How do you feel about the jury system?

I have been on a jury before. It was a civil case. Somebody was suing a business because they had gotten injured by a fall while shopping there. It was very frustrating.

The lawyers ahead of time ask potential jurors questions to try and determine if they have a bias. Some of the potential jurors answered the questions and it was clear they were not going to be selected. I don't think they were trying to get out of jury duty, they were just very confrontational or not very smart. They seemed offended when they were told they could leave.

It was a 6 person jury and I believe we only needed a majority. We didn't need to be unanimous. It was very educational as the trial went on. The frustration came when we went back into the jurors room to determine a verdict.

Right as we sat down 2 people said that they didn't care what anybody else thought they were not going to award the guy anything because they don't believe in cases like this. Why didn't they say that when they were asked that exact question by the lawyers? They had lied earlier.

Then as the remaining 4 of us were going thru the evidence and testimonies an older lady starts going on about how she had the exact same injury that this guy had and that it develops slowly over time. The person suing had a doctor that testified that this injury was a traumatic injury caused by the fall. The defense did not argue against that. But the older lady refused to believe that.

There were a lot of other arguments that we had that were frustrating because they were always based upon somebodies personal experience instead of the testimonies we heard.

In the end I voted we should award the guy medical costs. The over 5 voted that the store was less than 50% at fault and so the guy lost his suit.

Now after saying all that I still would much rather be tried by a jury of my peers versus a judge. I own a small business and have been asked to testify on behalf of a couple of my employees. I was character witness. A couple of my friends have been arrested. All were guilty (employees and friends) but one friend I think was innocent. A girl brought charges against him after he had broken up with here. I knew her and she seemed crazy to me.

None of them went to jury trials. In each case you can easily tell the judge was jaded. None of them would appoint a public lawyer. Every judge said the person had enough money to afford a lawyer. I knew these guys. They did not. So these guys were defending themselves. They would go to a hearing. The judge would yell at the person for not having a lawyer present and then reschedule the hearing so they could get a lawyer. At the next hearing the judge would yell at them again for not getting a lawyer. In 3 of the cases the judge wore the guys down until they pled guilty instead of going to trial. The lone exception the girl did not show up to testify at the trial so the charges were dropped.

I think it would just be a kangaroo court if a judge had the lone decision.

/r/AskAnAmerican Thread