OT - Hey, Herb! Comments on the following?

Attorney meets the 'jury pool from hell'
Sex, drugs and bias -- prospective jurors acknowledge all
Tuesday, January 18, 2005 Posted: 4:30 PM EST (2130 GMT)
************************************************** ***********************
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- Defense attorney Leslie Ballin called it
the "jury pool from hell."

The group of prospective jurors was summoned to listen to a case of
Tennessee trailer park violence.

Right after jury selection began last week, one man got up and left,
announcing, "I'm on morphine and I'm higher than a kite."

When the prosecutor asked if anyone had been convicted of a crime, a
prospective juror said that he had been arrested and taken to a mental
hospital after he almost shot his nephew. He said he was provoked
because his nephew just would not come out from under the bed.

Another would-be juror said he had had alcohol problems and was
arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover officer. "I should have
known something was up," he said. "She had all her teeth."

Another prospect volunteered he probably should not be on the jury:
"In my neighborhood, everyone knows that if you get Mr. Ballin (as
your lawyer), you're probably guilty." He was not chosen.

The case involved a woman accused of hitting her brother's girlfriend
in the face with a brick. Ballin's client was found not guilty.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

In article ,
OM om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org
wrote:

Attorney meets the 'jury pool from hell'
Sex, drugs and bias -- prospective jurors acknowledge all
Tuesday, January 18, 2005 Posted: 4:30 PM EST (2130 GMT)
************************************************** ***********************
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- Defense attorney Leslie Ballin called it
the "jury pool from hell."

(snip)

Comments? Sure I got 'em, but they pretty much all boil down to the
fact that the system for selecting potential jurors isn't random
enough and once called, it's too easy to avoid ury service. The one's
who can't get out of the jury pool are exactly the ones you often
don't want, while the ones who can are the ones you usually want. :-/

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D., GPG Key ID: BBF6FC1C
"Pray: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single
petitioner confessedly unworthy." -- Ambrose Bierce
http://dischordia.blogspot.com
http://www.angryherb.net

In article ,
Herb Schaltegger wrote:
Comments? Sure I got 'em, but they pretty much all boil down to the
fact that the system for selecting potential jurors isn't random
enough and once called, it's too easy to avoid jury service.

Don't forget part three: in most places, the system gives you a lot of
incentive to avoid jury service if you can, because there's no attempt
made to either minimize disruption of your life or reward you for going
through with it.
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 03:33:33 GMT, (Henry Spencer)
wrote:

Don't forget part three: in most places, the system gives you a lot of
incentive to avoid jury service if you can, because there's no attempt
made to either minimize disruption of your life or reward you for going
through with it.

....One of the local long-time judges around here is a close personal
friend of the family, and back when I got called in for jury duty on
my 32nd birthday with pneumonia and was refused dismissal on both
grounds, I called said family judge and asked him a few questions
regarding the jury selection process. During that conversation, the
issue of recompensation for life & work disruption came up. He said,
and I quote:

"...The reason we don't pay more than $6 per day is that there's this
fear that paying a decent hourly rate would not only create a working
class of people who do nothing but make a living serving on juries,
but would deliberately remain in verdict deliberation for *days* just
to earn a larger paycheck. If you think trials take too long now,
imagine what would happen if they were getting paid by the hour!"

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr