shawnlavoie.com » court http://shawnlavoie.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:50:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 12 Angry Men http://shawnlavoie.com/2008/12/25/12-angry-men/ http://shawnlavoie.com/2008/12/25/12-angry-men/#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 09:31:40 +0000 Shawn http://shawnlavoie.com/2008/12/25/12-angry-men/ I recently served as a juror on a month-long criminal trial in Sacramento County. The defendant was charged with committing 3 home-invasion robberies in the Sacramento suburbs. Being a juror is fascinating. A wise co-worker once said that “a month at work will be easily forgotten, but a month in jury duty is something you’ll always remember.” There are a few lessons I took away from jury duty worth sharing (in no particular order):

  1. 3 out of 12 jurors are complete morons.
  2. Robbing a house full of people at gunpoint for $40 isn’t worth it.
  3. Make sure your accomplices aren’t going to accept a plea bargain for 13 years in prison to testify against you in court. You’ll probably get 50 years in prison.
  4. Getting paid salary to serve on a jury is rad! I highly recommend it over work if you can finagle it.

We found the defendant guilty for 13 out of 20 counts, and mis-trialed on the other 7 (see first bullet point above).

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