Penny Arcade - Comic - Jury Rig

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Penny Arcade - Comic - Jury Rig

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

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Ringo

My one experience of actually making it past juror selection was for a fender bender that turned into a highly irregular DUI case where even the arresting officers were like, "This blood test says you should be dead, this has to be faulty."

As a jury we were instructed to review the evidence presented, which meant that because the public defender never even attempted to establish that the test might be faulty (and thus gave zero defense for the defendant, who was not fluent in English) we were forced to convict. The majority of the jury had apparently been selected for our vehement dislike of substance abusers, so we were all pretty pissed that we were basically forced to cooperate in this stacked deck sham instead of getting to convict someone who actually seemed guilty. We spent all of our deliberations sending notes to the judge complaining about it.

And that's my story of how I got to participate in American justice and send a poor Czech immigrant to Tent City for a year.

If you don't know much about Joe Arpaio and Tent City, here's a first hand account

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/08/26/the-year-i-spent-in-joe-arpaios-tent-jail-was-hell-he-should-never-walk-free/

dennis

I don't think I could have went along with that.

Hence probably why I was asked to not be on the only jury I've been called for. Either that or the crimes.

silence1186

Just a simple country lawyer, no tie tied or nuthin'

Judge would not look too kindly on that.

zepherin

I've been called for Jury duty 4 times, and it's weird, because every time I've been called it's for a jurisdiction I used to live but no longer live. I've been told it's tied to my voter registration, but it seams when I change my address with the DMV, the old jurisdiction sends me a letter that is forwarded. So the beauty of it is I've never had to serve a day, because it's a phone call and an email (or fax) and it is resolved.

Tofystedeth

I got summoned 3 times for a state I hadn't lived in for years.

MichaelLC

I went once or twice, never made it out of the waiting room.

Last two times I was still a contractor, so wrote a polite letter saying this would be a hardship for my family. Excused both times no problem.

Colanut

I've been called 4 times and served on juries twice and once more as an alternate (had to sit through the trial but did not get to deliberate). We delivered justice both times- acquittal! I even cracked wise during the voir dire process and got some lols from the court room.

Frankly, it is a pretty fine way to avoid work if they are paying for your time to be there (public institution). Though, those were the days when you had to be on-prem. Now its all check the website...

bwanie

Do not underestimate the eastern europe/russion alcohol tolerance. It's the stuff of legends...