08-11-2022, 03:22 PM
For the first time I've actually got to the Jury selection part. The last time the trial was settled before Jury was even selected but since I showed up, I was excused from duty for a year.
And you know what, it's nothing like it is on TV where they can select a jury in about ten minutes. I should have been on a TV jury! The initial panel was very slow. The judge asked a bunch of questions and then the defense attorney got to ask a bunch of question. The Defense attorney is incredibly slow. You can almost hear the thought processes going on in his brain as he tries to come up with questions. And they are all the same questions so you would think it would be faster.
I am already biased against the defendant because he wears a Covid mask but it doesn't cover his nose. It's driving me nuts looking at it. I'm kind of kidding. Kind of not.
Probably the best moment of the day which brought the jury selection to a screeching halt was right after the charges against the defendant were read. One of the jurors raised his hand during a time when the jurors are just supposed to sit there. The judge stopped her talking and asked the juror what was the matter. The juror said he didn't know what the word larceny meant. The judge stopped in stunned silence for a couple of minutes. She didn't know how to proceed. She was afraid giving the definition might be prejudicial. So, the judge called lawyers up to the bench to discuss what to do. They decided and the judge told the juror the word meant theft. Lots of disbelief in the jury pool.
They also found out that one of the jurors was a felon. Whoopsy. The juror didn't realize that by accepting a plea deal, he was still convicted of a crime. The juror also said he didn't anything wrong. We came back from what was supposed to be a ten minute break and turned into a 40 minute break and that juror was no longer in the jury box.
The whole jury pool got into trouble during the ten minute break, too. Our courtroom is on the 4th floor of the Madera County Courthouse. Everyone figured that since it was a ten minute break, we might as well just wait in the hall rather than making the round trip to the first floor and then back up again. Yeah, they didn't like us all waiting in the hall. The bailiff came and shooed us to our room. The Assembly Room Moderator came and gave us a stern speech about always coming back to the room. And when we returned to Room 40, the judge pretty much gave us the same speech.
We got to hear the defense attorney labor through another question before it was time to go home.
And you know what, it's nothing like it is on TV where they can select a jury in about ten minutes. I should have been on a TV jury! The initial panel was very slow. The judge asked a bunch of questions and then the defense attorney got to ask a bunch of question. The Defense attorney is incredibly slow. You can almost hear the thought processes going on in his brain as he tries to come up with questions. And they are all the same questions so you would think it would be faster.
I am already biased against the defendant because he wears a Covid mask but it doesn't cover his nose. It's driving me nuts looking at it. I'm kind of kidding. Kind of not.
Probably the best moment of the day which brought the jury selection to a screeching halt was right after the charges against the defendant were read. One of the jurors raised his hand during a time when the jurors are just supposed to sit there. The judge stopped her talking and asked the juror what was the matter. The juror said he didn't know what the word larceny meant. The judge stopped in stunned silence for a couple of minutes. She didn't know how to proceed. She was afraid giving the definition might be prejudicial. So, the judge called lawyers up to the bench to discuss what to do. They decided and the judge told the juror the word meant theft. Lots of disbelief in the jury pool.
They also found out that one of the jurors was a felon. Whoopsy. The juror didn't realize that by accepting a plea deal, he was still convicted of a crime. The juror also said he didn't anything wrong. We came back from what was supposed to be a ten minute break and turned into a 40 minute break and that juror was no longer in the jury box.
The whole jury pool got into trouble during the ten minute break, too. Our courtroom is on the 4th floor of the Madera County Courthouse. Everyone figured that since it was a ten minute break, we might as well just wait in the hall rather than making the round trip to the first floor and then back up again. Yeah, they didn't like us all waiting in the hall. The bailiff came and shooed us to our room. The Assembly Room Moderator came and gave us a stern speech about always coming back to the room. And when we returned to Room 40, the judge pretty much gave us the same speech.
We got to hear the defense attorney labor through another question before it was time to go home.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm