in a suit will get you dismissed by one side or the other. However, if you show up and its a complicated commercial dispute between businesses, the suit may tie you directly into the type of person both sides believe will comprehend the case.

Also, the more money is at stake, the more I prefer to have people who are used to dealing with large sums. I need to ask the jury for several million dollars? To a part-time food service employee, it may seem like an endless sum that is way too much. To a guy that makes six figures, it's not that much.

I think the thing that would surprise most jurors that are called on my cases is that I know a lot more about you than you believe when you sit down. I obtain the jury list the week before trial and it contains some basic information - your name, age, address, whether you own property, your marital status, and your occupation. I send that list to a private investigator and a couple of days later I receive a report that tells me a whole heck of a lot about you. I know where you live and I have pictures of your home/apt/trailer, I know your spouse's name and what they do for a living. I know your kids names and their age, whether they're in school or what they do for a living. I known how long you've been with your employer. I know if you or anyone in your family has been involved in the court system before. I have links to you and your families Facebook and other social media pages. I have pictures of you. I have a snapshot of your financial history including assets you own. If you or a member of your family has been in the news, I know about it. Etc.

So a lot of times I end up kicking people off the jury because I know they're lying. I may ask "Have any of you ever been a party to a lawsuit before? Either sued somebody or been sued?" You don't say anything. But my investigators report tells me that you sued your mortgage company 4 years ago. Sometimes I'll give you the express chance to confess. "Mr Smith, you haven't said too much during these questions, I just want to make sure that all your answers are no so far, is that correct? You haven't been involved in this type of situation before, or sat on a jury before, or sued or been sued by anybody, or any of the other questions we've already covered?" Sometimes people repent so to speak and say "i'm sorry, i didn't hear you ask about the part about suing someone, i did have a claim against my mortgage company several years ago." Some people will just keep lying.

With that said, that's not necessarily normal procedure for other attorneys regarding spending the money to have everyone checked out. A public defender isn't going to have the funds nor is a prosecutor likely to. With a civil case, it all depends on how much money is at stake and how good the attorneys are. Not a lot of money at stake? Probably not investigating the jury panel. Lower tier attorneys involved? Probably not investigating the jury panel. A lot of money at stake and high level legal work being done? The attorneys asking you questions probably already know a fair amount about you.

I was elected to be the foreman on a rape case that lasted 5 days and a full day of deliberations. I tried not to get on the jury (65 in the pool) l, but was picked by both. We went into deliberations and first vet was 6 not guilty, 4 guilty and 2 undecided.

Found him guilty of rape. Tough case. Took a toll on me for sure, but something I think everyone should experience.

Guy is sentenced to a mandatory 25 year sentence. We found out after, he had a plea to serve 3 on a 7 year sentence. Now he's gotta serve all 25. It was tough

Jury nullification

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I know a lot of people think attorneys try to pick those sympathetic to their case or position and while I don't disagree with that in the main I'm looking for open minded people who I believe will pay attention to the case and not rush to judgment.

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I'm certainly not an expert, and you and Reservoir Dawg would know better than me, but I was so shocked by the 12 people picked for jury during my experience that I did some reading on it.

ON the topic of jury selection strategy, I skimmed some law papers on the topic and they are explicit and very detailed about race and gender and ethnicity and on and on and how to use them to measure certain sympathies or prejudices a juror may have. Basically racial/ethnic/gender profiling. WHich is hilarious because if documents like these were discovered at a police department, there'd be riots. But, apparantly th justice system itself believes there are many truths to all the profiling and it's hidden right there under everyone's noses in the courts.

I'm not saying that's bad. Just that it's kind of interesting to me.