Jury Duty

[RedheadGrrl]

I remembered I once was called for jury duty. I had to call the courthouse to get me an interpreter. The woman said "you can get a note from the doctor to say you are deaf. You will dismissed and don't have to go to jury duty again." So, I went to the dr and explained to them. The dr looked at me and puzzled (like how can deaf people go to jury duty? if they cannot understand them) So he wrote a note.. I sent it the next day. So far, I havent got any ever since.. So I dont have to worry abt jury duty at all.. whew!!!

 

[Tousi]

I am sorry to see that kind of response to a civic duty and the implication that deaf are "broken" and can't do this. Jeezzzzzzzzzzzzz!

 

[kuifje75]

I can say that I was one of the proud Deaf who accepted the responsibility to do jury duty for 4 days. It was an interesting experience. At the end of the whole thing, the judge came up to jury room, and I asked all of the jury and the judge how they thought about me being deaf in the jury duty. All of the jurors said they didnt think anything about it, just that it is "normal." The judge said that he found it to be a good experience, and wouldn't mind accepting other Deaf jurors in the future.

 

[DeafNYCPlayer72]

I received jury letter few times. I went to court few times where I live near. I spoke officers, few times as they realized that I am Deaf. They decided to waive me again and again.

 

[GalaxyAngel]

Long time ago, I got summoned from the court and opened the big envople.. *shocked*.. wonder why they send me wrong forms.. Am I blind?? There have briale... *huh* I went over to the court house and asked why they send me this form of briale ?(sp) They lady looked down the form and got big embrassement whoever send me wrong ones.. I was spoked staff and what is it ? She tells me, This is seriouis form for murder crime and you may have to shown up as juror. I said, "What?, how can they willing bring provide me an interpreter in the courtroom"? She gulped and turned into the red face. In my mind, puzzled why she is turns into RED FACE?? She asked me, Can you have a seat for moment and will speak directly the judge about this issues. I say, uh, um, okay I can wait.. Few minutes later, She came back and tells me, you're waived and not necessary to come the court because you're Deaf." I stood up, Are you trying to being polite talking and something up to part of discrimiation againist Deaf person who come and become juror for murder the case? She turned into emotions and rage angrily at me, and said, NO, IM NOT HERE DEBATE THIS. I was kind not pleasant with this.. and decide to stay and stubborn because my rights need to know what going on. Finally the Officer of supervisior for court room and tell me come in the office. Nice man!, He discuss with me this matter of issues. I understand that they were not aware of me being DEAF, and wasn't prepared for court and to get an interpreter near within a week. Isn't proprite processing and long to get an interpreter because of shortage an interpreter in my hometown. So I say okay sure, no problem. He gave me nice cheque that you came here and made for nothing. Sound like "graudite" (sp) I have no idea why he gave me cheque... When I was 21 yrs old.

 

[Opal]

I can say that I was one of the proud Deaf who accepted the responsibility to do jury duty for 4 days. It was an interesting experience. At the end of the whole thing, the judge came up to jury room, and I asked all of the jury and the judge how they thought about me being deaf in the jury duty. All of the jurors said they didnt think anything about it, just that it is "normal." The judge said that he found it to be a good experience, and wouldn't mind accepting other Deaf jurors in the future.

Your lucky, it's one of my dreams to be involved with jury duty, my sister went there in England several years ago.

I heard the O.J Simpson trial, these jurors were forbid to read newspaper and TV about him, they hired a special accommation for them to stay away from the media eh?

 

[Mizzou]

I was in murder case when I was called for jury duty and it was very interesting experience -- other time, I come back and told me to go home because they know I am deaf and can not get interperter because of limit of numbers -- that was reasonable. No other to be disagree with because it is understandable

 

[Opal]

Copy by words from Daily Mirror, UK's newspaper today saying:

"I am deaf and a British Sign Language (BSL) user and was picked to do jury service. But I have since been told BSL interpreters are not allowed and I have been excused. I feel this is extremely unfair" K. A of Leeds.

Sad isn't it?

 

[Mistyrose]

Actually, I don't think you sign up for jury duty. The county will go through the voter registeration list and make random selection of residents to cal to jury duty.

You are right, the county makes random selection of tax payers. My ex husband is deaf and he was called so we went to the court house and went before the judge to tell him that he is deaf. The judge excused him. They never even asked if he would like an interpreter! That was ok with him cuz he doesnt want to be on the jury.
If im ever called for jury duty, i will get an excuse because i dont care to be on the jury, it will be too hard for me to watch the interpreter and try to watch the defendent and plaintiff's faces at the same time as it is important to see their faces and body language. Every time we have to go these stupid mandatory meetings at work, i have to have an interpreter and if it is boring, i get sleepy, lol! its awful but i cant help it.

 

[Reba]

I am hearing and have been summoned to jury duty several times, and have served in a couple of trials.

A deaf friend of mine, in the same town, has been summoned twice but was turned down because the court doesn't want to pay for terps.

In our state the jury pool is selected from the driver's license list.

BTW a "summons" to jury duty is not an offer, it is a command. If you are excused by the judge, fine. If not, and you don't show up, he sends a deputy to get you. Then you can end up in jail for contempt of court.

Last year, one of our local judges sentenced a woman in the jury to jail for contempt because she showed up for court with a cell phone. Cell phones, pagers, and PDAs are not allowed in the court building.

My jury duty was a positive experience. It was very interesting.

 

[Reba]

He gave me nice cheque that you came here and made for nothing. Sound like "graudite" (sp) I have no idea why he gave me cheque...

Most courts do pay to compensate for your time. The amount varies. I think the word he used was "gratuity". It means money paid as a thank you for your service. Sometimes it is used for the word "tip".

 

[Sweet_KJ]

I got summoned to jury duty twice. First one got waived because they couldn't get the services I needed (CART or interpreter). And the second got waived because I was going to school at the time, out of county.

By the way, if I was summoned again, and I was able to get services, I wouldn't mind serving it, if I was selected.

Yes, some major court cases requires jurors to stay away from the media -- because they should not be allowed to read biased reports and make their decisions with help of those.

 

[Nancy]

I have been served Summons twice (once where I used to live in another county, and recently in this county)....I have asked to be excused for both times not to be at jury duty because of my severe to profound hearing loss, which they have accepted my excuse.

On these Summons, you can ask to be excused because of a "physical condition", or any other legitimate reasons that is listed on the papers for you to check mark off and return it to the people responsible for jury duty. If they don't accept your excuse, you will get a notice in the mail and the reason why it isn't an excuse. I never got a notice, and the lady told me at the courthouse that I am excused from jury duty when I mentioned my hearing loss (I even provided my old audiograms as proof, since the paper said to provide proof).

 

[DelicPumpkPie]

Was summoned long time ago but waived from it. As usual because of deafness

 

[Lantana]

Juey Duty

I have been summoned twice. The first time, I had CART, and the second time I had 2 male interpreters out of Tacoma, Wa. I was not chosen either time, but I enjoyed the experience!

The first time it was concerning an assault and battery (two women).

The second time it concerned a young man having sex in his van with a 12 year old girl while her friends watched. Ugh. I am glad I did not have to listen to that one. The two females duking it out is more to my liking!

 

[sr171soars]

Done it once. Most interesting experience. I just had to pay attention closely to follow everything. I wish I had my CI at the time (using a HA then) and I would have heard everything pretty well. Fortunately for me, it was a 1 day deal with the verdict in about 10 to 15 minutes.

I was very disappointed in how the system is rigged so that the background of the defendent is swept clean to the point you don't have a feel for tendencies in the person. I sort of knew that from the TV but it really hits home afterwards when you find out things that might have made a difference in the verdict.

BTW - The case was a simple assault situation between former husband and wife (he said she said). He was tried and convicted before a judge and this was a secnd attempt to escape the judgement with a jury and the verdict was not-guilty. The main reason was there was reasonable doubt as the prosecuter was a recent law grad who was somewhat new at the game and didn't not give a great presentation of the case. I will hand it to the defendent's lawyer...he did a great job and he was worth every penny to the guy...unfortunately....

 

[gnarlydorkette]

I was summoned but I asked for a waiver since I had a class and it wasn't possible for me to miss and it was granted-- my summons got postponed until... oh schiesse. It is coming up soon. October 2006. Shit, I hope it falls on the days i got classes...
I remembered when the lady (the clerk, I believe) told me sept 2006, I was like, "Cool. not a problem-- I would be out-of-state by then". I was expected to move to NYC by then but things turned for better.

San Diego Courts DO have interpreters on site so I cannot use my deafness to get out.

I did serve as a juror for my government class when students determined some juvies' fates. We dealed the cases about grafitti, broken curfew, and thieves under $200... The class got five cases and we all were split up (9 jurors per case). I think I served on the gratiffi case. We found him guilty and offered the punishment of doing 20hours of community service and a letter of apology to his mother (the case included an outraged mother who was extremely uspet wtih his son who was the guilt party) who had to pay for the damages he made.



EDITED: more stuff to say...
OH YEAH: on a side note-- Along wtih being jurors,we the students did et the chance to be a bailiff and stuff as well; so my deaf classmate volunteered to be a bailiff and he was granted the role so he memorized the whole lines (the testimony).
When we came to the courthouse-- the actual court people (the bailiff, the sheriff etc) said "no, no' to my deaf friend because they felt it would be too complicated to have an interp doing the lines for him; and they totally stepped all over him. (He is very passive and sweet guy-- he was hopeless in fighting back-- poor guy. he was DEVASTED when they said no to him). When we (there were other four of us that are deaf in that class) found out that he got rejected because of his deafness, we got totally miffed.
When they gave us the feedback forms to fill out after our "court experience"-- you better believe it when we all five Deafies bitched it out in the feedback form about the hypocrisy of judgement and fairness in the courthouse; that all cops are corrupted and PREJUDICED and that they should be fired; they broke the ADA laws etc etc. We didn't inform our teacher (we, five deaf classmates, were mainstreamed so we felt very segerated from our hearing classmates included the teacher).
The very next day the teacher announced to the class about he got a phone call from the sherieff apologizing profusely for saying no to the deaf bailiff. The teacher was lost and asked for more explanations. What happened was that THAT very sheriff was the one who read the feedback forms and got five angry letters and reailzed that she was wrong in her actions. The teacher then felt horrible that he didn't know that his students got discriminated. Then the most unusual thing happened: the class was totally upset: "Waht?? YOU MEAN THEY GOT, LIKE, DISCRIMIANTED??? Man, that was LOW! Why did they make it a big deal??? We were FINE with them in our class, why not in the court?? that was lame taht they said interpreters cannot stand in front... the deaf need the interp to be inf ront, what the hell was that??? LAME excuse!" from people that we would never expect to hear from. The teacher was overwhelmed with the class' anger which made him feeling even more horrible because he didn't do anything about it.
It was a WONDERFUL experience-- EDUCATING the other about the lack of Deaf equality. Now there are a good number of hearies (50 kids now adults) with an OUNCE of understanding Deaf equality....

Small but surely we will make an impact in spreading thevdeaf awareness!

 

[horselover61]

Actually, I don't think you sign up for jury duty. The county will go through the voter registeration list and make random selection of residents to call to jury duty.

Voter registeration list. HUH I am not in a voter registeration but I have been summoned 3 times and I had to give them a notice to excuse me.

You tell me how do they get me summon for jury duty.

 

[Liebling:-)))]

I would love to try it if they ask me but they didn´t when I was in England.

We don´t need jury here in Germany.

 

[Reba]

We don´t need jury here in Germany.

You don't have trials by jury of peers in Germany?