Have you even been a juror?

No, I haven’t even been a juror. For that matter, I haven’t ever been a juror, either.

My mom has been a juror, and I’m sure she’d be willing to talk about it, but since exchanging private contact information is not allowed here, I’m not sure how you can get in touch with her. Other than her posting here, of course, which would kind of steal your article’s thunder, so to speak.

OMG popa, that was you??!!

I served on a federal grand jury for a month. Totally boring. 80% of our indictments were for illegal entry into the US. (And they say that the Obama administration isn’t enforcing the immigration laws?)

I was rejected for inclusion on the jury panel after mentioning jury nullification when being questioned.

I was a juror twice.

The first time I was an alternate on a murder trial. Two guys got into an argument over $20, and one pulled out a gun and shot the other in the eye and killed him. The judge actually had to have a “translator” in court because several of the witnesses spoke in Ebonics, and not everyone on the jury could understand what they were saying.

The second time I was picked first for the jury, so I was foreman. It was a civil trial concerning one of those dubious mortgage companies. The judge in this case had retired, but was brought back in to help clear the docket of cases. Because he was retired, he had an active social calendar, so we had anywhere from 2 to 3 hours a day for lunch.

I have served twice.

I have some interesting things to relate.

Perhaps you can contact me through the moderators. (I think they can arrange).

Someday, I think someone should collect all of popa’s most amusing

posts and publish them, along with enough context to get them, and possibly footnotes. That person’s job will not be very enviable.

Did you convict or acquit? What was the judge’s sentence?

Nothing personal, Maayan, but I really don’t think it would be safe for her to exchange email with nishtdangesheft. Any serial killer can say he’s an writing an article and needs info from people on the cr. Once they’re emailing Abt this article, they might develop a personal relationship and nisht might share some personal info.

I’m really not saying that Maayan is a serial killer! 🙂

Just saying that there’s a reason for the rules.

“CH how many of those illegal immigrants do you think are still here? percentage please?”

My guess is 100%. In prison.

“I know nothing about US deportation policy, even whether it’s a federal or state-by-state law.”

All matters regarding immigration are federal matters. However, many states will turn over suspected illegal aliens to the federal government for possible deportation.

It is actually quite rare for it to be a crime to be in the US illegally. Most of the time, it is a simple violation, like a parking ticket. Usually the federal government will allow an illegal alien who has been detained to leave on his/her own, at his/her own expense. This policy saves the US taxpayer a huge amount of money, and allows them to apply to enter the US legally at a later date. Generally, anyone who is actually deported is ineligible to even apply to come to the US for ten years, and permission for someone previously deported to come to the US legally is very rarely granted. About 40% of illegal aliens actually came to the US legally, but overstayed their visas. Furthermore, a huge fraction of the illegal aliens actually qualify to be in the US legally by doing something like enrolling in school or enlisting in the US military. President Obama has been savagely attacked by the nativist bigots by encouraging illegal immigrants to do this rather than getting deported; many of them were brought here as children by their parents, have little or no memory of their country of nationality and have close relatives who are US citizens.

Persons committed of serious crimes are generally deported after serving part or all of their prison terms. The US has agreements with many other countries where an illegal alien can serve part of their sentence in their country of nationality, again saving the US taxpayer a huge amount of money. Many countries release such persons fairly quickly, though.

And when persons who have been deported after having been convicted of a felony return to the US illegally, that is when being in the US illegally becomes a felony. One of the people we indicted had been convicted of first degree murder in Texas and had been deported back to his home country after serving about half of a 25 year sentence. He had returned to the US and I hope that he will be getting free room and board here for a long time. The Obama administration has been aggressively prosecution these previously-deported illegal aliens like no administration before. I was surprised by this when I served on the jury; I had assumed that corrupt politicians, stock swindlers, and drug lords would have been considered a higher priority, but 80% of our indictments were for illegal aliens who had previously been deported after having been convicted of a felony.

I had federal jury duty several years. I found it very facinating. It was a bank robbery trial and while i felt the person charged was probably guilty, i listened to the judge who said to vote guilty you had to be sure beyond the shadow of the doubt. The first vote was fairly even, and as the jurors began to state their opinions, i changed my vote. Listen to your fellow jurors and their reasons.

Randomex,

Wow, that made me feel stupid, uneducated, and illogical.

Maybe I’m just extra sensitive, but I found that post really hurtful. DW, I forgive you in the spirit of Elul.

Abt my profile, my screen name used to be letakein, so maybe if you delete the “girl” part of the link, it would work.