[Misc] Jury Service

[Lifelong Supporter]

Interesting thread. I have been called up but for early March. Helpful info. Thanks.

 

[clarkey]

We had a couple of 'hang em' jurors who made up their minds after simply seeing the very young defendent for the first time.

They were reined in over the coming days, as we carefully went through the evidence and legal directions from the judge.

Forgot to mention that in my earlier post. Had a couple of people who had sat for 6 weeks listening to evidence from 50+ witnesses. Got into the jury room, and turns out they'd made their mind up on Morning 1 based purely on the prosecution's opening statements.

Was actually amazing how little attention some people had paid, and how judgmental people were. Some of them we weren't able to talk round or persuade them to think a bit more. Quite scary really.

 

[Gwylan]

I got called up in the summer - a complete pain as they didn't assign me a case. I'm self employed so I had to clear my desk for a couple of weeks so I spent the time doing nothing and, because I didn't actually sit on a jury, I couldn't claim any loss of earnings.

I also did it about 20 years ago. That was much more interesting, as the then Mrs Gwylan was a lawyer, I knew quite a bit about court procedure (and we had to do court reporting as part of journalism training, so I was well used to courts) - that knowledge court me selected as foreman and it was interesting keeping the jurors on topic.

There was one who refused to believe a victim had been beaten up, despite the doctor's evidence ("he's black so he's bound to be a liar"). There was a young woman who fancied the defence barrister so found his client not guilty (even though he was caught bang to rights) and the juror who ignored the judge's instructions about listening only to the evidence and went to examine the scene of the alleged crime herself. She tried to tell the jury about it until I shut her up - all human life was there.

We acquitted a guy who was clearly as guilty as hell because the police completely cocked up the evidence. We all knew he'd done it and felt strangely vindicated when he was taken back to prison after his trial was over.

We heard three cases - four defendants - found two guilty and two not guilty. A fair split.

 

[drew]

It's worth doing. I did mine about 4 years ago and got two cases one of 3 days at Lewes and one of 2 at Brighton. We had a an ex tank commander as the foreman and an ex member of The Cure on the Jury!! Pot luck if you get called.

 

[Chicken Run]

Hants Seagull was on JS late last year, he’s your man!

 

[timco]

Did my 2 weeks 8 years or so ago in Brum it was relaxing at the time as my company at that time just seconded you to the court for the 2 weeks and you worked court time and had to have a 2 day break at the end of it. Sadly not the case anymore and if you get sent home you have to call in and see if work want you to come in and finish your day off.

Got 2 cases first quite serious where a person was accused of deliberately running over a love rivals mother..... the second quite funny a shopper was accused of aggravated racial abuse in a branch of a well know freezer shop.

Very interesting being part of the process

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Forgot to mention that in my earlier post. Had a couple of people who had sat for 6 weeks listening to evidence from 50+ witnesses. Got into the jury room, and turns out they'd made their mind up on Morning 1 based purely on the prosecution's opening statements.

Was actually amazing how little attention some people had paid, and how judgmental people were. Some of them we weren't able to talk round or persuade them to think a bit more. Quite scary really.

When I was called up, one fellow member of the jury had decided that one of the defendants was guilty because 'he gave me a dirty look'. I was just psyching up for my Henry Fonda impersonation when the judge threw out the case.

 

[Klaas]

It's worth doing. I did mine about 4 years ago and got two cases one of 3 days at Lewes and one of 2 at Brighton. We had a an ex tank commander as the foreman and an ex member of The Cure on the Jury!! Pot luck if you get called.

No way! Guess you can't say who?

 

[The Clamp]

Half a morning of listening to phone records being read out and then almost two weeks of tax free, paid days off. Loved it.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I found it really interesting.

got assigned a case(kidnapping, false imprisonment and threats to kill) on the first morning which lasted the full two weeks.

9/11 happened midway through it too.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Forgot to mention that in my earlier post. Had a couple of people who had sat for 6 weeks listening to evidence from 50+ witnesses. Got into the jury room, and turns out they'd made their mind up on Morning 1 based purely on the prosecution's opening statements.

Was actually amazing how little attention some people had paid, and how judgmental people were. Some of them we weren't able to talk round or persuade them to think a bit more. Quite scary really.

There was a woman on mine who was convinced the defendants were guilty just because the case was at court: 'they wouldn't be here if there was no evidence'

We had to repeatedly point out that we'd sat through two weeks of 'evidence' and none of it pointed to the defendants being guilty. The star witness for the prosecution's kidnapping case(best friend of the 'victim') admitted freely and cheerfully that he got in the van voluntarily with the kidnapping victim to get a lift to work.

 

[maffew]

I enjoyed it when I did it. First week did a case of a bloke who was accused of stealing a lawnmower from a shed. Really rather funny as he was half deaf and so everyone had to shout because he kept forgetting his hearing aid .... no doubt on purpose. Sent him down ! After finding him guilty his previous was read out and he'd been in and out of prison for 30 odd years. The jury discussion was frustrating though as there were two women who said they believed him to be guilty but weren't prepared to vote that way just in case they were wrong/

Second week I was sworn in the hear a rape case. The jury were dismissed after 20 minutes but were told we couldn't be told why.

It can be boring waiting around but the court process is interesting. Take a good book !

A week case for stealing a mower? Are you sure?

 

[dazzer6666]

When I was called up, one fellow member of the jury had decided that one of the defendants was guilty because 'he gave me a dirty look'. I was just psyching up for my Henry Fonda impersonation when the judge threw out the case.

Had exactly this on my first case as well. On of the jurors was convinced the defendant was ‘looking at her funny’, to the extent she eventually got the judge to warn him not to.....and he was asked to change his seating angle (none of the rest of us thought he was).

Wish I could discuss the case itself, it was fascinating. Very much one person’s word against another and a need to determine who was telling the truth. Biggest lesson I took from it was if you’re ever in court get a good barrister. The CPS guy was magnificent - probably some future top judge. He spent 3 days utterly and methodically dismantling everything the defendant had claimed to the extent we had a list of about 40 lies/inconsistencies written up on the wall in the jury room by the end of it (and none at all for the accuser). We even got to the point where the defendant’s own star witness ended up incriminating his buddy. His own barrister, by contrast, was a disinterested legal aid guy and appeared useless, missing several obvious opportunities to help his client.

Whole process actually increased my faith in the system. The second case looked like a slam-dunk guilty at the start - guy in the dock was in prison clothes as he was already on remand for something else and had a long record (which was unusually read out before we started), but is it became quickly clear that he wasn’t guilty. The CPS evidence, and in particular the policeman that appeared in court, was so fundamentally flawed it seemed bizarre the case made it to court. I think they were trying this guy in the hope he shopped the actual villain to protect himself because he obviously knew him.

 

[scousefan]

I did two weeks of jury service and sat on three cases. The waiting around is very boring and most cases are very dull. You don’t just wait around to go on a case, but during a case there can be long delays also. My overriding impression was how good the judges were, but the barristers were more mixed. You also realise it’s a very flawed system and inevitably there is at least one person on each jury with divergent and bigoted views. While I did not want to be foreman I learnt the hard way that you don’t want the biggest knob on the jury to appoint themselves as foreman.

I did hear a good story from someone who had served as a joror. Before a case the jury were sitting in the jury room when someone said let’s break the ice by telling embarrassing stories”. One bloke spoke up and said he had once been caught short on a bus and had to do a number 2. The bus was empty so he did it in the back seat into a newspaper. He then rolled it up and threw it out of the bus window. The next day two policemen turned up at his door and accused him of this dirty deed. He asked them how they knew, to which he got the answer - “ It was in the Echo”. Now of course this was a joke, the Liverpool Echo is the local rag with all local news and gossip - just like the Argus in Brighton. However later in the case in court one of the barristers referred to some information being “in the Echo”.- At the point several members of the jury started giggling . The judge had to call a halt and later came into the jury room very stoney faced to ask for an explanation. At this point the poor bloke had to explain his joke and got a serious ticking off from the judge!

Serious point - obey the rules. One juror got sent to the cells for his lunch break, when seen sleeping in court. Apparently jurors ending up in the cells is far more common than you might think

 

[cheshunt seagull]

I did this at the Old Bailey in 1986. A company director and his PA up for fraud. A fascinating but often surreal experience. The ageing judge had a small bottle of smelling salts to keep him alert and a chronically weak bladder which delayed proceedings considerably. The slow progress wasn’t helped by us losing a day when a juror mistakenly jumped on a mystery tour trip to Lancaster rather than his train to London Bridge.

After 5 weeks we finally started deliberations and a woman juror declared , without any evidence having been presented on this, that the PA was blinded with love for her boss and couldn’t be guilty and Lancaster man said that as a devout Christian he couldn’t judge his fellow man. They were both put right but 3 other jurors believed her to be not guilty (for sound reasons). We we were locked for about 3-4 hours when the judge said he would accept a 10/2 verdict and one of the 3 said he was hungry and changed his vote so we marched in for the verdict; every bit as tense as depicted in films. He was packed off to Wandsworth and she to Holloway while a few of us went to a nearby pub to find ourselves queuing at the bar with her family. Awkward.

 

[Madafwo]

I got called up a few years ago, just as I was about to start a new job in Bolton, I deferred it but kept it in Brighton so I got 2 weeks at home with the parents and wasn't able to go in for a half day.

We sat through 2 cases, I can't remember much about the first one except that one of the witnesses kept on saying he did something "to get her off the crack", that was thrown out so we didn't actually deliberate. The second one was a rape case which was horrible to sit through but something came up which meant we were dismissed and again didn't get to deliberate.

It can be horrifically boring being sat around for days on end and doing nothing so take stuff to keep you entertained, in the end mine lasted longer than everyone else because when they sent everyone else home I was in the thinking chamber and didn't hear them being excused, as such I was sat in an empty room for a while until I found someone who knew what was going on.

 

[southstandandy]

Got called once but had to decline as was away on holiday - they never came back to me after that. Sounds pretty dull from most peoples experiences.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Not happened thus far. Wouldn't mind so long as I don't miss a midweek game.

 

[drew]

No way! Guess you can't say who?

Better not but he wasn't in the bad for long. Apparently did only one of their early tours.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Had a death by dangerous driving case a few years ago which was pretty grim, the amount of times you have to get up and leave when there's an objection is ridiculous!

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