WWII

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jedispyder
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Post by jedispyder »

Get that shit on tape, son!

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Stocky Boy
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Post by Stocky Boy »

Maybe Maleev will flip a table over, because it wasn't the right sort of table for him.

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Mr Wallstreet
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Post by Mr Wallstreet »

I've been selected by the state, city and county of New York to be a juror. I received my jury summons in the beginning of April and dreaded it the moment I got it. I originally received a jury summons back in 2005 but was never selected.

It's time I wasn't so fortunate. This time around the court officers selected me, by random, to sit on a grand jury for a period of 4 weeks. 4 weeks is a long fucking time to sit on a jury. I was hoping to sit for one day or a few days - a week at the longest but not a whole month. The court officer informed us that despite the massive inconvenience, we still got off lucky. There are some people that sit on juries that last as long as a year so I STFU after that.

Regardless it's still a fucking hassle. I informed my boss that I'd be gone for a month and while she was shocked, she realized that there was nothing she could do about it. By law, my employer can't fire me for serving on a jury or fire me while I am on jury duty. Also, and this is the biggest reason I'm not whining (excessively) is because my company will pay me, my regular salary while I am out. Not many companies will do that. However, this means that I'll be coming in on Saturday's to catch up on as much of my work as I can.

So a bit of background on a grand jury: a grand jury differs from a regular trial jury in that there are 23 people serving on a grand jury. A grand jury decides whether a person/party will be formally charged or indicted for the crime for which they were arrested. There is no judge present. A minimum of 12 people is required to indict someone. If the person is indicted then they are sent to a trial court where all the sexy movies and tv shows are filmed.

Today was the first day of our grand jury meeting. We heard testimony on 2 seperqte cases and it was very boring and very dry. We heard undercover officers detail the account of their activities and then the prosecutor inventory every single thing they confiscated. Very, very, very boring. Tomorrow I go back for more.

I'll post my adventures at the New York Comic Book Marketplace on Saturday, as I wrote up my post on a word document from my work computer

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XIII
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Post by XIII »

Question : does your employer has the right not to pay while you are on jury duty? If doesn't pay you, do you get compensation from the Department of Justice of the state or whoever is responsible for you being on jury duty?

Also, this :

Image

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wolf_2099
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Post by wolf_2099 »

You get paid for jury duty I believe' but it is way below minimum wage. The employer doesn't pay you.


Its your civic bullshit duty!
"French is like anal, exotic but oh so unnecessary."

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wolf_2099
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Post by wolf_2099 »

Note that is for Canada.
"French is like anal, exotic but oh so unnecessary."

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Mr Wallstreet
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Post by Mr Wallstreet »

In the U.S. your employer doesn't have to pay you at all while youre serving as a juror. The larger companies do pay their employees for the time they spend on Jury Duty but it varies company to company. My last job paid people up to two weeks. After that they wouldn't pay you anymore.

The city of NY pays jurors a whopping $40 a day for jury service and that's only if your own employer doesn't pay you. $40 a day is rather antiquated and won't get you far.

And yes XIII, I am using all the things I learned on BX to bend the jury to my will

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XIII
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Post by XIII »

I trust you will sentenced every suspect to a good shoveling.

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Stocky Boy
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Post by Stocky Boy »

Sorry for you dude. Glad to hear your company pays you full pay though.

What a funny justice system.
I don't know what the UK laws are like. Too tired to look them up right now. But the point I want to make is that a justice system is failing to maximise the potential for unbiased, fair justice, if the jury have it in their interest to make the fastest decision possible, so that they can get back to their regular job and regular pay as soon as possible.

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MGM
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Post by MGM »

We don't have a jury system, so it's easy here.

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Mr Wallstreet
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Post by Mr Wallstreet »

Stocky Boy wrote:Sorry for you dude. Glad to hear your company pays you full pay though.

What a funny justice system.
I don't know what the UK laws are like. Too tired to look them up right now. But the point I want to make is that a justice system is failing to maximise the potential for unbiased, fair justice, if the jury have it in their interest to make the fastest decision possible, so that they can get back to their regular job and regular pay as soon as possible.
There is always the risk that people selected for jury duty will make the fastest decision possible but I think when it comes down to it, by and large juries will accept their responsibility, however, grudgingly. We heard a few pretty horrific stories the first week and seeing people who have been hurt, sitting in front of you describing a crime that was visited on them tends to make you want to get them some semblance of justice. At least, thats how I felt.

Speaking only for the jury that I’m on, there is a fair amount of bitching and moaning that goes on about wanting to go home on time and getting back to their regular lives etc… but when the time comes to listen to a case, hear evidence and come to a fair conclusion, we have done that. There have been at 3 cases, so far, which we have discussed and voted for a dismissal because the evidence presented did not merit an Indictment despite really wanting to nail the defendant to the barn door.

Given all that, we as a jury did have to deal with one rotten apple in our quorum who was a royal pain in the balls for the entire first week. This person’s every 2nd question was “when can we leave? Can we go home now? How long are we here till?” If the constant whining weren’t bad enough, there was once instance in which while the lawyers were presenting a case, she would get up and begin packing her things to leave and when she was done packing she stood there, waiting for the lawyers to finish so she could leave. Her behavior towards the lawyers in the case was utterly rude. The last straw was on Friday.

During a somewhat complicated case, there were many jurors asking questions pertaining to the evidence. At the end of the case, this whiner asked the lawyer if all these questions were relevant to the case. If you hadn’t been locked in a room with her for 5 days, you’d think the question might be fair and legitimate query. However, having gotten to know her over the course of a week, it was a not so subtle way of saying “stop asking questions and let’s just vote on this case”. After that question, the Court Officer paid our jury a visit and lectured us on the importance of mutual respect, fairness to a defendant and our obligation to fulfill our civic duty as a citizen of the U.S. and as residents of the state of New York.

It was humiliating to say the least.

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Mr Wallstreet
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Post by Mr Wallstreet »

MGM wrote:We don't have a jury system, so it's easy here.
Can you please clarify? If there is no jury, who decides the merits of a case? Judge, Magistrate, quorum of lawyers? Council of Justices?

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MGM
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Post by MGM »

Judge.

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Stocky Boy
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Post by Stocky Boy »

Mr Wallstreet wrote:After that question, the Court Officer paid our jury a visit and lectured us on the importance of mutual respect, fairness to a defendant and our obligation to fulfill our civic duty as a citizen of the U.S. and as residents of the state of New York.

It was humiliating to say the least.
Do you think the bitch realised this was for her benefit?

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Mr Wallstreet
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Post by Mr Wallstreet »

Everyone realized that this was directed towards her so unless she's really dense, I'm sure she realized it too

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jedispyder
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Post by jedispyder »

She sounds pretty dense.

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Stocky Boy
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Post by Stocky Boy »

Even if she realised it was for her benefit, I suppose there's still no guarantee that she will have acknowledged that she needed this reminder.

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Mr Wallstreet
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Post by Mr Wallstreet »

Definitely not. She wont take it to heart. Also, its now Tuesday and she's been absent from Jury Duty for 2 days. Im not keeping tabs or anything, it's just been blissfully peaceful.

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Tragic Angelus
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Post by Tragic Angelus »

How do they deal with absences? Is that where they pull in an alternate or can you even come to a decision? I thought you had to have everyone there for things to continue?

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Mr Wallstreet
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Post by Mr Wallstreet »

Jurors are allowed a certain number of absences. If they exceed that they get sent before a judge who will either punish them with a fine, jail time and/or require them to re-do their entire jury service over.

Because this is a grand jury there are no alternates. There are 23 people who sit on a grand jury and a vote of 12 is required to indict someone. This way if some jurors are absent or have a conflict of interest, the case can still be voted on by the other jurors.

A regular trial jury consisting of 12 people is the jury that has alternate jurors if one or more jurors can't sit in the case

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