4 ms·
You don't need to lie, but you need to be careful not to frame your realistic skepticism as bias. Then, if you do make the jury, you need to be incredibly tact
by macawfish 9y ago
You don't need to lie, but you need to be careful not to frame your realistic skepticism as bias. Then, if you do make the jury, you need to be incredibly tactful so that the prosecutor doesn't get the trial thrown out on the basis that, e.g., you're biased simply because you don't take police testimonies as ground truth.
The risk here is that there are people fighting to get out of prison for things they're not guilty of. If you have realistic expectations that police and their representative prosecutors can and do lie, please exercise caution.
- refurb 9y agoExactly. Saying "I will evaluate the officer's statements along with the other evidence produced to determine if his/her statements are factual" is not going to get you kicked off a jury. If you say "You shouldn't believe anything a cop testifies to" will get you booted pretty quickly.
- sitkack 9y ago> Saying "I will evaluate the officer's statements along with the other evidence produced to determine if his/her statements are factual" is not going to get you kicked off a jury. If you say this you won't be selected. Engineers and Scientists routinely get denied because of the application of logic.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- __david__ 9y agoI got to jury selection last time I was on jury duty and the prosecuting attorney straight up asked the prospective jurors, "would you believe the testimony of a policeman above the testimony of the plaintiff?" And guess which answer got people dismissed?
- mulmen 9y agoI don’t like guessing. It only reinforces bias. Please complete your anecdote.
- refurb 9y agoI had the opposite experience. There were a few folks that were trying to get dismissed with statements like that and ended up on the jury. Remember the prosecution have a limited number of dismissals and statements like that are desired by the defense.
- coldtea 9y ago>Saying "I will evaluate the officer's statements along with the other evidence produced to determine if his/her statements are factual" is not going to get you kicked off a jury. You'd be surprised. The DAs/lawyers on the other side can see right through this, and don't want it. They want someone that is more likely to show blind trust to the law side.
- taneq 9y ago> you're biased simply because you don't take police testimonies as ground truth If the system considers police testimony as ground truth, why bother with judge and jury?
- oldandtired 9y agoAhh, the Cardassian system of Jurisprudence and Justice.
- parfe 9y agoMost defendants don't.
- travmatt 9y agoThe majority of cases are settled by plea bargains, which don’t have a jury and minimal involvement by a judge. Many proposed reforms of the criminal justice system try to address this exact fact.