I spent ALL day on jury duty. I was called to a jury panel and sat through voir dire. Then when the jury was selected, they skipped right over me and I was dismissed. Once again I was questioned about being a lawyer and El Jefe being a lawyer. Hey--they didn't ask me about Portia being a lawyer!
My record of being struck from the list remains unbroken. Texas now excuses jurors who are 70 years old or older. Can I keep it up until then? Going for the gold!
7 comments:
Pretty cool. I like the picture, too.
Are you saying that you would have an attorney, psychiatrist, sociologist, etc on a jury if you are with the prosecution?
I've served on a couple of juries, and been part of the pool on other occasions. It's extremely rare for certain occupations to be represented on the jury.
I remember when I worked in law offices automatically excused me from any jury duty.
Isn't that an odd kind of discrimination? Not allowing lawyers to be jurists?
And if you're always excused, then why don't they just issue a permanent note on your record and stop calling you in at all!! Save gas and paper.
LOL...the DA would love for us to be on a jury!
I never get called.
The case turned out to be a civil case, so there was some chance I'd be left on the panel. Criminal defense attorneys would not want an ex-DA like me on the jury so I'd be the first to go!
Conventional legal wisdom is that if you leave an attorney on the panel he/she will become the jury foreman and the jury will look to him/her for legal guidance rather than the attorneys in the case or the judge.
Texas used to excuse attorneys in the dark ages (before my time) but no more. I like your idea, PG. Maybe I'll take it to the County Judge!
Interestingly, early in his career El Jefe was actually seated on 2 juries in misdemeanor cases. Of course he was foreman in both. And of course the jury found the defendant guilty in both in less than an hour.
In one case the defendant was foolish enough to have the jury decide his punishment. El Jefe and the rest threw the book at him. Later El Jefe learned that defendant was a multi-time offender. You'd think he'd have been a better jailhouse lawyer by that time!
I never get picked, either. Of course, showing up (as I once did when I was in grad school) with a copy of The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense, by Anna Freud, might have something to do with that.
For reasons similar to yours, I've never been on a jury. I know the judges, attorneys and court personnel. Once, when asked how I knew the judge in the case, I replied, "I married him". After laughter, I added, "I performed his wedding".
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