If you have ever worked with the general public you should not have THAT much trust in the jury system. amirite?

I was a juror once. Guy could not have been more guilty. Charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He represented himself. The police found him in a truck, that had been reported stolen, sleeping with the engine running. He chose to represent himself. His only defense was that the police failed to dust the truck for his prints. So they had no proof he was ever in it. One day trail. Turns out I was an alternate juror, so I was excused and instructed to not speak of the trial until I was informed it was over. I figured I'd get a call that evening. Two days later I was informed the trial was over and the verdict was not guilty. I live in DC. The defendant was black, as were 11 of the 14 jurors. Too funny.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Yup sums it up. Obviously being black isn't the only reason a juror may be more likely to find someone innocent of a crime if they are the same race - but it's one of them. (same as whites being more likely to convict black people and say other whites are innocent) Crazy to think that if the jury was white he would be found guilty. it's just so random.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

yeah but either way it can be "random" (to a degree) to whether you are innocent or guilty or not in the eyes of the law depending on the jury(random to a degreee)

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Well, "beyond reasonable doubt" is a thing. If the only evidence the guy was in the truck was the word of the police with nothing to corroborate, there's still plenty of reasonable doubt and that's on the police for not collecting evidence

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Police famously never lie.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I've been yelled at because someone ordered a "cheeseburger with no cheese" and when I read the order back I called it a "hamburger" but they did NOT ask for HAM on their burger! That being said, I like to hope that with a pool of jurors the smart ones kind of counteract the shortsighted hot heads, but yeah, interesting system.

by Virtual-Position-259 1 day ago

I've been yelled at because someone ordered a "cheeseburger with no cheese" and when I read the order back I called it a "hamburger" but they did NOT ask for HAM on their burger! Yeah I've had similar things happen to myself when i worked retail. That being said, I like to hope that with a pool of jurors the smart ones kind of counteract the shortsighted hot heads, but yeah, interesting system. I'd like to assume most of the time this is true - I just think in a not so small percentage amount of times this isn't the case. I know there are "filters" in place to try and get a fair jury.... but the truth is there are too many stupid people for this to work all the time.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Yeah, it really does seem like a crapshoot with juries. I'm always surprised by how few people are in juries too, it never seems like enough to have anywhere near a fair cross section of the community. And is it true that they often deny potential jurors for having mental illness? Because if so they're probably ending up with a lot of jurors who won't acknowledge or treat their mental illnesses while rejecting people who have gained a lot of social context and societal wisdom through confronting and treating theirs.

by Virtual-Position-259 1 day ago

i read and watched the movie "Where the Crawdads Sing", in which a terrible, biased group of people was the jury. of course that was all fictional and i was like "yeah the court irl won't be this bad, right?", until i met a friend on discord who told us a similar experience of herself being asked to join the jury in 2021. she told us the movie was better, the irl jury was way worse and often packed with the most miserable people under a good suit.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

What was your friends experience? what happened.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

most people in the jury have a weird sense of "justice" - aka they hope whoever is presented in the case will ended up being guity. her worst case was something about a teenager trespassing into some rich dude's private property and the guard detained the kid pretty violently. a member of the jury was expecting the kid would be sent to jail despite the court being all about the guard using excessive force.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Most people try to get out of jury duty, so with whose left...

by Ilianagreenfeld 1 day ago

I've served on two juries and so I don't have trust in the jury system.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

go on...

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I agree completely. I don't think this is a uncommon viewpoint

by Sea-Fish 1 day ago

Any stories?..

by Anonymous 1 day ago

No really. just getting a true jury of your peers probably will never happen for anyone.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

same and fully agree. based on the case, I was selected because (I'm assuming) theyd think id side with the prosecutor giving the details of the case. it was really odd but thankfully the evidence was clear enough for us to come to a very quick decision.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

The biggest worry is that a lot of people watch too many police procedural shows and either have high expectations of what should happen. At the other end is people who will fully lean into their prejudices and ignore the actual facts presented.

by Helenkutch 1 day ago