Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] getting way off topic!

Jon Elson wrote:

> Doug Harrison wrote:
>
> > >
> > > I used to try (successfully) to get out of the jury pool, but then I
> >
> > > realized, I have no right to complain about what juries do, unless
> > _I'M_
> > > willing to serve. If regular folks aren't willing to serve, what
> > the else
> > > do you expect from a jury?
>
> I was called for jury duty years ago, and was thrown out on my ear
> because
> my uncle was a lawyer.
>
> Then, jury reform came into law in the state of Missouri, and I
> eventually
> got called again. It was a wonderful experience. There were 6 men,
> 6 women, 4 black and 8 white, a pretty good cross section of our
> community. The case was an ugly mess, with a black defendant and
> a black victim, former boyfriend/girlfriend, the boyfriend broke into
> her apartment and raped her one night, then came back the second
> night and abducted her because there were family members staying
> with her. She was injured during all this.
>
> The first testimony, after some excruciatingly boring police testimony
> verifying the chain of evidence custody, was from the victim. The
> prosecutor's first question was "where did you meet the defendant?"
> The victim replied almost inaudibly "When we was locked up."
> I expected a mistrial right there, but no. After a while, they sent us
> to
> the jury room for a recess, and everybody was a little reluctant to
> say anything. Then, one of the black women said "Well, they're
> both low life!" (or low class, or something like that) and everybody
> got a good laugh. That broke the tension, and we had a very good
> time working out what we thought the defendant really did, and why,
> and what he was guilty of, and not proven guilty of. We convicted
> him on a number of counts, but didn't convict on a couple that
> were stretches by the prosecutor. The defendant got 30 years!
> (He elected to have bench sentencing - he would probably have gotten
> off a lot lighter with us. But then, the judge saw his record, and
> although
> we were clued in by the victim's testimony that he must have had some
> kind of record, we didn't see it because we didn't do the sentencing
> part.)
>
> I've heard all sorts of horror stories of juries going wild, people
> who just weren't rational, etc. But, my experience was an amazing
> and wonderful one. We worked together, carefully examined the
> information given to us, and reached a decision.
>
> Jon
>

I agree with Jon but his statments concern criminal trials not the attempt to extract money from (sometimes) innocent people. I sat
on a jury (civil) where a person renting an apt. had walked down the back steps to empty the garbage and coming back into the house
passed out and fell back down the steps and was sueing the landlord. Finally the case collasped on itself but it took awhile.

I've had a couple of decent experiences on the criminal juries.

Dave