I've been called but never served. I was dismissed because my husband just happened to be the newspaper reporter who covered the malpractice suit for his paper!

My husband hung a jury once. Several months later another man was arrested for the same crime, tried and convicted. Hub was absolutely sure he did the right thing when he hung the jury, felt vindicated when the second arrest was made.

Sherry

Once. Chicago suburb. I had no clue. An older man on the jury gave his take on the whole "he said/he said" thing. I just voted the way the rest did, because I am no judge of people. I let my dogs do the judging. ;)

Yes, I served once. It was a civil case involving an obstetrician who deliveredd a baby that was handicapped. The parents thought the doctor had been drinking and botched the delivery. We found for the plaintiff (the kid) and awarded $5 million in damages. I was very interested in the court proceedings, testimony, even with the camaraderie that grew among the jurors. We felt good about doing our "duty", the judge was pleased with us. After the trial was over, we went out for dinner as a group. The lawyers joined us. I can't serve again for medical reasons. (I need to be hospitalized three times a week for dialysis and also have to be available if a transplant shows up for me.) My daughter (age 20) was called for Jury Duty in April but was on a telephone list and they never got to her.

Yes, I was. I was a workmans comp kinda thing. It was VERY boring as we didn't sit through the trial. We sat through the retrial and the transcripts of that trial were READ to us.
oh, so boring. I did rethink my decision later. I think I goofed. But I did the best I could at the time.

No, I've been called twice but never even had to go to the courthouse either time. My DH served on some weapons-related crime a couple of years ago in Minneapolis. A lot of hurry up and wait. The funniest true-life story I've ever heard in my life is one told by a former co-worker who served on jury duty in Mpls for a case involving two female prostitutes fighting over a cell phone.

Both DH and I have served. I'd say both cases were 'contingency' cases -- where a lawyer takes a case without charging a fee hoping to take a large percentage of any damages awarded to his client.

In DH's case the plaintiff claimed an interstate trucker had caused damage to her car. The trucking company's insurance attorney ran circles around the plaintif's lawyer. It became obvious that the damage occurred because of the plaintiff's carelessness. The jury found for the trucking company.

I was chairwoman on my case. A woman claimed she'd been injured in a car accident. She'd refused treatement at the scene and went to work as usual for weeks before deciding she'd been injured. The medical evidence was nil. This case should have been decided quickly but the judge was dying of cancer and could only be in court for a few hours in the morning. The jury had to trek downtown for four days before being able to deliver the conclusion we'd all reached early on. We all felt there was a possibility that the plaintif had suffered, but that her attorneys had not presented *proof* of it. Again, the insurance company's lawyer was impressive and the plaintiff's was inexperienced.

Yes. The kid had stolen several Jeep Cherokees. He would cut a section out of the steering column to gain access. He already had an ankle bracelet on, so he was "out of bounds" during each theft. His girlfriend testified she drove around in these cars. His mother was a character witness and gave him dirty looks the whole time. After we convicted him, took all day, they let us out for lunch & brought in dinner, they asked us to stay and convict him for a 3 times your out...go to prison. We did. Got out by 9:30pm.

Been called many times, but never made it onto a jury (I would love it). I did, however, serve on a grand jury several years ago. Wonderful experience.

The trial I was on was a murder trial. Three years ago, the defendant shot his wife an killed her. They had been married for 37 years. The defendant claimed the shooting was accidental. His story was that he had been drinking and that he slipped and fell as he entered the room where she was. He had his 12 gauge shotgun in his hand that he was preparing to clean. We found him guilty, after several hours of deliberation. Afterwards, we found there was a long history of domestic violence. But...what I have learned is that being on a jury can do a real number on you! I'm still having trouble sleeping and when I do, I've had some really strange nightmares!!!

Called twice, served twice. First case was a guy grabbed a kid off a country road and after asking several times the kids name, put the kid out of the car when he found he has snatched a young boy. I shudder to think of what would have happened if it had been a girl. We found him guilty. After the trial, the Judge thanked us for serving and told us this same guy had served time for abducting a woman from the same shopping center I worked at.
The second case was a drug case and it was interesting because they had under-cover officers testifying. That guy was found guilty also. It is an interesting process, being on a jury. Dottie

My husband was on a case where a teen girl was grabbed off her bicycle and raped. The case made headlines in our local papers. The jury had so much testimony to hear, the deliberation went over a weekend. The Court brought in meals and put the jury up at a mptel. i was glad when it was over, I missed my husband very much. They found the man guilty. I'm sure he got jail time.

I served once in Philly. Lots of sitting around in City Hall, often placed in the same room with City Council (yawn!). It was an inner city shooting - two kids. Not much evidence was presented. All the 'victim's' witnesses were wearing orange jumpsuits. We found it was self-defense.

I've served twice on civil trials. Both were over the first day.

I served once for a trial that involved international drug smuggling. It was a fascinating experience, and a bit scary. The defendant spoke only Farsi (he was from Afghanistan), so there were two , which made everything take longer. The defendant packed $25,000,000 worth of uncut heroin into plastic tubes, had them wrapped in fabric and those tubes were woven into carpets. A relative in the U.S. was to claim them at customs, but got cold feet. After sitting in customs for over a month, an agent was making an inspection and poked at one of the packages with a knife and discovered the heroin.

On the third day of the trial one of the translators ended up in an elevator with me and several other jurors. He turned to me, and asked, "So, what do you think of the trial?" I made sure I was loud enough for everyone to hear when I replied, "I believe we are not supposed to discuss the case". That was the end of that, but as we left the building he asked if I had driven to San Francisco, and I told him that I had taken public transportation. I began walking to the train station and he actually took my arm and said, "No, this is the way". He was taking the train, too. Anyway, we did not discuss the case, but when I got home I was so worried that some of the other jurors may have seen this and thought otherwise. So, I discussed it with my husband and decided that I should write a letter to the judge, explaining what happened and what didn't happen. The next morning I gave the letter to the bailiff to give to the judge, then reported to the juror's room. We all sat and waited past the time that proceedings should have started. Down the hall to our left was the judges chambers and down the hall to our right was the courtroom. Every once in a while the bailiff would go to the courtroom and escort someone down the hall to the judges chambers. Eventually they came to the juror's room and called my name. Everyone stared at me and I made the long walk to the judge's chambers. Near the back wall of the room was the most enormous desk I have ever seen, with the seated at it. To the judge's right, along the wall, were about a dozen chairs, and in these chairs sat the defendant, his lawyer, the prosecutor, the translator who had spoken to me, and a few other people that I didn't recognize. And in the middle of the room was one lone chair reserved for me. My first thought was that the only thing missing was a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling, LOL.

The judge asked me a series of questions about the incident, then asked if I thought that I would still be able to be an impartial juror, and I assured him I could. He asked the gallery if any of them had a problem with me continuing to serve on the jury. The only person with a problem was the defendant's attorney. The judge thought about it for less than a minute and decided that I should remain on the jury. But the translator who spoke to me was fired.

I felt really bad for him, but I had to cover my a$$, didn't I? And I felt bad for the other translator, because he had no relief for the rest of the trial, which lasted about 2 weeks.

All in all, it really was an experience I'm glad to have had, even though it was an inconvenience as I was working full time.

Twice.

One was a civil case where the widow of a truckdriver was suing a railroad and two train engineers because her husband pulled out in front of a train and was killed. Sadly, one of the engineers had subsequently committed suicide and the other had retired.
FINDING: Not guilty. No money was awarded.

The other was a criminal case where a young man broke into a nursing home and raped an Alzheimer's patient. The woman died before the case went to trial.
FINDING: Guilty. SENTENCE: Not less than 30 years.

No. I'd be happy to but they don't want me. I get called once a year.

Once, but was never called up. Sat there for a week.

Twice

A theft case where no witnesses showed up - not guilty.

A murder trial....lasted 4 weeks

Woman killed her husband (they were separated) at a gas station - by backing up, then running him over - 6 times, the last 2 times through the plate glass window of the gas station.
When the cops arrived...she said her transmission slipped.
Plea was temporary insanity...we heard psychiatrists' testimony, visited the scene of the crime(where defendant fainted), witness disappeared...and the trial was halted twice to investigate jury tampering.

GUILTY

I've been called 3 times. First time was a peeping tom case, but they didn't choose me. Second time, the case was settled before it went to court. Third time, the main witness failed to appear so we were all let go--and even though we could've been called for the next trial, the judge let us all go because we sat there all morning.

I wouldn't mind doing it. After observing the whole morning though, there just seemed to be a lot of lawyers coming into the courtroom through one door, walking through and out a back door, then repeating the whole thing over and over. It was very strange to me.

Once. Chicago suburb. I had no clue. An older man on the jury gave his take on the whole "he said/he said" thing. I just voted the way the rest did, because I am no judge of people. I let my dogs do the judging. ;)"

You put a smiley at the end of your statement. Do you find humor in what you did/said? I certainly don't. Maybe you're a poor judge of people, but you're not supposed to vote on guilt/innocence based on whether or not you think the defendant would make a good Bunco player. You are supposed to vote based on the evidence presented during the trial.

I agree with you, lindsay ca.

Been called 6 times, on juries 4 times, was foreman 3 of those times. I'd like to think I've fulfilled my civic duty, but I'd bet I'll get called again.

DH starts his first time ever jury duty today...and he's dreading it. No sympathy from me!

I've been called three times, but never served. I'd like to, though.

I've been called many times. I served once and knew right from the beginning that the guy on trial was innocent. They way the police were describing what happened there was no way this guy committed anything illegal.

SamKaren
your resident DJ

No, we have never been called or served.

Sue

My husband I both served. HIs was a DUI case and they found her not guilty. I dont kno what to call mine though. It was a business agreement and no signed papers and one person spent all of the company money on personal things, while the other person lived very poorly. It was settled out of court on the second day. The only thing I remember is that the furnace in the courthouse had quit working and it was so cold some of us wore our coats and gloves.

Been called four times, never served. One was a murder trial and I was dismissed as I had worked with the Dr. that treated the victim at the hospital. One was settled out of court before we were ever called into the courtroom, sat in hall, on the floor, as there weren't enough benches for about 4 hours while they decided the outcome and dismissed all of us. Can't really remember what the other two were, it was so long ago.