Jury Duty, whee!

[dvandom]

Spent the day doing my civic duty. More behind cut.

Well, as I half-expected, it was a DUI trial. A guy leaving a Valentine's Day dance he was helping run was pulled over late at night for improper backing (he backed out all the way across the street, a no-no) and the officer smelled beer on his breath. Administered a few field sobriety tests, but then the guy refused to take the breath test, or to repeat any other test back at the station.

The defendant has a physical disability, so maybe the physical tests were unreliable. It was late at night, he was possibly concerned over a friend's injury (he was going to get some bandages), and he felt the police had been harassing the party because patrol cars had been seen several times...so maybe the mental tests were unreliable.

Unfortunately, the prosecution only had the arresting officer as a witness. No cruiser camera, no breath test, and the other officer on the scene was doing crowd control and didn't witness anything meaningful (at least the prosecution didn't think so, because the other officer wasn't a witness). And two of the jurors were unwilling to convict based on a single witness, period. They did admit that the defense case was weak (I think the defense sucked donkey hindquarter), just didn't think that the prosecution case was strong enough based on just one witness to stand on its own, leaving defense aside.

So we convicted on the moving violation, but deadlocked on the DUI. Got out of the court about 4:45 in the afternoon. Someone else gets to try it again in a few months.

Oh, and I got to be the foreman. No one else really wanted to, and I figured correctly that I'd end up dominating things anyway, so might as well have the figleaf of the position. :)

Comments

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

but then the guy refused to take the breath test

And you see, that's all I'd need right there.

Still, congrats for being a true citizen. I've managed to accidentally dodge jury duty once ("oh, you mean yesterday?"), not looking forward to getting sucked into it. Maybe if I wear a t-shirt championing jury nullification....

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Refusal to self-incriminate, especially when the instrument for self-incrimination is unreliable, does not constitute admission of guilt.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Voir dire made it clear we would need to look past that, since Kansas Law specifically says you have the right to not take the breath test. It also, however, takes away your license for a year if you refuse. Nice mixed message there.

[z4nd4r.livejournal.com]

I've heard that (at least in Missouri) you can refuse to take it in the field, but request to take it downtown (literally).

This gives your liver an hour's worth of time to get some of that alcohol processed. :)

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Oh, he got a second chance at the station. Still refused. Thing is, at the OUTSIDE he had two light beers in four hours. He'd have passed a breath test easily. But he was being too much of a mule-headed idiot, convinced he was being railroaded for driving while black. On the stand, he wouldn't even answer the question of why he refused to take the breath test, he just shrugged and made an incoherent sound. His lawyer seemed to be trying to explain that as a result of feeling harassed, but was really incompetent when it came to actually explaining what his points were for.

For instance, the defense attorney brought up the police officer's report of seeing a few leaves of marijuana in the car. The prosecution didn't. The cop said on the stand that it wasn't enough to be worth prosecuting over, and no charges were ever filed. And the defense never really explain why he did this...my best guess based on unsolicited testimony from the defendant's wife was they planned to call it a plant and say the cop was making false reports in general, but it never went anywhere.

[z4nd4r.livejournal.com]

Idiot... :)

[recharge138.livejournal.com]

The field test doesn't count anyway, it's just to determine if they need to take you for the official test. So you always have that hour. S'why they generally don't haul someone in who's on the line, unless he's being a complete dick or something and they can still get him on wet and reckless.