I got summoned for jury duty & am empaneled on a serious criminal case. Why am I

[catbyte]

SO NERVOUS? Voir dire was enough to make me go home & take a nap, lol. Opening arguments at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Gack!

[scarletwoman]

1. Well, all I can say is that I hope you have an interesting time.

And thank you for doing your civic duty.

It's weird, I've been a registered voter since 1970 and I have never once been called for jury duty. It makes me wonder if there is some kind of black mark next to name in some list somewhere.

[catbyte]

3. One of my fellow jurors will be 80 next month. It's never too late. I've been

registered since 1973 & this is my first time.

[edgineered]

2. Good luck,

things that have helped me to be fair are knowing not to trust my own memories and the realization that what I thought I saw would look different from across the room.

The accused is lucky to have at least one DUer on the jury!

[Trajan]

4. First thing I would do ....

Stop posting about it ...

Don't get yourself in trouble ...

[catbyte]

5. This is it. NO DETAILS. I was just expressing nervousness.

[Maedhros]

6. I greatly enjoyed my jury service.

I found the entire proceeding fascinating, and I would love to serve again.

[catbyte]

8. It's a heavy responsibility to have someone's liberty in your hands.

I was hoping for the civil cases, but noooooooo!

[Suich]

7. Take a book to read, or knitting, or something!

Last time I had jury duty there was a LOT of down time. Since you're not allowed to talk to fellow jurors about the case, a book or something comes in handy.

Good luck!

[rgbecker]

9. Read up on Jury Nullification:

In United States v. Moylan, 417 F.2d 1002 (4th. Cir. 1969), Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal unanimously ruled: "If the jury feels that the law under which the defendant is accused is unjust, or exigent circumstances justified the actions of the accused, or for any reason which appeals to their logic or passion, the jury has the right to acquit, and the courts must abide that decision." The Fully Informed Jury Association is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to informing jurors of their rights and seeking the passage of laws to require judges to inform jurors that they can and should judge the law. In Sparf v. United States, 156 U.S. 51 (1895), the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, held that a trial judge has no responsibility to inform the jury of the right to nullify laws.

Modern American jurisprudence is generally intolerant of the practice, and a juror can be removed from a case if the judge believes that the juror is aware of the power of nullification.[23]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury#Jury_nullification

Have fun, life is short.

[Enrique]

10. i get nervous when I get called for DU jury duty

[Hekate]

11. I was empanelled for the first time last month. Fortunately it was a civil case.

Unfortunately it involved an injury (severe burn) and we had to find the landlord negligent. I can talk about it now because it's all over and settled, and the judge told us we could.

Take notes. Don't talk to ANYone once you start. During all those times you're stuck in the jury room waiting for the thing to start for the day or for judge and lawyers to hash some point out, stick to safe neutral subjects like hobbies and the weather. No politics. Bring a book or e-reader.

Try to distance yourself from the evidence and not take it in to your psyche too far, if you know what I mean. More than one of my fellow jurors lost sleep -- if I never have to hear another detailed description of what 9 weeks of debridements in the Burn Unit is like, it will be too soon.

Be prepared to talk it out with your fellow jurors once the final words are spoken -- I was impressed with the intelligence most of them brought to it.

Oddly, one of my strongest allies in explaining what the landlord did wrong when he installed the stove (let me count the ways) was a guy I originally pegged as a political conservative I didn't want to have much to do with. He was in the building trades and was able to explain in a very detailed fashion what I only knew intuitively and from reading things like Consumer Reports. I ended up appreciating him very much.

I wish you all the best -- you'll do fine.

[angstlessk]

12. I too was on a civil case..the person voted to be foreperson, her first question was...

"which lawyer do you think picked you for jury duty?" Before anyone could answer I declared that the question in itself was prejudicial and could cause a person to vote based on who they thought chose them..I was as shocked as anyone in the room that I spoke up so forcefully in a room full of strangers