Jury Duty and Nullfication

Austinhills
Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:44:06 +0000

Short story: Agree with JustAMomOf4 that you will not be picked to serve on a jury.

Long story:

When I had jury duty for a criminal trial, they asked us a number of questions. The first one was:

Q: Do you believe that the purpose of our criminal justice system is punishment or rehabilitation?

Kind of a poignant question, really, and my guess is that it was probably there to separate the prosecution-sympathizers from the defense-sympathizers. Anyway, there were 150 or more of us in the room, but prospective jurors certainly can’t stay silent, hide or “blend in”, because the judge and lawyers ask each individual, seat by seat, row by row, each question.

The defendant was accused of aggravated robbery and I believe the sentence could have ranged from parole to 20 years. After dozens of other questions (about what “aggravated” means, what are examples of weapons, what we think of the defendant’s appearance, etc), the question to the prospective jurors was something like - and I know I don’t have this exactly right:

Q: Could you imagine yourself imposing the lightest sentence (parole)?

Anyone who answered NO was excused. Then,

Q: Could you imagine yourself imposing the toughest sentence (20 years)?

I and a couple of others said NO and were excused.

My point being… At some point during jury selection, you will be asked in some form or fashion if you will follow the law concerning whatever criminal or civil action is being argued. If you tell them that you will not follow the law, then you will be excused, which seems fair to me.

Caveat: I’m generalizing from my limited experience. There are plenty of parent-lawyers on this board who could add more info.