Recently a friend was called up for jury service and he was asking people for their experiences. I have listed mine below. He was looking forward to a week or two off work but things have not gone well for him. He has a complicated murder trial involving six people and has been told to expect the trial to go on till late April This is week one.
Have you ever been called up to serve on a jury?
My first experience turned out to be very disappointing. Because the area that I lived in had no crown court I found that I had to go to the Central Criminal Court. That's the Old Bailey. I had visions of a massive case although I did not fancy anything too long. Sadly it was not to be. I was with a reserve group of 20 who just hung about outside different courts in case someone decided at the last minute to change their plea to not guilty. We did this for two weeks, going home every day around 11:00.
The second occasion was a bit more dramatic. We had four stints in court on different cases. None were that big but it was a good experience.
Many years later a local court was built and I had another two week stint (Stretch?) there. This time three cases. One thing I was glad about was not having any of the nasty trials where jurors have to view heart rending pictures!
From my experience of juries I am glad that I have never stood in the dock. Listening to others I could not believe the prejudice that was put out. Racial prejudice was perhaps the main one but there were so many others. One lady was convinced that the person in the dock must have been drunk because he was Irish and all Irish are drunks. Perhaps the worst were a few who believed in woo. Is he guilty because my horoscope says so?? Was he really putting out evil vibes that a lady claimed she could pick up? Can someone LOOK guilty? Can someone really be guilty because you don't like the look of him? Or her? There is an old idea about not trusting someone whose eyes are too close together. No one said that but I bet it was in someone's mind. And recently I heard of a trial being abandoned because a juror had looked on the internet and found out that the defendant had been on trial before on similar charges. So he must be guilty. Not everyone takes the whole thing seriously. Some will vote with the majority just to get home in time for dinner! There have been cases reported in the newspapers of jurors being caught listening to an MP3 player while the trial was on and one playing games on a hand held computer.
Strangely I had three call ups and my wife never had one.
I wonder. Has anyone else had odd experiences doing jury service?
