Jury Duty

[kingoffighters]

For the past 2 weeks, I served as a juror in a criminal case in the Brooklyn county. When I first got picked as a juror, I was really pissed since I didn't want to miss work for 2+ week (even though I get paid). But after today, I am really glad that I did it. After going through the entire trial and deliberation, I gain a greater appreciation of our judicial system and do feel fortunate to have the system that we have. It is not perfect (and no system is), but at least I can say that in my case, it worked and I believe the verdict was the right one (details below).

Case detail. The defendant was indicted on a second degree murder back in Sept, 2005. He was charged with shooting and killing another person on the street. The interesting thing about this case is that there were very little (of value anyway) physical evidence. There was no gun, no DNA test, and only 1 bullet (which may or may not have killed the victim). The ADA (assistant District Attorney) relied solely on the testimony of 2 eye witnesses to prosecute the defendant.

Basically, it all comes down to whether we believed how truthful the 2 witness' testimony. Without going into too much details, the 2 witnesses are not really reliable or trustworthy. We had alot of unanswered questions regarding how the police identify and locate the accused. The victim was a gang member (possibly a leader) and his posse (2 of the 7 witnesses) were also gang members. We were not sure if the defendant was also a (rival) gang member (although the ADA was trying to imply that he is).

One of the toughest part about being a juror is to be impartial. It is really alot harder than it sounds. I initially thought that it wouldn't be that difficult to just look at the "facts" (testimony) but as we deliberate, each of the jurors just couldn't help bring their own inherent biases into the decision.

After 2 days of deliberation, we found the defendant not guilty on all charges
because there were reasonable doubts as to the following:

• Whether the police actually arrested the right person (based on how little the 2 witnesses told the police)
• Whether the witness actually saw the murder (or they made up part of their testimonies)
• Whether the sequeence of events actually happened the way as described by the witnesses

Like I said, I didn't want to serve on this case as I have never served in any jury before and a 2nd degree murder charge seems like a heavy responsibility I didn't want to take. But I am really glad I did and I believe that justice was served. One of the court officers told us afterwards that that was the right verdict (in her opinion) because she felt that they (the police) just found someone and made him take the blame. Keep in mind that this officer hears ALOT more than what we heard (especially all the behind the scenes between the defense/prosecutor).

Anyway, it was a long process (lots of waiting around to hear 30 minutes of testimony, etc) and I just wanted to tell someone. If you have read this much, I hope that you found it alittle interesting/educational. Otherwise, fuck you.

[Yoshi]

Hopefully by putting him back on the street, you've enabled him to kill the two witnesses and them himself. You'd have saved NY a ton of tax money.

[kingoffighters]

Exactly.

[Advocate]

Congrats on serving. I know it sucks, but it must me done.

[Rich]

I serve next month. They wasted no time with me. Fuckers.

[Brand X]

[FX]

I've been able to get out of it because of my job status. Sounds like fun.

[gamevet]

I don't know if I could stay awake, during such a long process. How long does a normal day in court last?

I've been called to Jury duty about a 4 times now. The only one worth noting, was a hate crime (murder) commited after 911. A white guy entered a local 7-11 and killed an Indian dude, because he looked like he was middle-eastern. After about 2 hours of sitting in the court room, the guy finally decided to plead guilty and we were told to go home.

I was summoned just last April and they let us go home within an hour. I then received a summons for a town trial and I ignored it. I'm done showing up at the courthouse.

[bbobb]

I got called up 1 week after my 18th birthday.

But I was still in High School at the time so I got out of it.

[jonas]

I just got Jury notice for the 3rd time. Finally I can go. So Jun 25th I go for the meeting, I guess to see if I'm a racist or something.

At first I was like man, this sucks I hate missing work and not getting paid but I kinda want to do it now.

I just hope to hell the guy isn't a maniac that hunts down the jurors for payback.

In any case, I hope to hell we get paid for it in Canada. Otherwise it would be total BS. I know I don't get 'paid' for this upcoming meeting day, so I'm hoping if the trial goes on, then I will (and not some 4 bucks and hour shit)