D&D 5E Jury duty still ongoing...

[Gilladian]

In my county, I was paid $7 the first day, $14 the second, and $40 for every day thereafter. I donated it all to the animal shelter. My employer ( the city) paid my salary while I served. We were not sequestered, but we were told not to speak about it, research it, listen to or read anything about it, etc...

We nearly had a mistrial when one juror got physically ill and left the jury box suddenly. Fortunately she managed to tell the bailif her problem and the judge gave us an emergency break.

 

[SkidAce]

They won't pick you when you tell them you were a cop in the military for 26 years either...been a witness, or technical expert, for court martials, never, ever, pulled civilian jury duty.

 

[Queer Venger]

In the American judicial system murder cases (and specially involving death penalty) must have consensus. In the British system the Judge can call for a majority. Seems that this jury continues to be dead-locked and they keep getting sent back to deliberate.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Actually, those rules vary. In some states, you can get convicted by a majority. In most, though, you need unanimity. Interestingly, in some states, a jury can be as small as 6 people.

 

[Morlock]

That presentation can sometimes take a long time, though.

In general, the length of a trial reflects the prosecution's evidence rather than the defendant's.

From the point of view of a prosecutor, there is a trade-off: reduce the amount of material presented, in which case the jury get less frustrated but there is the possibility of gaps in the material presented; or present it all, to tne Nth degree of completion, but risk boring/frustrating the jurors.

My impression is that a skilled advocate will recognise the risk of boring the jurors and therefore cut the material so as to make the duration of the trial manageable; but when a prosecutor is working in a bureaucratised environment, the pressures go the other way. In particular, no one wants to be the person who chooses not to lead some particular bit of evidence, then have the jury acquit the defendant, and then be blamed, because if only that extra bit of evidence had been led then the jury might have convicted. So the safe path is to lead everything. Hence long trials.

'Course if lawyers didn't make all of our laws and get paid by the hour, the right to a speedy trial might have a more concrete meaning in practice...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It takes 2- and sometimes 3 or more- to tango. Speedy trials are more likely to be slowed down by a judge's granting of defendant's motions than prosecution's.

 

[bmfrosty]

It takes 2- and sometimes 3 or more- to tango. Speedy trials are more likely to be slowed down by a judge's granting of defendant's motions than prosecution's.

It would be so much faster if the accused would just sit down and not object to being called a murderer.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Obviously!

 

[S_Dalsgaard]

It would be so much faster if the accused would just sit down and not object to being called a murderer.

That's the problem with murderers - they are often really really inconsiderate.

 

[Coredump]

IIRC I read a tweet to J Crawford asking if he was off of Jury Duty yet. Is it known who pulled the jury duty?