2/3 or 3/2, 2008

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:01 pm

QOTD - Any good jury duty stories? My ladyfriend begins a two month on call for U.S. district court in Concord, New Hampshire, tomorrow. Call in daily, and if they need you, off you go. Apparently, you're still on call even if you get used repeatedly, not once and out. I was almost picked for a horrific murder trial once, but the defense didn't want me on the jury.

Spud - Can you tell us who is in the best yet lineup of Octothorpe or is it secret?

Post by **Spud** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:10 pm

personal QOTD:

Mad Dog: vox
Crash: keyboards
Spud: bass, horn, accordion
fluffy: drums
Elvis*: guitar, bass

*a former member of the Pathetic Wannabees, Elvis is artist John Schuh, whose music can be heard here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/schuhjohn

general QOTD:
I won't tell the whole story, but I was once on a jury for a crime that Mad Dog witnessed years before I ever met him.

king_arthur · Post by **king_arthur** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:12 pm

Last May, I was called for Jury duty, and it turned out that it was a major murder trial that was expected to last three months or more. Needless to say, just about everybody else who was called had some reason why they couldn't be on the jury, but as an unemployed guy with no unbreakable commitments at that point, I figured they had me. It went right down to the wire, when the judge came in and told our whole group (who were back at the courthouse for our follow-up questions about how we felt about the death penalty) that they had enough, we were excused.

The first part of the trial actually lasted until July 1st, when he was convicted of 1st degree murder, and then the death penalty parts went on after that. He was eventually given the death penalty (basically, he was accused of drowning his girlfriend's five-year old daughter after sexually abusing her), but I was very relieved to have gotten off the hook for that one...

Charles (KA)

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:04 pm

QOTD: I do anything I can to get out of it. I figure when I'm old and retired and need something to do with my days, I'll make up for lost time.

But my friend was on the Charles Ng jury. It lasted 8 months and changed her so bad, it destroyed her marriage and career. Years later she is getting on with her life, but is still haunted by images she saw.

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:02 pm

QOTD: Never had to do jury duty to be honest.

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:03 pm

QotD: It was the story of a gang of drug dealers who worked out of a flower shop. It was full of crazy characters, ingenious trickery (they hid drugs in empty beer cans and hid them in the groceries stores with the warm beers!!), double crosses and a surprise at the end (we didn't know until the end that the man who had been murdered was a cop).

You can read about part of the case here: http://altlaw.org/v1/cases/1131011

Post by **Lunkhead** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:11 pm

I recently narrowly escape having to be on a jury. I a bit late showed up, then still had to sit around for an hour so. I finally got called to a court room, along with 95 other people, for juror selection. The case was odd for a few of reasons: 1) the crimes were allegedly committed 10 years ago, 2) there were nearly 20 counts against the defendant, 3) the defendant was defending himself.

I think we first had to sit through almost an hour of just the judge reading the charges against the defendant, since there were nearly 20, each with subclauses and mitigating factors. They were all basically the same, accusing the defendant of breaking into a woman's house and tying her up and sexually assaulting her in various ways. It was really awful and surreal to sit there and listen to those charges over and over and over again.

After the charges were read, we had to fill out a lengthy questionnaire asking us about every detail of our lives. I finished mine first, after maybe 15 minutes. They wanted to start the actual juror selection interviews the following Thursday and Friday, but I was going to be out of town, so I claimed a hardship and hoped I could get out of the whole thing right then.

Unfortunately, they didn't start reviewing the hardship claims till everyone had finished filling out the questionnaires, which took some people 1.5 hours!! Then they reviewed the hardship claims in basically random order, rather than in the order in which they were submitted, so I had to sit around for another hour+ waiting for my turn. Finally the judge looked at my travel plans, and ordered me to report the afternoon I got back from my trip, since I was coming back Tuesday morning, after the holiday weekend, and they might still be selecting jurors.

So that Tuesday I got up at about 5am in Tucson, AZ, and got home to Berkeley at around 11am, then reported back for jury duty at 2pm. They were in fact still selecting jurors. They had only 6 possible alternates and myself and four other people sitting in the gallery. I could tell from what little juror questioning I witnessed that the defendant wasn't that smart, and had probably been dragging the whole process out with silly questions and generally bugging the court staff and jurors. The prospect of being in a four week trial (that's how long they estimated it would take) with this guy was pretty grim, even beyond just the nature of the charges.

Fortunately, they only eliminated three alternates, at which point they stopped, and me and the other four remaining possible jurors were excused. And, I earned $17! Whoopee!

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:15 am

Thanks, Spud. I'll be glad to check out E's music as well. Yeah, those are some nasty stories, people. Niveous' sounds like it's right out of Hollywood, but Lunkhead will not comfort anyone just called up with his story of frustration and aggravation. Two months on call for my gal pal, it appears to be run efficiantly and all, but two months...yuck.

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:32 am

I had never done jury duty, nor had I ever met anyone who had done it until I lived Mount Isa a few years ago. Mt Isa is a mining town of about 20,000 people in outback Queensland with a large itinerant population (like me) going there to work. A traveling magistrate goes there occaisionaly - and it seems that everybody gets called for jury duty when they come.

When my turn came, I found it fascinating. I was called into the courthouse with about 100 others - and they started drawing our names out of a hat. The barristers for the prosecution and defense just sat there, and as people walked forward - they just said yes or no based on appearance (as far as I could tell - I mean, it was a small town, but I can't believe they could have known anything about anybody).

I really got into it - trying to guess who would get picked. It was impossible. I couldn't see a single pattern emerging. My name never got called (thankfully - I hate rejection), but my mate did.

My mate, for all intents and purposes was exactly the same as me. A mid-30s, clean-cut, respectable looking professional (don't laugh) - we even both had exactly the same jobs (I was an environmental scientist then). The only difference was that I worked for the government and he worked for the mining company that ran the town, and he was wearing his company shirt. The second he stood up - both barristers said "NO". I would really love to know if I would have got the same response. It still drives me mad that I couldn't find a pattern to their choices (Bill Heuristics is a puzzle man - he'll understand...)

sausage boy · Post by **sausage boy** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:49 am

I just got back from seeing Ween. My mind is blown wide open. It was the drummers birthday today, and he got to do a 10 minute drums solo, followed by finishing the concert off playing the bass, then the guitar.

It is like gods descended for a night and rocked the world with mighty, sweaty hands.

QOTD: No

EmbersOfAutumn · Post by **EmbersOfAutumn** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:04 am

QotD: I was in a high school production of "12 Angry Men". That was fun. I don't know if that helps any.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:08 am

Caravan Ray wrote:It still drives me mad that I couldn't find a pattern to their choices (Bill Heuristics is a puzzle man - he'll understand...)

Definitely! I bet I would have been doing the same thing. I got called once in NY state when I was in grad school in VA - sent in the thing saying I was living out of state. Then I got called when I had moved out of NY entirely and was living in MD (jury duty here is a state thing, for those that don't know. They were calling me for NY because for some reason they refused to remove me from the election rolls - I could have voted twice at some presidential election!). I got called once in MD but my number wasn't called so I didn't have to go in.
-bill

jimtyrrell · Post by **jimtyrrell** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:13 am

QotD: Never had jury duty. More importantly, I've never been cause for it either. I've stood before the judge before, but the only peers involved were accomplices.

EmbersOfAutumn · Post by **EmbersOfAutumn** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:19 am

jimtyrrell wrote:QotD: Never had jury duty. More importantly, I've never been cause for it either. I've stood before the judge before, but the only peers involved were accomplices.

There's a songfight title

"My Peers were only Accomplices"

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:25 am

QotD: I was on a jury for an attempted murder trial for three weeks or so. He shot a DJ at a party in Brooklyn. We found him guilty, but thankfully weren't part of sentencing. I don't know how that went. It was an extremely fascinating process. During breaks I was designing ASCAP's royalty system UI in DreamWeaver, so it didn't entirely interrupt life outside.

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:09 am

I got a letter in the mail once. I ignored it. It wasn't certified mail and I figured they could never prove that I received it or that it even made it to my mailbox. Never heard anything about it again.

It might be worthy to note that I have terrible mail issues that include not getting a lot of pieces of mail. Once I had a friend get mad at me for 'not so much as saying thank you' for a Christmas card I never received. Plenty more I didn't get too.

I'm almost certain that someday we'll hear about a mailman in Tampa that has an extra room in his house chock full of unsent mail. Just like those you hear about every once and a while...

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:14 pm

qotd: I have never received a summons for jury duty. Having said that I will probably get a summons tomorrow.

drc: Parents are still here, surprisingly they haven't found anything to criticize me about so I'm pretty sure they're finally treating me as an adult. Go figure. They leave tomorrow and I can go back to my usual daily routines.