jury duty

[agrid]

I've done it a couple of times, the big cases generally come up at the beginning of the week, if you don't get picked they send you away around lunchtime. Later in the week you may get a shorter one or two day case, they try and get everyone on a case so they don't feel they have wasted their time. The cases I was involved in was just a parade of child molesters. I think it is a worthwhile experience.

[chew]

Just get pregnant and you can walk.

Personally I think the jury and justice system needs a major overhaul to bring it into the 21st century but thats another story. People getting out of jury duty is part of that as we do not end up with fully representative juries after the drop outs and then the defence/prosecution challenges.

[agrid]

True, if I was being judged by my peers I'd like to think it would be by people with half a brain. I had to spend some time while in deliberation explaining how DNA evidence works. There was the usual loudmouth who immediately wanted to be foreman, and an attention-seeking fat bird that went against the general consensus right up until she realized she might miss dinner, and a few oldies that see jury duty as a fun outing. The people with a few brains had found a way to weasel out. Its an obligation to society, the judges are very thankful, just do it.

[Fozzy]

Never been called Would like to give it a bash sometime.

[Rhinosaur]

Yer, point taken, but still... 2 lawyers, 1 judge, 3 or 4 witnesses, a jury - for 1/2 a day. I dunno, maybe a couple of thousand taxpayer dollars spent cause some idiot came out of the pub pissed and wanted the bus fare home. He only verbally threatened the kid; didn't lay a hand on him. Ok, I have no idea of the dickheads criminal record, but the whole thing seemed to be lacking in common sense.

Wish I'd been at the "crime scene":
"hey, don't cry kid - here's $5. Let's hope karma catches up with the idiot who stole it from you..."

Mmm, just previewed my post, and yes I am prone to naivety...

Dude, that's a 14yr old kid getting robbed! the monetary value is not the point. If that happened to my kid I would want the prick hung.

Never done it, never will.

Ahhhhhhhhh

Why not?

[dr00]

this was nearly five years ago now. time flies...

the trial ended up going for four weeks. ex-drug addict girl stabbed her drug addict ex-bf right in the heart while he was trying to tie her to the bed. he'd grabbed her with the knife at the front door as she came home from work. he had set up a trip wire so he knew when she was coming up the stairs and rigged a door so he could get into her part of the house. she had cleaned herself up and tried to kick him out and he wasnt happy with it. was pretty interesting, saw the footage from the first forensics on the scene going through the house with blood spatter all over the joint, photos of the body to see where it was positioned when he died, photos of the body from the autopsy, got to have a look at the knife in its little plastic tube covered in blood, many many photos of every single bit of blood spatter in the house (there was lots because he managed to stumbled all the way outside with blood spraying with each pump of his heart). all in all it was a clear cut case of self defense.

i forgot to mention that, perth being the country town that it is, the accused (a young woman) actually applied for a job with me nearly two years later. i interviewed her and actually offered her the job but she had accepted another job in the mean time. she never knew i was one of her jurors...

[truewheel]

Dude, that's a 14yr old kid getting robbed! the monetary value is not the point. If that happened to my kid I would want the prick hung.

...I hope you ain't a high school principal, you'd be getting a bit of grief from bullies parents.

to quote The Times headline when Mick Jagger got a 3 month jail sentence for a couple of amphetamine tablets in 1967:
"Who Breaks a Butterfly Upon a Wheel?"

[Bendito]

I ruptured a L4 disc and had to go back to work after 2 days in extreme pain and drugged up to the eyeballs because the job just had to be done

Sounds like you really had that work/life balance nailed

[Rhinosaur]

...I hope you ain't a high school principal, you'd be getting a bit of grief from bullies parents.

to quote The Times headline when Mick Jagger got a 3 month jail sentence for a couple of amphetamine tablets in 1967:
"Who Breaks a Butterfly Upon a Wheel?"

Yeah but your not talking about a school yard, you are talking about an adult who has stolen from a child under threat of violence. That is disgusting. I don't understand what part of it you think is petty? Is it just the fact its $5? If someone breaks into your house and only manages to steal a sentimental heirloom worth$5 do you want them charged with burglary and stealing, or would you be happy for the copper to say; "There there fella, here's $5 bucks, on ya way, I'm sure karma will head his way..."???

[darkfibre]

Never done it, never will.

Ahhhhhhhhh

Why not?

Its an automatic exemption when you sell your soul.

[Deano]

i forgot to mention that, perth being the country town that it is, the accused (a young woman) actually applied for a job with me nearly two years later. i interviewed her and actually offered her the job

You had no reservations due to your prior experience with the individual?

[dr00]

You had no reservations due to your prior experience with the individual?

she graduated the school of hard knocks with flying colours. after everything she went through she cleaned herself up, went back to tafe and she was working her way up the greasy pole. how people deal with the mistakes they make is more important i think than not making any mistakes at all. plus it was a marketing firm so a bit of colour doesn't hurt...

[truewheel]

Yeah but your not talking about a school yard, you are talking about an adult who has stolen from a child under threat of violence. That is disgusting. I don't understand what part of it you think is petty? Is it just the fact its $5? If someone breaks into your house and only manages to steal a sentimental heirloom worth$5 do you want them charged with burglary and stealing, or would you be happy for the copper to say; "There there fella, here's $5 bucks, on ya way, I'm sure karma will head his way..."???

Yer, I would be happy for a copper to say that. Although I often fail, I do try to get through life without sweating the small stuff. And in the context of trials by jury I thought that the case was really small fry - perhaps I was just being a bit of a pragmatist; thinking that the justice systems resources would be put to better use prosecuting murderers, rapists, kiddy fiddlers etc.

Maybe the solution is some additional kind of justice system that still punishes the petty crims, gives closure/sense of justice prevailing, to the victims, but doesn't hog resources, fatten lawyers wallets etc. Like a kind of small claims court for petty crimes.

This is probably opening the fattest worm can; it's one of those topics that nearly everybody has a differing opinion on...

[karen]

He must have been desperate 'cause he had a big suspended sentence hanging over him or something.

I guess this is why the cops decided it was necessary to put everyone out to take this guy to court. ??? May be he was one of the

murderers, rapists, kiddy fiddlers etc.

[truewheel]

I guess this is why the cops decided it was necessary to put everyone out to take this guy to court. ??? May be he was one of the

murderers, rapists kiddy fiddlers etc


if anyone gets a suspended sentence for those horrendous crimes then the entire justice system is well fucked...

I think suspended sentences are usually given when someone gets pinged repeatedly for a string of "lesser" offences. The judge then goes "ok mate, this is pissing me off - if you appear in court once more within the next xx weeks/months/years yer off to the big house for xx weeks/months/years"

[peter600]

trial by jury for someone accused of bailing up some 14 year old kid in a carpark and stealing $5 bucks from him!!

So, bailing up a 14 year old....
What did that involve? Weapon? Threats? Assault? [If he laid a finger on the kid, it's assault]

How much trauma are we talking here?

He stole 5 bucks because that's everything the kid had? Or did he ask for five bucks?

[Para045]

Just get pregnant and you can walk.

Personally I think the jury and justice system needs a major overhaul to bring it into the 21st century but that's another story. People getting out of jury duty is part of that as we do not end up with fully representative juries after the drop outs and then the defence/prosecution challenges.

Definitely the system needs overhauling, it would work a lot better if the judges etc actually got off their arses and worked longer hours like in the US where they have night courts etc and dealt with minor stuff without getting a mountain of legal teams in there If they thought outside the box and made it easier for people to do "their duty" as they call it then more people may be inclined to step up

Sounds like you really had that work/life balance nailed

I wish I was able to just sit and home and recuperate but at the time the penalties for not getting work finished made it a necessity for me

[truewheel]

So, bailing up a 14 year old....
What did that involve? Weapon? Threats? Assault? [If he laid a finger on the kid, it's assault]

How much trauma are we talking here?

He stole 5 bucks because that's everything the kid had? Or did he ask for five bucks?

I partially told this earlier in the thread but the full circumstances were:

The knuckle dragger went to the pub, spent the afternoon there and blew his entire wad of cash. He staggered pissed out of the pub, went up to the kid in the carpark and asked him for $5 so he could get the bus home. Kid said no; moron gets pissed off and verbally threatened him (only). Kid gets the fear and hands over $5. Pinhead catches bus home, there are several eye witnesses to the ruckus; one calls cops who catch him still on the bus. Dickhead arrested etc etc

It could have been one of those cases where we (the jury) walk into the deliberation room and walk out again 30 secs later...but we took due process, considered the evidence, and an hour later found him guilty, unanimous on the first vote.

Never did find out what he got for it.

Look, it was never my intent to um... "contribute" to this thread for this many posts. The only point I wanted to make was that that the trial by jury system should never need to be used for this type of case. It's bullshit expensive (in court resources and taxpayer dollars) relative to the severity of the crime. Surely there is a better way that delivers a satisfactory outcome for victims & society without having to pay some briefs $500 an hour to sort it!! If you can't already tell, I think most lawyers are pimps/whores grr...

Sigh, as I said, I try not to sweat the small stuff (like threads?) but sometimes to no avail.

[dr00]

a verbal threat can still be assault. you don't need to touch a person to assault them.

WA Criminal Code s 222
"A person who... by any bodily act or gesture attempts or threatens to apply force of any kind to the person of another without his consent, under such circumstances that the person making the attempt or threat has actually or apparently a present ability to effect his purpose, is said to assault that other person, and the act is called an assault."

plus the fact that a child was present makes it aggravated assault and up to three years jail. but the fact that he did it to steal means it was probably assault with intent to rob (s 393), which brings the maximum sentence to 10 years or potentially 14 years if he had a mate around.

dunno about you but i wouldn't call up to 14 years jail a petty crime...

[peter600]

Problem here is the Perp pleaded not guilty, so the machine has to be put in gear.
Agreed it's crazy but it's the system we work with.