Jury Duty! - Edit 1
Before modification by The_Muted_Grimaud at 21/02/2012 10:34:19 PM
So, last Tuesday, I got selected to be on a jury! The case should be over Wednesday or Thursday (i.e. we should be saying guilty/not-guilty by that time) ... obviously, as its an ongoing case I can't actually tell you all anything about it.
That being said, I've made interesting observations into the world of the courtroom.
1) Despite being told by several people, (including the judge, assistant district attorney (ADA), defense lawyer), that this is nothing like a TV show, I've concluded that they are very wrong. It's very much like TV shows depict.
Obviously there's differences, TV shows (Law & Order say), last an hour and show about 5-10 minutes of testimony ... I've sat through some 13-14 hours of testimony so far. The seating in the back of the room is always full of people, reporters in TV shows ... my case, practically nobody is there. Also, the attorneys are never within 15 feet of the witness stand, and I get a feeling that's protocol. Depictions of courtrooms always show the attorneys getting right in the grill of the witness, mano e mano style. Not really.
But there's so many similarities, the way the ADA acts is exactly how it is in Law & Order, asking the questions, presenting the story ... and strangely enough she's a very attractive early 30's female, very stereotypical for L&O. The Defense attorney too is a stereotypical L&O defense attorney. The cross-examination matches up pretty well to how a defense attorney acts on the TV show. Occasionally it goes by like a staged play almost.
2) Will get to that later.
...
3) We actually had 16 jurors, 4 alternates. We're down to 14, two people dropped out for 'medical reasons'. I'm interested, if 3 more were to suffer an illness, would the case then have to be retried? Also, 40$ a day for jury duty, or so I've been told ... I feel bad for the people who are missing work.
Anyway, maybe Thursday I can give you all details on the case itself.
If you want them ...
That being said, I've made interesting observations into the world of the courtroom.
1) Despite being told by several people, (including the judge, assistant district attorney (ADA), defense lawyer), that this is nothing like a TV show, I've concluded that they are very wrong. It's very much like TV shows depict.
Obviously there's differences, TV shows (Law & Order say), last an hour and show about 5-10 minutes of testimony ... I've sat through some 13-14 hours of testimony so far. The seating in the back of the room is always full of people, reporters in TV shows ... my case, practically nobody is there. Also, the attorneys are never within 15 feet of the witness stand, and I get a feeling that's protocol. Depictions of courtrooms always show the attorneys getting right in the grill of the witness, mano e mano style. Not really.
But there's so many similarities, the way the ADA acts is exactly how it is in Law & Order, asking the questions, presenting the story ... and strangely enough she's a very attractive early 30's female, very stereotypical for L&O. The Defense attorney too is a stereotypical L&O defense attorney. The cross-examination matches up pretty well to how a defense attorney acts on the TV show. Occasionally it goes by like a staged play almost.
2) Will get to that later.
... 3) We actually had 16 jurors, 4 alternates. We're down to 14, two people dropped out for 'medical reasons'. I'm interested, if 3 more were to suffer an illness, would the case then have to be retried? Also, 40$ a day for jury duty, or so I've been told ... I feel bad for the people who are missing work.
Anyway, maybe Thursday I can give you all details on the case itself.
If you want them ...