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21 yr old spends 10 days in jail for missing jury duty

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Mai72 said:
www.cnn.com

A 21-year-old was sentenced to 10 days in jail after he overslept for jury duty

Deandre Somerville was selected to serve on a civil jury in August. But when he overslept for the trial, he had to spend 10 days in jail — despite not having a criminal record.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

He overslept and missed jury duty. IMO, the penalty seems a bit excessive. But, it is the law and carries a fine if you miss jury duty. This is a lesson for sure. I believe it's still on his record, which stinks because he's so young. Could he have it expunged? Because of the outrage via social media, he had his punishment reduced. But, it's still on his record. Lesson learned. Never miss jury duty unless you're legally excused.
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What record is this?? The unemployment rate is 3.5 %, employers can't be picky or reject people because of petty bs details or reasons

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
 
We have to remember that that the severity of a sentence is often in response to the attitude of the guilty and their level of remorse. If you just sleep in and then go to work when you have jury duty, that shows a huge disregard for the judicial process you are a part of. Judges don't usually go lightly on that kind of thing. At 21 you would think he would know better.

Then again, some judges are pompous jerks who react with any disrespect to "the court" with harsh reprisals.
 
JEDIYoda said:
aybe...you should start another thread and have a vote......it may surprise you!
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I have my opinion that what that judge did is shameful. I bet this is not the first juror who was late to his courtroom, but others didn't get this kind of punishment, for some "mysterious" reason. Judge should be shamed and should resign. You can have your own opinion or a poll if you want.
 
senseamp said:
I have my opinion that what that judge did is shameful. I bet this is not the first juror who was late to his courtroom, but others didn't get this kind of punishment, for some "mysterious" reason. Judge should be shamed and should resign. You can have your own opinion or a poll if you want.
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You're judging someone and accusing them of racism based on 1 event - where you have no clue of his past actions whatsoever.

Seems legit.

Where can I get my flaming pitchfork as well?
 
senseamp said:
I have my opinion that what that judge did is shameful. I bet this is not the first juror who was late to his courtroom, but others didn't get this kind of punishment, for some "mysterious" reason. Judge should be shamed and should resign. You can have your own opinion or a poll if you want.
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Get your facts straight. The guy wasn't late for jury duty, he didn't bother showing up at all. He slept in and then went to work and didn't bother notifying the court about any of this.

It was his failure to show up that delayed the trial. I'm guessing they had to prepare an alternate juror.
 
senseamp said:
I have my opinion that what that judge did is shameful. I bet this is not the first juror who was late to his courtroom, but others didn't get this kind of punishment, for some "mysterious" reason. Judge should be shamed and should resign. You can have your own opinion or a poll if you want.
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The fact is we have no idea what happened in that courtroom beyond the juror not showing up, going to work instead and all without notifying the court. And we have the sentence the judge handing down.

We have no idea if the guy was remorseful for what he did and understood the gravity of the situation, or if he came in arrogant and dismissive regarding his legal obligations to the court after being placed on the jury. I speculate his attitude may have had an impact on the sentencing.

Regardless, none of us were there and we don't know all the facts, but you have already made up your mind that what happened was shameful and the judge deserves to lose his judgeship. This is exactly what is wrong with the Internet. It gives every fool the idea that they can pass judgement, assign blame and call for action regarding a situation they know nothing about.

And I understand that includes me, too, but I'm not calling for someone to potentially lose their career.
 
If this nation had UBI, those 10 days in jail would mean a lot less to the 21 yr old. Disruptive, yes, but not life crushing in terms of employment, income, and housing.

As it stands, it's actually kind of a big deal. This could have caused homelessness.
 
senseamp said:
Judge has no sense of proportion and should resign pronto.
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Dude, The guy didn't bother showing up for jury duty. The guy didn't bother notifying anyone that he wasn't coming in to serve his jury duty. The guy blew the whole thing off and went to work.

I think that you have no idea what you're arguing about.
 
senseamp said:
Judge has no sense of proportion and should resign pronto.
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Maybe they should have charged the guy for the cost of blowing a day of court off.
Days fees for two lawyers teams, days fees for the judge, fees for the rest of the Jury because they will be away from work for an extra day, court costs for the bailiffs, ushers ...
 
WelshBloke said:
Maybe they should have charged the guy for the cost of blowing a day of court off.
Days fees for two lawyers teams, days fees for the judge, fees for the rest of the Jury because they will be away from work for an extra day, court costs for the bailiffs, ushers ...
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It's crazy, he's making his argument based on his lack of understanding of what actually happened even after it's been pointed out that he's doing so. <shrug>
 
After all the lame excuses I've heard from people trying to get out of jury duty, I'm glad a judge finally nailed a guy who flaked out. A week would be fine but, ten days isn't over the top.
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
After all the lame excuses I've heard from people trying to get out of jury duty, I'm glad a judge finally nailed a guy who flaked out. A week would be fine but, ten days isn't over the top.
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Personally I'm all for contempt of court being treated a lot more seriously. Lying to the court or thinking that it's just an inconvenience to you to be ignored is not an attitude to be encouraged.
 
If an impaneled juror doesn't show up for trial, the trial has to be continued. That means everyone who showed up that day, including the attorneys, judge, clerks, bailiffs and other jurors wasted their time. I'm not that surprised by the result. A little excessive, perhaps, but not that out of bounds.
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
After all the lame excuses I've heard from people trying to get out of jury duty, I'm glad a judge finally nailed a guy who flaked out. A week would be fine but, ten days isn't over the top.
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Isn't it a lot of times though that what you're referring to are people trying to get out of being selected for jury duty? As in people who say something stupid so that hopefully the lawyers don't pick them as a non-bias jurist?

It's funny though, the one time I was in the final selection for Jury duty I went to the court room for questioning to pick the jury out of the 20 of us or so... When the lawyers asked questions, I simply didn't raise my hand or volunteer to answer my opinion. Of course, if they called on me I would - but there were certain folks who just felt the need to voice up and say their provocatively stupid opinions and raise their hands - likely to try and not be selected... Those were the people that were selected funny enough.
 
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I'm sure this sentence is the max for oversleeping. Meanwhile if certain people are found guilty of crimes against the state, judge hands out less then recommended time in prison.
 
Victorian Gray said:
Dude, The guy didn't bother showing up for jury duty. The guy didn't bother notifying anyone that he wasn't coming in to serve his jury duty. The guy blew the whole thing off and went to work.
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Why didn't the court call him? He is being conscripted against his will to resolve some other party's financial disagreements in a civil trial, they can't give him a reminder call?
 
senseamp said:
Why didn't the court call him? He is being conscripted against his will to resolve some other party's financial disagreements in a civil trial, they can't give him a reminder call?
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The court isn't there to babysit people in life. Time for kids (21 in this case FFS) to put on your BIG BOY PANTS! YAAAAAY!
 
WelshBloke said:
Maybe they should have charged the guy for the cost of blowing a day of court off.
Days fees for two lawyers teams, days fees for the judge, fees for the rest of the Jury because they will be away from work for an extra day, court costs for the bailiffs, ushers ...
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That's what they should have done. But the judge was on a power trip, so he sent the poor juror to jail without his own jury trial.
 
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