So I got my letter in the mail that I have to go to Grand Jury Duty at the end of this month. I know about regular jury duty, but how does Grand Jury duty differ? I’m thinking I’m automatically in because there was not “Jury #” that I have to call up with. It just says I have to report to the court building and that I have to serve approx. 3-5 day a week for a month.
Has anyone been through Grand Jury duty before?
Did it last summer. 3 days a week for a month.
The initial day is everyone making excuses on why they can’t serve; then a lottery to see who stays. If you get picked to serve, you are in a room with ~20 other people and you listen to the DA/Prosectuers present the evidence/witness to determine if they are going to press Felony charges on people. You vote to either charge someone or dismiss; not guilty or innocent.
NYS required a grand jury to decide whether or not to prosecute any felony charge.
Gave me a different prespective on things… and why our court systems are soo fubar’d… most of the people who get chosen are dumb as hell. I just wanted the paid time off work. LOL!
You meet 3 times a week from 9-5 typically; some days you get out early or half days.
The days during the week that you didn’t have to go, did you go back to your normal job?
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So if about 20 people stay on the jury, how large was the original pool of people? This may sound dumb but is there a “dress code” lol
I served on a grand jury.
They chose two 23-juror panels. You go 3 days a week for up to 4 weeks. The majority of the days we were dismissed by lunch. It wasn’t too bad actually, despite the time commitment. This is probably because I still made my regular salary during my time serving. Parking was $3/day at Adam’s Mark. No dress code. I brought my laptop to watch Hulu during breaks. They give you plenty of time for lunch on full days.
For me, it really just reinforced how amazingly stupid the general public is. People could not wrap their minds around the fact that they weren’t deciding innocence vs. guilt. Very frustrating.
No dress code; and yea, I worked my normal job the other days. The days of the week you serve don’t change, so it’s wasy to plan working around JD.
And I totally agree with you Geoff… I almost got into a few fights when I was serving just because of the people that were in my jury with me… We got into screaming matches a few times.
Thanks for all the info guys, at least I’ll be able to dress down from my business attire for a couple days a week it sounds like!
I’m kinda excited to go, I think it will be interesting, we’ll see, I may end up pissed off at society like your guys did lol.
I was a juror on a murder trial here in NYC for about a month around last Thanksgiving, it wasn’t grand jury, but… I was lucky and served with other people who I could at least have a semi-intelligent conversation with. We weren’t allowed to talk about the trial until deliberation, so it was amusing to see people’s true personalities come out when it came time to reach a verdict. We reached a verdict in less than 10 minutes. It was my first time called for jury duty and I got to experience the whole process. I enjoyed it… hopefully, you will too 