Just saved myself a few hours with that one.

  • take_five_seconds [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    i got out by saying i had a philosophical issue with courts as a whole and didn’t want to punish someone (a minority on some drug charge), judge asked me if i could respect the distinction between guilty/innocent and punishment and i was like ‘nah’ and they dismissed me lol

      • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        Not everyone can afford to take so much time off work, it’s nice to nullify if you can but it’s not even guaranteed to work.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        That’s days off work and depending on the judge you could end up facing criminal charges. That’s if you’re completely obstinate and refuse to convict. At most you’ll cause a mistrial and they’ll just repeat the process again with a new jury in a year. At worst you piss off the judge and get yourself charged with criminal contempt if they feel it can be argued, which I believe is the only crime you can be imprisoned for indefinitely without a trial. A judge can throw you in jail until you agree to comply.

        • edge [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          5 months ago

          In North Korea if you refuse to convict someone the state wants convicted, you get thrown in prison indefinitely.

          yeonmi-park

          But more seriously, it’s not “I’m going to nullify” it’s “I don’t know, I just don’t think there’s enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they committed a crime”.

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      5 months ago

      That’s not true. I used that and it didn’t work. It was a couple years ago. In the same form - I also said I was unwilling to be a room with unmasked people due to covid. That didn’t work either.

      • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        so the prosecutor did not care that you would refuse to convict even if he proved the case beyond a shadow of a doubt? interesting way to prosecute a case when doing jury selection…

        • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          5 months ago

          I don’t even live in a rinky-dink county either. I assume that in every state - rural counties break the rules and bend the law due to “budget shortages” and “staffing issues” and the like. Meanwhile - everybody pretends that’s not actually true. I don’t want to dox myself but I live in an important county where I thought when it came to government legal stuff that they triple checked that every “t” was crossed and every “i” was dotted. But - of course - I was wrong.

          • LaughingLion [any, any]@hexbear.net
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            5 months ago

            its not even that this is like one of the most basic things for a prosecutor

            you get to have a say in jury selection. youd absolutely want to make sure your potential picks dont involve someone who says no matter how good you make your case, no matter the evidence, they absolutely will vote not guilty

            • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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              5 months ago

              They never contacted me again but if they had - I would have gone to jury selection and when it was my turn to answer questions before anybody I asked a single question I would have said “I believe in jury nullification. Also - due to covid I do not want to be in a room full of unmasked people. What do you have to say about that Mr. Prosecutor?” And if I was not released from jury duty immediately - I would have said “Mr. Prosecutor, after I leave here I’m going directly to the [Local News Paper Name] to talk to a reporter in person about this situation. I thought you should know that important news.”

              I would really want to say a bit more “…important news for your career,” but a stupid joke is not worth having me be on Mr. Prosecutor’s shit list.

  • Blottergrass [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    My case was lawsuit (slip and fall in a restaurant) and when they asked the pool if you think there should be caps on lawsuit payouts, I shot my hand up. We had a 15 minute break and I was the only one not called back in.

    So the real trick is to signal that you’re not in the lawyer’s monetary best interest.

  • MineDayOff [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    I’ve only been called to a grand jury summons and they don’t tell you what the case is going to be about but you know it’s going to be related to the state. The only way to get out was to just say you don’t trust the police. Because they’re obviously the one prosecuting. This is in Michigan and it was the alleged kidnappers plot I found out later.

  • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    They summoned me and I’m not even a citizen. Told them that and they took me off the list

    If they don’t check if they summon citizens or not, they probably won’t check when they pull you off the list if you claim it

  • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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    5 months ago

    The best way to avoid jury duty is to not show up. Tons of people don’t show up. They aren’t going to put warrants out for everyone who ignores a jury summons.

  • electric_nan
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    5 months ago

    I was in jury selection with an ex cop. He admitted to a pro-police bias, and he was dismissed by the defense. I got up and copped to an anti-cop bias. I was dismissed by the prosecution.

    • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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      5 months ago

      “Real” crimes (that are currently prosecuted in AES states and would continue to be prosecuted if a worldwide communist revolution succeeded tomorrow) do happen. An unfortunately common example is domestic violence. Committing to throw any trial in favor of the defense is contrarianism, not a theoretically sound approach for how one might wring some actual justice out of our shitty legal system.