I've been called 2 times, and was in the pool for 2 six week periods. One a fairly long murder trial, the other a personal injury case. Both of them took 2 full weeks. Then several other short trials.
I live in Kentucky, and we're all supposed to be stupid here. I was honored to serve with the folks. Every one of them took it seriously. Almost all participated in the discussions. Those that didn't were just shy.
I made some friends in the process, too. When you're locked up with other folks for 2 full weeks, you become friends.
One of our shorter cases was a date rape. What shocked me most was the way the middle aged women reacted. They were actually the most lenient. Each had sons and were worried that some girl could just accuse them of the same thing. And the men (I was in my early 40s at the time) were the most hard nosed. It was a real eyeopener for me.
There was no question in my mind about anything we did. On a couple of the cases we spent more time in deliberations than I thought we would. In the 2 cases where I was a jury foreman, I insisted on taking our time. Besides, the Judge had to buy us supper when we ran overtime!
But he took it well. He also bought us donuts each morning. NO question we all voted for him the next cycle. We were cheap and easy.
And it changed my views of people, permanently. We actually had a police officer we felt was lying. You've got to keep it to yourself until you're given the case. One of the most amusing parts was comparing how you felt about somebody's testimony and what everyone else felt. It was gratifying to learn others felt the same thing. And I learned that punk kids who dress stylishly (for them) don't do themselves any favors when facing a jury. Not just the older folks, even the young women in their 20s aren't impressed.
The most amusing was our auto accident case. The fat chick (not a particularly sympathetic plaintiff) had been injured in a wreck. She got tail ended, and not her fault. But she also wanted to retire on the poor guy and his insurance company. She wasted 2 full days of our time bellyaching about how she couldn't cook so they went out every night (yes, she kept the receipts, and expected to be reimbursed). But the best part of the entire trial came after lunch on the 2nd day.
She waddled up to take the stand, wearing a women's pants suit. As she was sitting down she brushed the coat portion down. The girl sitting next to me and I both gasped out loud! I guess its a no-no in the court room. Everyone looked, we both turned red. No one else knew what we'd seen. This chick had spent the better part of 2 full days complaining and telling us she couldn't make it through even a few hours without her Tens unit hooked up. She'd made a big deal about the cost of the electrode pads and what not. But when she sat down, all the leads were unplugged and hanging!!
So we made fools of ourselves with the gasp. It was a long 2 hours until the judge called a recess. The jury room was at the end of a hall behind the courtroom. As we shuffled out, the Judge was waiting for us in the hall. The bailiff took the other 11 (2 were alternates) and put them in the break room. The Judge took us! uh-oh. But he was pleasant and nice. He said he didn't know what we'd seen or thought we'd seen. But we were to do 2 things. First, keep it to ourselves until we got the case. Then he wanted to know, too!
When we were reunited with the others, it was kind of tense. But we had to keep our little secret. A couple of days later we were given our instructions. Everybody wanted to know then. Because our gasp was in unison and not rehearsed in any way, it was a shocker for everybody else. We had nothing to gain or lose by telling them what we'd seen. And we spent the better part of an hour discussing that before anything else.
It doesn't matter what sequence you discuss the case.
What we did talk about was how the girls lawyer had done a spectacular job of setting us up. He had us lead right down the path of believing his line about her needed the unit. But we saw first hand how she could easily testify for 2 full hours and not even look uncomfortable. And from that point on, we just figured most of what she said was BS.
But we were also in kind of a jam. The wreck was clearly the other guys fault. It was a wet street and he did hit her. Skidded on wet pavement. We did award her some damages. Like $20,000 instead of the $2 million she was asking.
And we kind of dreaded visiting with the judge after the case. Everyone apparently wanted to know what we'd gasped at, not just the jurors and judge. We had no qualms about telling the judge. We kind of felt like he was one of us. I guess it was the morning donut bribes. He listened and asked if we were sure. But it was so spontaneous he knew we'd seen something. His only comment was "she sure screwed that one up." He thanked us, asked how the other jurors had responded, then sent us on our way. Saying he wasn't going to tell the lawyers, and it was up to us if we did. We didn't. We'd agreed to that in the deliberations. Just too much drama to continue.
The rule was that jurors pay attention. Sometimes to every little thing they see or hear. I have no idea how well lawyers prep their clients. I'm guessing the better lawyers do a better job of it. Everything a witness does is viewed. Jurors want to believe everything, but don't give them a reason not to.
That case was back in 1988. About 3 or 4 years ago I saw the same female juror on the street. I asked her if her wires were plugged in. She broke up laughing and said she checks them constantly!
Her husband and my wife didn't have a clue. I had to tell my wife, and I guess she told her hubby, too.