[nagdu] Jury duty

[Lyn Gwizdak]

Lori,
Don't assume that the court will excuse you for your blindness.  Are you 
called for county jury service in the Superior Court or the Federal Court? 
they both do things differently.

Some of the things one can get a permanent excuse and to be taken off the 
list is if you are elderly or have a disability that prevents you from 
serving.  My sister gets excused because she is developmentally disabled and 
she can't understand the proceedings in a court room.  Her blindness has no 
effect on this.

Like I said, who knows what is in the minds of the lawyers when I get 
excused during jury selection on any given case. The lawyers can dismiss any 
potential juror for any reason and they don't have to tell you.  Maybe it is 
the blindness.  Maybe I'm not handsome enough - their loss! LOL!

When I did serve as a juror and went the whole way I found it very 
educational.  I think most people should do it at least once.  That 
particular case ended up as a "hung jury" where we couldn't convict on the 
rules and law the judge set for us.  In the courtroom, the judge is God and 
we work with the law as he or she interprets it.  No democracy there!

While on this jury, I sat in the front row of jurors with my guide dog 
there.  It was a female yellow Lab named Olivia.  I'm sure the defendant saw 
her - he had been bitten by a police dog when he got arrested.  I got a kick 
out of the fact that he was bitten by a dog and he had to sit there and see 
my dog.  We were on that case for about 3 weeks and Olivia learned where the 
jury enterance was located withoout my giving her commands.  What was funny 
was that that dog remembered where that jury door was YEARS later when we 
happened to pass that courthouse!

Lyn and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "loriandleo" <loriandleo at ohiohills.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 5:45 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Jury duty


> Thanks Lyn. I'll call in when I'm supposed to and see if I get called in 
> or
> not. Who knows , once they see my questionaire and see that I'm blind they
> might dismissme. But we'll see. Take care.
>
> Lori and theGipper
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nagdu:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/linda.gwizdak%40cox.net