Jury duty
- Thread starter Jazzy
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I heard two cases during my stint as a juror.
One was a case where two guys were accused of attempted murder. The defense was creative to say the least but after seven days of hearing evidence we rejected the defense's claims and returned a unanimous guilty verdict within an afternoon. I went to the sentencing (not required, I was just curious) and the two guys got sent to jail for over 10 years each. From their audible responses (I was stood in an area shielded from them by frosted glass) I think they were expecting a slap on the wrist and maybe a few months at most.
Because we were on a two-week stint they gave us another brief case that was about an alleged benefit fraud. The presentation of the case and evidence took a day and a half, and we returned a unanimous guilty verdict in less than half an hour. That case was so obvious I don't even know why it went to court.
One was a case where two guys were accused of attempted murder. The defense was creative to say the least but after seven days of hearing evidence we rejected the defense's claims and returned a unanimous guilty verdict within an afternoon. I went to the sentencing (not required, I was just curious) and the two guys got sent to jail for over 10 years each. From their audible responses (I was stood in an area shielded from them by frosted glass) I think they were expecting a slap on the wrist and maybe a few months at most.
Because we were on a two-week stint they gave us another brief case that was about an alleged benefit fraud. The presentation of the case and evidence took a day and a half, and we returned a unanimous guilty verdict in less than half an hour. That case was so obvious I don't even know why it went to court.
~Jo~
The Cakeslayer
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I was 21 when I did jury service at the Old Bailey in London uk, I honestly had no idea what was going on, the case was about a young black guy supposed to have thrown acid into an Asian woman's face, we found out after that it was the 2nd time the case had been heard because they couldn't get a 12/12 verdict. There was this stupid man trying to convict him on the fact he and his pregnant girlfriend where claiming benefits which is crazy and I told him so, the guy was found guilty but no idea what sentence he got as he had to come back 2 weeks later. When the judge gave him whatever and we wasn't in the court room cause we was back to work.
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I served as a juror on a 3 day criminal trial.
I thought it was really interesting, and I was impressed how seriously our seemingly-random group of 12 people took the responsibility. What I thought was especially interesting was that the defendants lawyer didn't actually try to argue that the guy didn't commit the crime (simultaneous possession of narcotics and a firearm), but that the law should be interpreted a certain way because they guy didn't intend to do anything harmful to anyone else. The jury pretty much agreed that he seemed like a good guy that had some bad circumstances that lead him to make poor decisions and that he likely would have NEVER used the firearm, but that he was still guilty.
I thought it was really interesting, and I was impressed how seriously our seemingly-random group of 12 people took the responsibility. What I thought was especially interesting was that the defendants lawyer didn't actually try to argue that the guy didn't commit the crime (simultaneous possession of narcotics and a firearm), but that the law should be interpreted a certain way because they guy didn't intend to do anything harmful to anyone else. The jury pretty much agreed that he seemed like a good guy that had some bad circumstances that lead him to make poor decisions and that he likely would have NEVER used the firearm, but that he was still guilty.