Refusing case as jury member
Discussion
A colleague is doing jury service at the moment
Apparently today they refused to sit on the case they were chosen for which was a sexual offence
I don’t know what their reason was, perhaps there was something in their past, or maybe just a lack of mental fortitude
Anyway what happened in this instance? What is the view of the court, is it common to happen?
There must be a process you’d think say someone was a rape victim and was chosen to go on a rape trial you’d wonder if they could legitimately excuse themselves. I’m not saying that’s the case here just wondering.
Apparently today they refused to sit on the case they were chosen for which was a sexual offence
I don’t know what their reason was, perhaps there was something in their past, or maybe just a lack of mental fortitude
Anyway what happened in this instance? What is the view of the court, is it common to happen?
There must be a process you’d think say someone was a rape victim and was chosen to go on a rape trial you’d wonder if they could legitimately excuse themselves. I’m not saying that’s the case here just wondering.
Well, I was on Jury service in December (didn't sit a case) but almost made the cut for one case. The judge said it may be a two week case (woohoo I thought).. two droppped out in the courtroom. One was a butcher(small family business - he wasn't family). I can't remember the reason for the second. The next day (start of trial) it turns out another was "ill" so was replaced. (funnily enough she had expressed concerns about the predicted length of the case)
Being a victim or not being able to stomach it is better than pretending to be ill.
Personally I'd love to have been selected.. even given the subject matter of the case.
Being a victim or not being able to stomach it is better than pretending to be ill.
Personally I'd love to have been selected.. even given the subject matter of the case.
jakesmith said:
A colleague is doing jury service at the moment
Apparently today they refused to sit on the case they were chosen for which was a sexual offence
I don’t know what their reason was, perhaps there was something in their past, or maybe just a lack of mental fortitude
Anyway what happened in this instance? What is the view of the court, is it common to happen?
There must be a process you’d think say someone was a rape victim and was chosen to go on a rape trial you’d wonder if they could legitimately excuse themselves. I’m not saying that’s the case here just wondering.
If they were intelligent about it they'd just say they knew someone involved and be excused from that case!Apparently today they refused to sit on the case they were chosen for which was a sexual offence
I don’t know what their reason was, perhaps there was something in their past, or maybe just a lack of mental fortitude
Anyway what happened in this instance? What is the view of the court, is it common to happen?
There must be a process you’d think say someone was a rape victim and was chosen to go on a rape trial you’d wonder if they could legitimately excuse themselves. I’m not saying that’s the case here just wondering.
I found doing Jury Service very interesting, and we got a couple of cases to deal with. I don't think I did the whole two weeks as both cases were wrapped up relatively quickly.
jakesmith said:
A colleague is doing jury service at the moment
Apparently today they refused to sit on the case they were chosen for which was a sexual offence
I don’t know what their reason was, perhaps there was something in their past, or maybe just a lack of mental fortitude
Anyway what happened in this instance? What is the view of the court, is it common to happen?
There must be a process you’d think say someone was a rape victim and was chosen to go on a rape trial you’d wonder if they could legitimately excuse themselves. I’m not saying that’s the case here just wondering.
Can she not claim she would be prejudice due to her (possible) previous experience?Apparently today they refused to sit on the case they were chosen for which was a sexual offence
I don’t know what their reason was, perhaps there was something in their past, or maybe just a lack of mental fortitude
Anyway what happened in this instance? What is the view of the court, is it common to happen?
There must be a process you’d think say someone was a rape victim and was chosen to go on a rape trial you’d wonder if they could legitimately excuse themselves. I’m not saying that’s the case here just wondering.
i worked on a fraud case that was scheduled to run at least 12 months......they called 90 people for jury selection, person number 4 said they had met one of the defendants socially.........she was excused...........another 20 people claimed the same
Mr justice henry then told the others still waiting " I hope you aren't all going to be socially connected"
Mr justice henry then told the others still waiting " I hope you aren't all going to be socially connected"
I recently did jury service and naively believed being chosen by letter meant I was on a jury.
But no, it is very likely about 20 were ushered to the court and then after presenting the accused the judge asks if anyone feels they cannot be in the lots chosen from the 20 there - the judge usually starts by saying if you know the accused in any way to pipe up.
At this point if some say they would rather not anyhow but there is still 12 or more left willing to be drawn from the hat, it is unlikely the judge will worry as all he/she wants is 12 able jurors to take their places.
Having said that, I am not sure we were told what the accused was going to be charged with - fairly easy to work out from the initial talking though.
But no, it is very likely about 20 were ushered to the court and then after presenting the accused the judge asks if anyone feels they cannot be in the lots chosen from the 20 there - the judge usually starts by saying if you know the accused in any way to pipe up.
At this point if some say they would rather not anyhow but there is still 12 or more left willing to be drawn from the hat, it is unlikely the judge will worry as all he/she wants is 12 able jurors to take their places.
Having said that, I am not sure we were told what the accused was going to be charged with - fairly easy to work out from the initial talking though.
jondude said:
I recently did jury service and naively believed being chosen by letter meant I was on a jury.
But no, it is very likely about 20 were ushered to the court and then after presenting the accused the judge asks if anyone feels they cannot be in the lots chosen from the 20 there - the judge usually starts by saying if you know the accused in any way to pipe up.
At this point if some say they would rather not anyhow but there is still 12 or more left willing to be drawn from the hat, it is unlikely the judge will worry as all he/she wants is 12 able jurors to take their places.
Having said that, I am not sure we were told what the accused was going to be charged with - fairly easy to work out from the initial talking though.
This is what I was wondering - so it's not like the thing falls apart because someone drops outBut no, it is very likely about 20 were ushered to the court and then after presenting the accused the judge asks if anyone feels they cannot be in the lots chosen from the 20 there - the judge usually starts by saying if you know the accused in any way to pipe up.
At this point if some say they would rather not anyhow but there is still 12 or more left willing to be drawn from the hat, it is unlikely the judge will worry as all he/she wants is 12 able jurors to take their places.
Having said that, I am not sure we were told what the accused was going to be charged with - fairly easy to work out from the initial talking though.
I did jury duty about 10 years ago, and it made me concerned if I ever have to go before a jury, because 90% of my fellow jurors were complete idiots.
One person refused to go for the higher charge (GBH rather than just Assault) because she had a son the same age as the defendant, and she said if it was her son there, she wouldn’t want him to go away to prison for a longer time... even though that’s not what you were being asked to do.
One person said “what if the man who was attacked had been holding a broken bottle behind his back that we don’t know about, and had threatened the defendant with it?”. Except no-one on either side of the case had said anything remotely close to this, so she was pulling it from nowhere.
One person just enjoyed rolling up his notebook and asking if we could ‘reconstruct’ the assault where he just liked to boop people on the head with his rolled up notebook repeatedly.
One lady was clearly struggling with the language side, which I noticed so kept asking her questions to involve her and make sure she understood what was going on... she admitted that she couldn’t really follow what was being said in the courtroom.
Two jurors revealed to me they both had criminal convictions for assault... which I thought was a no no for jury criteria.
There was me, and a girl who was studying law at uni at the time who seemed to be the only sane ones there.
We had to give the guy the lower charge because certain people wouldn’t budge. Afterwards we were read out his previous convictions. Over 10 separate charges of punching And beating his girlfriend, including punching her in the face whilst she had been holding his 2 month old son. Absolute scumbag.
One person refused to go for the higher charge (GBH rather than just Assault) because she had a son the same age as the defendant, and she said if it was her son there, she wouldn’t want him to go away to prison for a longer time... even though that’s not what you were being asked to do.
One person said “what if the man who was attacked had been holding a broken bottle behind his back that we don’t know about, and had threatened the defendant with it?”. Except no-one on either side of the case had said anything remotely close to this, so she was pulling it from nowhere.
One person just enjoyed rolling up his notebook and asking if we could ‘reconstruct’ the assault where he just liked to boop people on the head with his rolled up notebook repeatedly.
One lady was clearly struggling with the language side, which I noticed so kept asking her questions to involve her and make sure she understood what was going on... she admitted that she couldn’t really follow what was being said in the courtroom.
Two jurors revealed to me they both had criminal convictions for assault... which I thought was a no no for jury criteria.
There was me, and a girl who was studying law at uni at the time who seemed to be the only sane ones there.
We had to give the guy the lower charge because certain people wouldn’t budge. Afterwards we were read out his previous convictions. Over 10 separate charges of punching And beating his girlfriend, including punching her in the face whilst she had been holding his 2 month old son. Absolute scumbag.
Greshamst said:
I did jury duty about 10 years ago, and it made me concerned if I ever have to go before a jury, because 90% of my fellow jurors were complete idiots.
Indeed. One of the cases I was on was 4 people up on conspiracy to commit armed robbery. One woman was convinced only one was guilty and the other 3 weren't, although the judge explained we had to find at least 2 people guilty if anyone at all, because 1 person would have no one to conspire with. This advanced maths was beyond her comprehension.
Greshamst said:
I did jury duty about 10 years ago, and it made me concerned if I ever have to go before a jury, because 90% of my fellow jurors were complete idiots.
... examples of morons ...
Is there no facility for reporting to the court that some members of the jury are speculating and ignoring the questions put to them? ... examples of morons ...
SamR380 said:
Greshamst said:
I did jury duty about 10 years ago, and it made me concerned if I ever have to go before a jury, because 90% of my fellow jurors were complete idiots.
... examples of morons ...
Is there no facility for reporting to the court that some members of the jury are speculating and ignoring the questions put to them? ... examples of morons ...
There was the fraud trial that collapsed after 21 months because the jury went on strike.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_line_corrupt...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_line_corrupt...
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