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The last (and so far only) time I was called for jury duty, the judge's instructions were very explicit that the word of a police officer was to be given no spe
by ricree 11y ago
The last (and so far only) time I was called for jury duty, the judge's instructions were very explicit that the word of a police officer was to be given no special weight compared to other witnesses.
Jurors were questioned about this during the voir dire, and several people were dismissed because of an admitted bias in favor of police testimony.
Obviously, this is a sample size of one and no generalizations can be drawn, but it does stand as a counterexample.
- graycat 11y agoGee, I'd never make it past voir dire! I'd give the word of a police officer "special weight" -- assume he was bitterly, hatefully, fraudulently lying through his teeth, even if just for the fun of it.
- Zigurd 11y agoLast time I served on a jury, the judge gave the same instruction regarding police as witnesses. Nevertheless, the defendant had a heavy accent, and did not testify in her defense. The prosecution presented their entire case through the testimony of one policeman, who was shown to be wildly exaggerating to the point of an outright lie in a key element of his testimony. He never recanted or even corrected his testimony. Yet the first vote was massively in favor of convicting. Scary!