Jaguar wrote:It was not because I don't want to do jury duty as I have served on juries since then, just didn't feel the punishment would fit the crime. JMHO, IANAL, YMMV.
FWIW, I am also not a lawyer.
The way they explained it to us is that we had to be able to consider those punishments as a range for that category of crime, not in reference to the actual case before us. They were saying, "If the facts justified it and the law allowed it." It was still hypothetical at that point.
There were three types of dismissals:
- Those could NEVER give Life for aggravated robbery (they couldn't think of ANY case extreme enough to justify this). (The defense attorney tried to change a few of these people's minds. . . he wanted them back in the eligible pool.)
- Those who could NEVER give probation for aggravated robbery *See below for my imagined scenario
- Those who could NEVER give 20 years for burglary ++ See below for my imagined scenario
That's the what I meant by creativity. They were asking us, "For aggravated robbery - without knowing anything about THIS case, could you consider A to Z?" It sounds like your guys were telling ya'll a lot more about the case at that time than we knew about ours.
* So, how can I imagine giving somebody guilty of aggravated robbery probation?
It could be a starving mother with a baby who stole milk from Wal-Mart, and on her way out the confronted her and she picked up a baseball bat from somebody else's cart and acted like she was gong to hit the security guard. Maybe she is in her late 30's, was abandoned by her husband, and has never committed a crime in her life. The facts lead to the same charge our defendant had, but I could consider giving her probation.
++ A 97 year old great grandmother (widow) lives alone and leaves her house only 1x / week to go to church. She uses a portable oxygen tank when she leaves and has a permanent unit in her house to help her breathe. She keeps all of her cash for medicine and food in an envelope on her dresser. A thug across the street knows about her money. He's had 15 prior felony burglary convictions, 4 drug dealing convictions, and 2 aggravated robbery convictions. He waits until she leaves for church, kicks the door down, smashing the frame, steals all of her money, and for kicks smashes her oxygen machine. I think I could give him the 20 year maximum for a felony burglary sentence.
hi-power wrote:I've always hoped to be picked to sit on a jury. I think it would be very interesting.
The baliff told me that the best way to get picked is to just stay quiet. The talkers eventually volunteer themselves off of the jury. I really wanted to stand up and share my imaginary scenarios above to help people think through the range of punishment issue, but I resisted. It went against my natural chemistry, but I zipped it unless I was asked a direct question.
I am closely related to a couple of LEOs, which I'm sure the prosecution loved. I've also got a family member on a deferred probation for a felony, which I'm sure the defense liked. The only thing either asked me about was my eyesight, since I had indicated that I have a vision impairment and they'd need to consider that when presenting evidence. Apparently that didn't bother either side.
My wife served a few years ago on a contract dispute between two corporations. Hers was mind-numbingly boring. She warned me that this might have ruined me for any future jury service.
She responded 'He's wearing a black leather jacket!' Well, yes he was. It was a very nice dress leather jacket that went well with his white button-down shirt, black slacks and polished black dress shoes. 
