Anyways, I get in there, and what do you know? I actually get pulled for jury selection. The last time I went I just sat there in the room until they dismissed us all at noon. They took twenty of us over to Tucson City Court for selection for a DUI case.
A couple funny notes about jury selection:
- One of the prospective jurors worked for the city - she knew just about every cop, clerk, bailiff, judge, and prosecutor in the county. She wasn't put on the jury.
- At one point they asked us (the prospective jurors) if we knew anybody in the room - defendant, either attorney, other jurors etc. One prospective juror said that she knew defense council professionally - he had represented her on another matter. Another DUI case. Where she was found guilty. Hilarious, and needless to say she wasn't placed on the jury.
- They have a set list of questions that they ask each juror, the last of which is what tv shows do you watch and what magazines do you read. This seems like a silly question, and most people answered with types of shows or types of magazines. One guy actually said that he reads Playboy and Maxim. Dude, I'm pretty sure nobody needed to know that...
- Now you would think that in a DUI case defense council would see an analytical chemist as an undesirable juror, especially when the main defense is that the breathalyzer can not accurately represent the defendant's BAC. Given that this girl was so obviously guilty (so obvious to me as soon as opening statements were done - I'm sure the attorneys knew this going into it), I'm sure the prosecutor thought yes please! put the analytical chemist on the jury! However the defense attorney was a fool to agree to let me sit on that jury...although...he was a fool in all sorts of other ways too.
Her lawyer was awful. Absolutely awful. I don't know if all DUI attorneys are sleezebags, or if he's worse than the average, but wow. The entire thing was like a stage show. I think approximately 5% of what he told us was actually relevant to the case. When he wasn't waxing poetic about nothing he was waving 4 fingers around while telling us she only had 3 drinks and calling is client by the wrong name. I felt really bad that she wasted her money on this scumbag.
The whole thing took a day and a half. The first day wasn't so bad, and some parts were pretty interesting. The second day was brutally painful. The paid expert witness brought in by the defense in an attempt to convince us that the breathalyzer is going to give a falsely high result depending on how long after drinking the test is performed was incredibly garbled and confusing. It didn't help that the defense attorney is an idiot and had him talking in circles. So painful and aggravating to listen to all morning.
The most baffling thing about this whole trail/experience, was that the incident took place over 4 years ago. FOUR YEARS for a DUI to come to trail. That just seems beyond absurd. Unfortunately we never had an opportunity to as if that's normal, or what the hell made this case take so long. Seriously, if she had pled out when this happened it would be over and no longer a part of her life. Yeah, it's gonna be on her record, and I'm sure affects her insurance, but the tangible consequences would have been ancient history by now.
Once we were released to deliberate it thankfully only took us about 30 seconds to realize we all already agreed that the girl was guilty. She seems like a nice girl, but nice people show poor judgment too.
A couple days later I got a cute little form letter from the judge thanking me for my service. Let's see how long it is til I get summoned again...
For some reason, my dad (a chemist) was chosen for an asbestos case. :) Thankfully they settled outside of court, or he would have missed our whole vacation.
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