Fascinating! We don't have the thing where the prosecution and defence can ask for people to be excused, I'm pretty sure, which seems good to avoid bias. And I think you can still be a juror if you've been convicted of a crime which also seems good.
My dad did jury service last year, which was actually really awful for him. It was about repeated rapes of a woman by her husband, and it gave him nightmares. And the cops had fucked up on the recording equipment in an interview (I think with her?) so it ended in a mistrial.
Hilariously, there was one woman whose husband is an archivist, and I turned around to look at her when she said that, and she made an, "I know, can you believe it? Two archivist-related people in one room?" face at me, which was charming.
Cute :D I love those little moments of connection.
Also, if you're over the age of 65, you can opt out. I was happy to see that none of the people who were older than that did opt out--as the judge said (and I quite agree), we want people with the wisdom of experience to serve.
That's great.
They were essentially like, "Have you had any relationship with law enforcement that might keep you from being unbiased?" [Which. Like. Everyone is biased. Come on.] One middle aged white guy stood up and said that cops had lied about him when he was in college so he was disinclined to believe them. I have not had any personal experiences with cops myself, so I didn't say anything. But the next question was basically something like, "Do you have beliefs about law enforcement that might keep you from being impartial?" And I was like... .... .... But the room had a bunch of black people, and I know the black community here doesn't have a great relationship with police even by national standards, so I figured if they could all claim to be impartial, then I could to. Even though I am fully ready to believe that a cop would lie about anything.
Yeah that's really hard!!! I mean, I tend to think our shared belief that the police sometimes lie is more impartial than people who think they don't! The London Met have been proven to be unreliable over and over! Like what do they mean when they say 'impartial', especially since, as you say, that's impossible?
I'd definitely say I was impartial because I think justice is more likely to be done with jurors who're like "yeah the police are systemically racist" because they are but it's definitely complicated.
no subject
My dad did jury service last year, which was actually really awful for him. It was about repeated rapes of a woman by her husband, and it gave him nightmares. And the cops had fucked up on the recording equipment in an interview (I think with her?) so it ended in a mistrial.
Hilariously, there was one woman whose husband is an archivist, and I turned around to look at her when she said that, and she made an, "I know, can you believe it? Two archivist-related people in one room?" face at me, which was charming.
Cute :D I love those little moments of connection.
Also, if you're over the age of 65, you can opt out. I was happy to see that none of the people who were older than that did opt out--as the judge said (and I quite agree), we want people with the wisdom of experience to serve.
That's great.
They were essentially like, "Have you had any relationship with law enforcement that might keep you from being unbiased?" [Which. Like. Everyone is biased. Come on.] One middle aged white guy stood up and said that cops had lied about him when he was in college so he was disinclined to believe them. I have not had any personal experiences with cops myself, so I didn't say anything. But the next question was basically something like, "Do you have beliefs about law enforcement that might keep you from being impartial?" And I was like... .... .... But the room had a bunch of black people, and I know the black community here doesn't have a great relationship with police even by national standards, so I figured if they could all claim to be impartial, then I could to. Even though I am fully ready to believe that a cop would lie about anything.
Yeah that's really hard!!! I mean, I tend to think our shared belief that the police sometimes lie is more impartial than people who think they don't! The London Met have been proven to be unreliable over and over! Like what do they mean when they say 'impartial', especially since, as you say, that's impossible?
I'd definitely say I was impartial because I think justice is more likely to be done with jurors who're like "yeah the police are systemically racist" because they are but it's definitely complicated.