Jury Duty

I second that, BTW in Monroe County where we both live Deaf is NOT an excuse from going jury duty. Right now it is nearly impossible to get excused from Jury duty. Monroe county seldom grant excuse for any reason.

Kateweb said:
interesting I personally would not want to be excused unless it is gory stuff, I hate the idea of disminsg due to being deaf, ok my sign sucks majorly but still.
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I think in this case that it is reasonable to ask to be excused. However, I don't think that someone who is fluent in sign should ask to be excused because they are deaf. Tell them you are doing it and they'd better get you a translator. If no one with any form of disability (and yes I know that many people here don't consider themselves disabled - just bear with me) does jury duty, then the court will never receive our view of the world. We know that people of different races and religions view the world differently, so it's valuable to have the views of people with disabilities in the courtroom too.
Just my thoughts
*EQL*
 
This comes to my thinking, will ever Deaf defendants get fair trial when all Deaf Jurors are excused?

Suppose you got caught for a crime that you didnt committed, Police do not understand you and cuff you away with lack of communication. Then you have to go court. The judge said well, too bad all Deaf candidates wanted to be excused from Jury duty so your stuck with all hearies that does not understand you nothing. Then you get guilty from them, Do you call this fair trial?

WAKE UP, quit making excuses, show Hearing world what we are capable of!
 
diehardbiker said:
This comes to my thinking, will ever Deaf defendants get fair trial when all Deaf Jurors are excused?

Suppose you got caught for a crime that you didnt committed, Police do not understand you and cuff you away with lack of communication. Then you have to go court. The judge said well, too bad all Deaf candidates wanted to be excused from Jury duty so your stuck with all hearies that does not understand you nothing. Then you get guilty from them, Do you call this fair trial?

WAKE UP, quit making excuses, show Hearing world what we are capable of!
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I have a suggestion?

You could ask the court if it is possible to get a laptop or a computer that has a program that is voice to text?

I am doing the same thing for school.
 
I rather get an Interpreter. I have no problem with that with my last three Jury duties.

DGirl101 said:
I have a suggestion?

You could ask the court if it is possible to get a laptop or a computer that has a program that is voice to text?

I am doing the same thing for school.
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diehardbiker said:
Ask yourself, do we The Deaf people Need to be excused from Jury duty just because we are Deaf? This is like creating an advertisement to Hearing world that we can NOT do anything. Perhaps that is why discrimination is so common. Perhaps that is why many Deafies couldn't find jobs.

To be honest, this is diguesting to me hearing Deaf people trying to find ways to get away from civil duties just because they are Deaf, what a LAME excuse!

Mind you, how hard is it to sit and listen the case? When the trial is over, go down to meeting room to discuss whether the defendant is guilty or not and vote em then go back to court. After this is done, go home. How hard is it?
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I personally have no problem with jury duty and would love to serve. My problem is that I am late deafened and now totally deaf. Can't hear the airplanes go over and we live on the flight path to the international airport here in town. I also do not know enough ASL to be able to make an informed decision. The court has stated that they do not have anything to help me since I do not know ASL. It would be different if I was able to wear HA's and hear, had a CI and could "hear" or knew ASL, but as I do not, they can't help me. That is what has made my decision as to find a way to be excused.
 
diehardbiker said:
This comes to my thinking, will ever Deaf defendants get fair trial when all Deaf Jurors are excused?

Suppose you got caught for a crime that you didnt committed, Police do not understand you and cuff you away with lack of communication. Then you have to go court. The judge said well, too bad all Deaf candidates wanted to be excused from Jury duty so your stuck with all hearies that does not understand you nothing. Then you get guilty from them, Do you call this fair trial?

WAKE UP, quit making excuses, show Hearing world what we are capable of!
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According to my deaf club here ion town, 98% of the deaf people here in town do report for jury duty. The small percentage is the late deafened who DO NOT KNOW ASL. therefore an interpreter will not be able to help.
 
DGirl101 said:
I have a suggestion?

You could ask the court if it is possible to get a laptop or a computer that has a program that is voice to text?

I am doing the same thing for school.
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Our court system will not allow computers in the courtroom as they feel that the info would be getting out when it's not supposed to.

Does make sense on both sides of the coin.
 
Yes, she is right on this one. The judge in my last Jury duty made it clear, NO computer is allowed in court room and deliberation room.

KristinaB said:
Our court system will not allow computers in the courtroom as they feel that the info would be getting out when it's not supposed to.

Does make sense on both sides of the coin.
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Hmmm, I can see where your from. Are you learning ASL?

Asking for an excuse may not be best way, just show up and demostrate them the problem you are facing may be best because the DA and defendant attorney will most likely object this and let you go. What I mean is that just go there and inform that you can't hear so please come to me when Im called. Then when they ask you questions, just ask to repeat over and over, they will realize that this is not feasible for them.

The problem with hearing people in general does not really understand what it is like to be Deaf or deaf. They have no clue to what it is except cant hear or talk. They will think, how could you NOT hear? I can hear just fine.

KristinaB said:
I personally have no problem with jury duty and would love to serve. My problem is that I am late deafened and now totally deaf. Can't hear the airplanes go over and we live on the flight path to the international airport here in town. I also do not know enough ASL to be able to make an informed decision. The court has stated that they do not have anything to help me since I do not know ASL. It would be different if I was able to wear HA's and hear, had a CI and could "hear" or knew ASL, but as I do not, they can't help me. That is what has made my decision as to find a way to be excused.
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diehardbiker said:
Hmmm, I can see where your from. Are you learning ASL?

Asking for an excuse may not be best way, just show up and demostrate them the problem you are facing may be best because the DA and defendant attorney will most likely object this and let you go. What I mean is that just go there and inform that you can't hear so please come to me when Im called. Then when they ask you questions, just ask to repeat over and over, they will realize that this is not feasible for them.

The problem with hearing people in general does not really understand what it is like to be Deaf or deaf. They have no clue to what it is except cant hear or talk. They will think, how could you NOT hear? I can hear just fine.
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I have been trying to teach myself for the last couple of years, but I start a class at the local Deaf Service Center on Jan 26th for 9 weeks. I know it isn't going to be near enough of what I need, but my local deaf club has said that if I take the class, then they will help me continue. If I go to the every Tuesday social and bring all my books and notes, they will help me and make sure I get the proper grammar in place. Most of them are retired people and one of them is the instructor of the class I am taking.

The card I received in the mail informing of jury duty stated that if we have a hearing loss of any kind, then we are to call a specific number. I used my P3 to call with text relay and informed them of my status. It was thecourthouse that told me to get a local doctor to certify that I do in fact have a hearing loss and the "degree" of loss so that they can excuse me. They have had issues with people faking a hearing loss and so they changed the way they do this. Even if the person knows ASL, they would still have to call and inform them of this and have the test results sent in. I have an appointment with an audiologist on 1/20 and they will fax the paperwork to the courthouse.
 
Someone asked how a jury list is developed.

It all depends upon the jurisdiction of the court. I do know that in my state, the following is allowed for jury selection: voter registration records and drivers' license records. Have heard in some jurisdictions, they use Property Tax records and Public Health records.

I think the most common method of jury selection is by computer program. They run a program to run through the available records which randomly creates a new file which is used for the jury pool. I used to work in the department which created the jury pool file and I can't really remember how often that file was created. I am thinking it was every other year.

BTW, according to our state law, the jury commissioners were legally required to be present when the jury list was being created. The law was written before computers were common and I don't believe any jury commissioners were ever present while the jury list was being prepared. Don't know if this law was ever changed or ever enforced. Would have been interesting if anyone had ever challeneged the legallity of the jury pool.
 
Our jury lists are created from a combination of voter registrations and driver licenses. You have to have both to be able to be put onto the list, then they weed out the convicted felons, those over 70 and others.
 
But they should not be weeding out those with a bad audiogram, either.
 
Tousi said:
But they should not be weeding out those with a bad audiogram, either.
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They don't really weed them out. When they ask for the audiograms, they are only making sure that the potential juror is not lying to get out of it or lying to get help. This way they also know that the person is in need of an interpreter and they will get them. there are a bunch of agencies around here that have interpreters out the ying-yang.
 
in Monroe county beeing dead is seldom an excuse for not doing jury duty


diehardbiker said:
I second that, BTW in Monroe County where we both live Deaf is NOT an excuse from going jury duty. Right now it is nearly impossible to get excused from Jury duty. Monroe county seldom grant excuse for any reason.
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no but sometime around when I left Rochester the cops when to arest a dead guy for not showing.
 
That is true, even judge from next room (If selected) still required to show up! They don't even give excuse to judges, DA, Mayor, etc.

Kateweb said:
in Monroe county beeing dead is seldom an excuse for not doing jury duty
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