Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted
I get what you said about teachers, but am laughing because that's the opposite of me.  Believe it or not, the jury I served on was commandeered by two flight attendants fitting that description.

I would have been humming this tune.

“Sanitation expert and a maintenance engineer
Garbage man, a janitor and you my dear
A reunion flight attendant my oh my
You ain't nothing but a waitress in the sky
You ain't nothing but a waitress in the sky”
Posted
I struck an engineer in a federal case a few years ago.  Just happened to be the only black person in the panel and the Plaintiff was black.  Judge Sparks took us back to chambers for a sua sponte Batson challenge.  I started to explain that he was struck because he was an engineer and the Plaintiff's attorney cut me off with his agreement.  No one wants engineers on the jury.

Batson challenge is always a big consideration in EDTX outside of the Plano jury pools.
Posted

Fun one a few years ago, maybe 2018.

I was head juror and some crackhead broke in to a section 8 apartment. 4 witnesses saw him enter and leave with one of those combo VCR/TV setups and 3 Gatorades. Mind you those are worth maybe $20 at a pawn shop. (The tv and the gatorades probably have similar values)

We decided guilty within 10 minutes. His lawyer thought we decided too fast and wanted the judge to do the sentencing so we were dismissed but before we walked out I asked the jury what they think. Well all said 30 days.

Judge gave him 2 years (maybe 3) since he broke in to a home. I know because I called back the next day to see what happened.

  • Haha 1
Posted

I can't recall which side it was, but the lawyers did not want anyone experienced in accounting.  The defendant was gaming the system by moving this purchase over here and that car title over there.  During selection, anyone with accounting experience was eliminated.  I thought that was odd.

Posted

I suppose the bias against engineers is mostly anecdotal/experiential.  

But, as an engineer and a law dog, I can relate that engineers analyze, in many ways a lot like lawdogs.  But when you have engineers independently re-analyzing something, there's a large risk they come to a different conclusion.

Whenever you give something over to a judge or a jury for an independent decision, you often find that they see things differently than either party has argued or apparently viewed the case themselves.  They often bring up something as decisive or important that nobody thought important before.

So, with that being a known feature of a "new" fact-finder, you can't have someone re-analyzing the evidence, if you can help it.

The other thing about engineers is that their analyses tend to dispense with "noise," things they think are insignificant to the outcome.  And sometimes law is all about the "noise."

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Posted

Didn't get selected; however, it was a pain in the ass process.

Check in at 8.

Outside the courtroom by 9.  Told that we'd either be selected or let go by 11.  Nothing.

At noon, we finally go in.  Two hours of attorney questioning/statements.  Told to recess for 20 mins to get the jury selected.  Hour and a half later, and I'm not picked.  Walked out after 3.  Geez. 

The case, btw, was some Mexican dude who had been busted dealing 8 (grams?) of meth.  He had just pled guilty, so the trial would have been for the punishment - 5-99 years.  One dumb chick asked the judge what meth was.  Perhaps she was playing 3-D chess and figured a question like that would preclude her from serving.  Anyway, it was only supposed to a be a 2-day thing, so I'm kind of disappointed in not getting picked.

One last thing.  It's rare to be in a room of your random peers and find out how absolutely, GD stupid much the population is.  The question that took 2 hours to answer took several different explanations from the judge, as well as both sets of attorneys.  Would you be wiling to consider the entire spectrum of punishment?  I.E. min of 5; max of 99.  Obviously, 99 years is extreme - even for most anti-drug sorts; however, most couldn't distinguish between considering and doing.  The defense attorneys were wrapping themselves in knots because they were going lose a huge segment of those that would probably be favorable to their cause.  The judge actually had to change the wording of the question, so the defense didn't lose over 50% of those present.

Posted
On 11/28/2023 at 4:29 PM, Knoxtnhorn said:

It's rare to be in a room of your random peers and find out how absolutely, GD stupid much the population is.

I was once in a room of 60 folks, some of whom were going to be on the jury.

The judge said "If you are a convicted felon, you cannot serve, please come forward and I will dismiss you."  No one moved.  The judge then said "If you are not certain if you are convicted felon or not, please come forward and we will discuss it."  Three people needed to talk to the judge.  Two left the room, one had to sit back down.

  • Haha 3
Posted
18 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

I was once in a room of 60 folks, some of whom were going to be on the jury.

The judge said "If you are a convicted felon, you cannot serve, please come forward and I will dismiss you."  No one moved.  The judge then said "If you are not certain if you are convicted felon or not, please come forward and we will discuss it."  Three people needed to talk to the judge.  Two left the room, one had to sit back down.

Almost forgot.  After two hours of explaining a simple concept to the jury pool, the last defense attorney asked if anyone had any questions.  A 40-ish year-old woman raised her hand and asked what methamphetamine was.

Posted

Think I dodged one.  Went Monday 8am and after 5 hours got sent to a courtroom where they did all the jury bullshit.  Explained it was a capital murder case. They said to be expected to finish before Christmas. The first dozen cut were doctors and lawyers so I am back home now with an extra $25 burning a hole in my pocket. 

Posted
3 hours ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Damn, only get $7 for the first day in FW. 

Are you a doctor or lawyer?

  • 1 year later...
Posted
2 hours ago, Asithappens said:

Just got a summons for federal jury duty (Houston).

Any advice? Bring lunch? Just park in one of the local garages? Are jeans ok?

 

Can’t speak to federal, but I recently did district court and wore jeans, button down and blazer and was overdressed compared to my peers.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
33 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Federal is probably going to be a bit more formal than state, but anything you wear with a jacket would be fine most likely.

Except this:

469281654_master_BINARY_718839.jpg&f=1&n

So don’t borrow Tre Johnson’s draft suit?

IMG_2437.thumb.jpeg.35a31bd499c9cef3a6f957b5c2ad7949.jpeg

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

Fed criminal jury duty, as long as you aren’t cut right away you’ll be there until lunch at least unless it’s a smaller gun case.

That’s southern district so I may not be completely correct but in EDTX we usually have a pool of 50-60, most judges do their introductions and then it can vary from their.

If you have an organized judge, they’ll usually lead the first part, asking the general questions and then usually both sides get their equal time to ask questions.

In EDTX the normal timeframe is seating the 14 jurors and then releasing the rest and then a late lunch, followed by openings and if time, the first witness.

While you don’t have to, wear a sports coat over a polo at least… leave your phone in the car. You can bring a book but at the federal level it’s 1 trial, 1 jury pool.

If you really don’t want to be on the juror, answer a lot of questions. The more you talk, the more you make yourself known and less desirable. Also be an engineer or elementary teacher. Or a commercial pilot on white collar tax cases.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted

So apparently there is a new scam.

I have a client who got a call from a person identifying himself as a county official. He said my guy had been called for jury service twice but failed to appear. That he had a statutory fine assessed against him and under a new law passed in the last legislative session, he could be charged with a  misdemeanor. The client was asked if he wanted to take care of that fine right then.

Client was smart enough to get his phone number and called me.

I called this guy who at first kept up the charade. I cut him off, said, "Ok Sport, I've been an attorney for 40 years now, have forgotten more trials than I remember, and are you through monkey fucking around on this?" Dude hangs up of course.

I would love to serve on a jury. The last time I was called, I made it up to the courtroom, was sitting in the second row, and tried not to say anything. When asked, I just said, "Oh, I have just done a little bit of civil litigation work. Both plaintiff and defense work." Judge looked up, squinted his eyes a bit and said, "Oh... it's you Mr. Dunn. Welcome back. I usually see you on the other side of bar here." The jig was up. I was struck.

Posted
47 minutes ago, Lidig8r said:

So apparently there is a new scam.

I have a client who got a call from a person identifying himself as a county official. He said my guy had been called for jury service twice but failed to appear. That he had a statutory fine assessed against him and under a new law passed in the last legislative session, he could be charged with a  misdemeanor. The client was asked if he wanted to take care of that fine right then.

Client was smart enough to get his phone number and called me.

I called this guy who at first kept up the charade. I cut him off, said, "Ok Sport, I've been an attorney for 40 years now, have forgotten more trials than I remember, and are you through monkey fucking around on this?" Dude hangs up of course.

I would love to serve on a jury. The last time I was called, I made it up to the courtroom, was sitting in the second row, and tried not to say anything. When asked, I just said, "Oh, I have just done a little bit of civil litigation work. Both plaintiff and defense work." Judge looked up, squinted his eyes a bit and said, "Oh... it's you Mr. Dunn. Welcome back. I usually see you on the other side of bar here." The jig was up. I was struck.

That's been going on for a while.  A neighbor of mine was smart enough not to pay over the phone, but did drive to the Sherriff's office to turn himself in.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...