Attention Shoppers: Please Report For Jury Duty
A Vermont judge sent his sheriff to the mall to round up a jury that could fairly try a child molester.
They stopped passers-by and asked if they were residents of Caledonia County; a "yes" answer won a summons to appear at the courthouse for jury duty immediately, right now, this minute. They rounded up 45 people that way in all, to join the 34 already at the courthouse.
Most people apparently did not mind being summoned for surprise jury service. According to the sheriff, "99.9 percent were just excellent" about being summoned on a sidewalk and ordered to report to the courthouse immediately." Deputies were also dispatched to the local post office and supermarket.
The defense attorneys were less than thrilled with the idea of sidewalk jury.
Defense attorney Sleigh filed a motion to quash the impromptu jury pool, saying the proper way to proceed would be to simply postpone the jury draw and then draw from an all new jury pool during the next round of jury draws. Sleigh was not sure the new jurors were unbiased and he had questions regarding the method used by deputies to pick jurors. He also questioned whether picking jurors in front of the St. Johnsbury post office could provide geographic representation.Dredging malls for juries is a surprisingly common tactic for judges in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Next time you see a sheriff in the mall, walk the other way unless you want an impromptu civics lesson.Eaton noted the Charron case is 574 days old and is one of the oldest cases on the District Court docket. He rejected Sleigh's objections and told the parties the jury draw would begin.
Sheriff Rounds Up Jurors [The Caledonia Record via The Lede]
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Comments:
I wouldn't be amused. Were they asking people to go kill an hour right then to hear this or asking them to be stuck for days hearing this case without any warning?
Nine sprechen ze English.
IS it legal? If so..HELLZ YEAH!- I don't mind seeing people finally being punished for spending time shopping in a mall on a work day. :P
I don't know about vermont, but this wouldn't fly in NY. You can't get jury duty more than once every 4 years, and you are allowed a postponement.
@Posthaus: While it might not be fun, jury duty is not a punishment. It is a civic duty and a part of the admission price of being an American citizen. Anybody who is called up for jury duty should be thankful that we have this system and the right to trial.
My problem with jury duty is that is compulsory, and no provision is made to negotiate wagers. In short, jury duty is a form of involuntary servitude. Involuntary servitude is fairly clearly prohibited by the 13th amendment.
I actually enjoyed jury duty the two times I took part and was seated. HOWEVER, this is stupid if its as simple as saying yes gets you picked. There's got to be more to this process. What if I was going to the CVS at the mall to pick up my mothers insulin which she needed right now?
Would it be possible to refuse the officer? What if you've got shit to do? Are they even legally allowed to select their own jurors out of the blue like that? Don't you normally have to have a huge, diverse pool that you draw from?
@ironchef: That is a real good argument you got there. Working families??? Why? 99% of court proceedings happen during regular business hours (excluding being sequestered).
Also, why not give the accused child molester a chance to get out on a technicality because you don't want to hire a baby sitter. He has been in jail, awaiting trial for 574 days. Way to keep the children safe.
@cwlodarczyk: I agree totally. I was a little annoyed when it was my turn, but it didn't ruin any plans. Thought of it as doing my part of justice.
Some people will sit on their butt all day long and watch a Judge Judy marathon--and then complain about getting an actual summons.
@Posthaus: If I were to find myself in a mall, it would most definitely be on a "work day," also known as a "weekday" in your vernacular. See, some people actually work on the weekends. My days off (for the most part) are Monday and Tuesday. Which I can't say that I mind, when I run errands, it is so nice and quiet. So if that cop walked up and told me to go to jury duty, I'd say, "Fine, as long as you go to my house and do all my laundry, dishes, etc that I won't be doing today and won't get a chance to do until next week." (Sorry for the run-on sentence.)
I'm not trying to be antagonistic, and I don't mind jury duty at all, but just give me advanced warning so I don't get screwed. I guess life is different up there in Vermont.
@ShortBus: Are those the people we want to be making judicial decisions?
Juries are not all they are cracked up to be these days.
I have been excused from jury duty for stating my belief that as a jurist, I will judge the case on the facts AND my conscience.
The judge was not pleased with my answer and I was told I would be excused.
Too bad. I wanted to serve on the jury.
@ianmac47: Cry baby! I it is appalling for somebody to compare jury duty to slavery in order to shirk a civic duty. The Bill of Rights also guarantees a jury of one's peers -- this is not possible if jury duty is optional. The problem with what's described in the article is that the resulting jury pool may not be representative. But for you to condemn jury duty as a general matter is a great example of why a judge may need to resort to such novel methods for finding jurors. Prospective jurors with actual financial or family hardships are eligible to be released or have their duty postponed. The problem is not the jury system but, rather, it is the selfish people who try to buck it for no legitimate reason.
Your rights and your obligations go hand in hand. If you want to cuddle up under the quilt of the Bill of Rights, you've got be to willing to do your share of the stitching.
Just to nit-pick The Consumerist a little bit:
"A Vermont judge sent his sheriff to the mall to round up a jury that could fairly try a child molester."
should read as
"A Vermont judge sent his sheriff to the mall to round up a jury that could fairly try a SUPPOSED child molester.
Remember if a case like a drug case comes before you while you are on a jury, you can nullify (vote not guilty even if you think he is guilty, causing a hung jury and retrial). Personally, I would nullify any drug case that didn't include violence or any prostitution charges.
@tozmervo: Good point. I wonder if the sheriff went up to people and essentially said "Want to help put a child molester behind bars? We need your help now!"
Pulling people off the street with no notice for jury duty sounds unconstitutional. Are these bureaucrats unable to plan ahead? In my state advance notice is given and more jurors are in the pool than will be needed.Jurors are pulled from the voter lists. Cops have no right to even talk to you let alone question residency without evidence of a crime.I am glad I live in the mid-west.Sounds like living in ancient Prussia or somewhere.Jury duty is important. Its preposterous that a person can just be rounded up without any advance notice, making child care arrangements or anything and forced under duress to jury duty. Thats really conducive to a good legal result.
@ianmac47:
Not so bad if your employer will pay you your regular salary while you serve, but it can be a financial hardship if you are self-employed.
The easiest way to avoid this problem is to not answer the sheriff's question when s/he asks what county you live in.
@TomK: And Im sure you wouldnt lie about that in order to get on the jury right? What right do you have to ignore the law when its violated.
"i'm not a citizen! go away!"
Lord! Here we go! Rounding up random people on the streets for MANDATORY jury duty! JEEZE how sad is it when they have to resort to this crap?! SOunds a bit scary to me. Being stopped on the street, asked a question & then immediately whisked away to the courthouse.
I'd be seriously pissed!
I work a night job and MUST sleep days. Think the judge gives a shit? NOPE! At least til I start nodding off in the courtroom. Its not so easy for me to just stop my regular sleep routine. So jury duty is double the pain in the ass for me.
And yeah, your boss can just decide to fire you if you take off work for jury duty. Just because you are legally protected... doesnt mean you really are. All a boss has to do is find another reason to "let you go".
Jury duty is a fact of life. However, literally grabbing people off the street to do it is a bit of a bad idea. Our society is not really accustomed to "put your civic duty ahead of your personal life", and this isn't the way to hammer that into people's heads.
Our = I'm from the United States, so I mean that society, for those furinuh's who read this. ;)
Lord! Here we go! Rounding up random people on the streets for MANDATORY jury duty! JEEZE how sad is it when they have to resort to this crap?! SOunds a bit scary to me. Being stopped on the street, asked a question & then immediately whisked away to the courthouse.
I'd be seriously pissed!
I work a night job and MUST sleep days. Think the judge gives a shit? NOPE! At least til I start nodding off in the courtroom. Its not so easy for me to just stop my regular sleep
@mollyg:
AND if he finds out you lied.... then you can be arrested for lying to a police officer. Best advice is to refuse to answer. As far as I know.... you dont have to communicate with a cop unless he is doing an investigation & you are somehow envolved.
The whole idea sounds like something from some movie in the future when the government is an oppressive force you ahve to submit to on the spot. "CItizen! You have been chosen to serve!" Men in black riot gear then put you into a van as your family looks on in horror.
This is perfectly legal and constitutional, and does happen on occasion. Do you know what would prompt this? So many people shirking their jury duty the court is forced to rely on people on the street. Everyone pays when a society ignores their civic duty.
@HawkWolf: I'd say it's a lot of a bad idea.
Civic duty yes, but they can plan ahead. They obviously didn't start the trial immediately after the guy was arrested.
This is pretty offensive to me. It sounds more like the whim of the judge than a necessity.
@forgottenpassword: You do not HAVE to communicate to a cop at all. The only thing which can compel you to talk about something is a subpoena, which is issued by a judge.
People who think that lying to a police officer is a crime ruin life for everyone else.
People who think that an officer of a law can force you into jury duty just by approaching you in a mall assure the courts get just what they want: a group of people too stupid to get out of jury duty.
I understand that press laws are still on the books in NY state for involuntary service fighting forest fires. In the old days the state police would set up a roadblock and hand you a backpack water tank, a pick or maddock and shovel and send you into the woods for couple of weeks to fight the local fire. Although rarely if ever enforced or used now there is an story of a couple on their way to their honeymoon being stopped and made to work for some weeks in the woods fighting fire. I guess that NY state is reluctant to remove the laws for "just in case"
It's time to have a professional jury pool. People that are representative, compensated and able to reason.
I trust a judge more than a retarded citizen.
This would piss me off. If I'm at the mall during the workday, chances are I'm expected back to work within the next sixty minutes.
I don't mind doing jury duty, but I need some advance notice to make sure someone can fill in for me at work.
@ianmac47: The Supreme Court does not agree with your interpretation of the 13th Amendment. In Bulter v. Perry (1916) they wrote, it "certainly was not intended to interdict enforcement of those duties which individuals owe to the state, such as services in the army, militia, on the jury, etc."
@ShortBus:
Best comment yet :) The shrills sounds of Judge Judy and that other lady from the People's Court are heard eery day in my lunch room. Which is why I eat at my desk.
@huadpe: - Actually, you do have to identify yourself to a police officer if they perform a "terry" stop. That's the only thing you have to provide. Sad but true. The Supreme Court made this clear in in this case:
Oh, the humanity of it! Being inconvenienced to help provide the foundation of our country, fairly upholding the rule of law. It's slavery, I tells ya, SLAVERY!
Glad to see that some 99% of people approached were fine doing their civic duty.
@TomK: I totally agree with you and the next time I am selected to serve on a jury, I will keep mum about my personal beliefs. Hopefully I get another chance.
The mall...so this must have happened in the Burlington UMall. My fiance used to work there! Good thing there are no malls where I live in Vermont, bwahahaha...I'd really rather not have to go to jury duty that way.
@Othium --
Keeping quiet about your actual motivations perverts the legal system. The point of jury selection is to find citizens who can distinguish between their own whims and the law of the land. It's fine to have personal beliefs that differ from the law, but to serve as a juror, you should be able to make a decision based on the law instead.
Living in a representative democracy, we have the opportunity to change laws we disagree with through the democratic process, but a trial is not an appropriate place to do this. If you make a decision as a juror that's based on your conscience rather than the law, you have as much potential to deny someone the protections of the law as to protect someone from what you view as a bad law. If you were tried for medical marijuana use in a state where that circumstance could get you off, would you want to go to prison because some of the jurors decided to consider you guilty based on their personal beliefs that all drugs are bad?
If you disagree with the law, challenge it appropriately, but don't screw up a trial because you don't like a particular law.
end rant.
This is simple. If you do not want the courts to round up people randomly, then show up to jury duty and do not give your paltry excuses of, "Oh, I, uhmm, have, a, uhmm, bad excuse, can I leave?" Most of the jury makes up their excuses. Quite frankly, it disgusts me.
Jury duty is one of the few mandatory things within our society - next to taxes. People hate both equally for much the same reasons: financial, time, inconvenient. This does not prevent them from being useful.
Buck up and do your duty as a citizen. Otherwise, heck, we may as well let all the illegal aliens serve on jury duty in your stead.
I think serving on a jury is a duty we owe this country. I know it is not always a picnic but why be so self-centered to think someone else should have to do your service?
Jury duty is our civic duty and our right. If we did not accept the request when it is offered, if we need it down the line, there won't be enough of a jury poll to try us.
Mrs No49 was actually upset last year when they excused her from jury duty for being the mother to an infant. She wanted to do it and had waited years to be called forth.
@maztec: I agree. I don't know that this country as a whole understands cause and effect. If enough people weasel out of jury duty - and they do - then the courts resort to more drastic measures to get jurors. Or what, the courts get a day off if they don't have enough people show up?
Is it an inconvenience to be pulled this way? Sure, especially if you have stuff to do or a job to get back to. It does suck. So, next time you hear someone gloating about having weaseled out of jury duty, tell 'em a thing or two.
Those who have said you are typically under not obligation to speak to a police officer are absolutely correct. Unless they have some reasonable suspicion that you have, are, or are about to commit a crime you don't have to tell them anything. The "reasonable suspicion" doesn't have to rise to the level that would allow for arrest, but they have to have more than a hunch. So a cop randomly stopping you in a mall can ask you anything he wants, but you can keep your mouth shut and simply walk away without any fear of repercussion.
@maztec: If the state paid jurors a reasonable amount of money for their time, maybe people would be less willing about backing out of it.
@freshwater: Regular citizens have very little power to change drug laws. No politician will ever take a "pro-drug" stance. At that point, the regular person's only chance to change laws they disagree with is refuse to convict people for breaking those laws.
The real crime here is the way pronouns are used in the second paragraph.
I would have been SERIOUSLY annoyed...