It's one of my dreams to serve on a jury.
Seriously, TV and movies make it look so fun.
I will of course need it on my own timetable.
I will need to schedule in advance.
I do have a life.
But I know there is a dark side to jury duty.
Some of those cases will give you nightmares.
But I have nightmares anyway.
So let's hear about some of the stories that kept jurors awake at night.
Redditor Capable_Opposite_559 wanted to hear about the worst things people have witnessed while serving their civic duty, so they asked:
"People who have participated in Jury Duty. What is the worst thing you had to witness in a trial? Does it still affect you?"
You're Fired
"The 2 times I’ve been on a jury, most of the other jurors didn’t want to consider evidence or discuss the case at all. They just wanted to vote guilty and go home. THAT’S frightening."
- TXGingerBBW
nervous court GIF by South Park Giphy
16 Years
"I’ve served on a few different juries. Nothing crazy there. But while in college I had to observe and report on both federal and state court proceedings. The one I think about a lot was the expert witness in a manslaughter trial. There were images from the night of the incident—a large parking lot with a motel, trees, and some lights."
"The expert brought a rendition of the same scenario but as it would have looked at the actual time the car struck the victim. They answered questions about moonlight, headlights, lamp lights, trees casting shadows, reflections from the other cars in the lot, and windows of the motel. It was just crazy to me that there was an expert on just the light/visibility."
"And they interviewed the guy for two days. Then brought him back in for clarification on a few things the jurors wondered about. I’ve never forgotten that. It’s been 16 years."
- wandcarrier74
Trauma
"I had to watch a video of a social worker interviewing a small boy, maybe 6-8 years old, about his grandfather being killed in front of him. They’d been having a family barbecue at the grandfather’s home and there was an issue with a neighbor. The grandfather went over to talk to the guy and his grandson grabbed his hand and walked with him. "
"When the neighbor opened the front door he shot the grandfather almost immediately, then closed the door in the face of the little boy as the man bled out beside him."
"The boy’s father, the victim’s son, refused to subject the child to any more trauma by having him testify in court and see the man who’d done the shooting, so the video was all we had from right after the incident occurred. Watching that little boy sit in a room with this woman and recount the murder while playing with toys and having next to no emotional response was harrowing."
- DarkHeraldMage
Red Flags
"I did a case for child abuse. The parents basically let the young kid move into the kid's teacher's house and went on a very long multi-year vacation. The parents would email occasionally to check on the kid."
"The parents didn't want the kid. There was abuse and neglect from them. The teacher was creepy and did even more abuse. The worst part is that the parents then wanted to sue the school, the teacher, and anyone who was part of the community for pain and suffering for not taking better care of the kid."
"During the back story of how the kid ended up with the teacher, there were so many red flags about the parents that we wanted to know why the teacher or school never reported it to child protective services. The parents even said that they knew the kid wouldn't be safe with the teacher."
"The teacher had even more red flags. The whole thing was heartbreaking 💔 Trust me, people who end up on jury duty can get PTSD."
- gillybeankiddo
Denied
"I was on two juries in Los Angeles. The first one a recognizable model was in the jury pool and asked to be excused for financial hardship, granted. Then an elementary school teacher for a school in an underprivileged area 9 days into their school year requested an excuse for financial hardship, denied."
"This was a civil trial against a famous podcaster and during voir dire the schoolteacher was finally excused after she made an impassioned statement about all of us suffering because rich people couldn't settle an argument."
- kuliaikanuu
GUILTY!
"I was on the jury for a murder trial. I will never forget the look on the defendant's face when we each had to stand up and deliver the 'guilty' verdict. He looked us each in the eye with shaking rage."
- Clypsedra
season 2 famalam GIF by BBC ThreeGiphy
NOT Guilty!
"There was no disturbing evidence at the trial I was part of. It was frustrating that the police had probably caught the right guy but didn't have enough evidence to prove it beyond reasonable doubt so we had to find him not guilty."
- fortyeightD
Digging my Heels In
"Got put on a case where we had to decide if a guy was guilty of aggravated reckless driving. He had been chasing another car down the highway and veered into the bike lane hitting a rider and dragging them which broke their back and fractured their skull. It should have been an obvious guilty verdict, but a lot of f**kery went on during deliberation and the half that wanted not guilty got their way. I've always regretted not digging my heels in."
- SquilliamFancySon95
Well Deserved
"The only time I’ve been on a jury, the defendant was a woman on trial for hitting her boyfriend, and it was all on video. There was another guy on the jury that wanted to vote not guilty simply because he said, 'he probably deserved it.' He eventually changed his mind and she was convicted."
- LongjumpingSurprise0
Apathy
"Sat on a murder trial about a year ago. Worst thing that I saw was the apathy that other jurors had for the process. On their phones in the jury box, dozing off during expert witness testimony, etc. It was eye opening how little the people who are in charge of someone else’s life cared about being present for the process."
"Having a trial by your peers should be terrifying. Your peers are by and large idiots."
- iamdrinking
Hateful Humans
"Former court clerk who took verdicts from juries - I've seen countless crime scene footage of the moment someone dies, heard horrific 911 calls, and other absolute atrocities and it has made me absolutely hate humanity. Humans are awful. I'm pretty sure my therapist has made a fortune off of me (and probably has some form of contact PTSD)."
- Nilla06
Come On Wow GIF by BrownSugarAppGiphy
Cornered
"I was in my early 20s and got cornered and repeatedly hit on by the 80ish-year-old drunk defendant while his lawyer frantically tried to get him to cut that out. and not talk to jurors. Part of the defense was saying he doesn't drink, but I could smell it on him, and his behavior looked very drunk."
- BaylisAscaris
The Jeans
Thinking Fx GIF by SnowfallGiphy
"The victims blood soaked jean jacket being pulled from an evidence bag after 20+ yrs of being in storage. The smell of dirt and caked blood will stay with me forever."
- WalkinTarget
Ok... some of these are a lot.
I'm still willing to sign-up.
Anyone else have any jury duty stories?
