Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

PasturesNew

I was in the dock once, ye olde trial by jury. I was the innocent one.

It was me -v- the arrested one. The arrested one was a Hells Angel - and by bugg4h they scrub up well for court.

So it was: "Do you believe this lovely young lady, in her suit..... or do you believe this exceedingly well turned out young man, in his suit".

They took ages, came out 11-1.

Once his previous list of convictions (burglary, robbery, violence with weapons, theft, drugs... and on and on) was read out, you could spot the "1" by the look on their face

michaels

Look like I missed all the excitement last night.

I did jury service for 2 weeks (probably could have got out of it but I do suffer from a bit of a sense of civic duty) and almost every day involved coming in in the morning and again after lunch and then not being picked for a case.

Did one case that lasted about 1 and a half days - it was pretty much one persons word against another and the prosecution witness seemed to have 'forgotten' everything he had said in his police statement made at the time of the offence and was pretty much led though it by the prosecution lawyer, saying things like 'yes I guess that is what I said at the time but I can't really recall now' etc. The defendant was found not guilty after a very short deliberation.

I do have another story but had better not reveal it in the light of the recent juror jailing.

michaels

Witness box I hope rather than the dock...?

PasturesNew wrote: »

I was in the dock once, ye olde trial by jury. I was the innocent one.

It was me -v- the arrested one. The arrested one was a Hells Angel - and by bugg4h they scrub up well for court.

So it was: "Do you believe this lovely young lady, in her suit..... or do you believe this exceedingly well turned out young man, in his suit".

They took ages, came out 11-1.

Once his previous list of convictions (burglary, robbery, violence with weapons, theft, drugs... and on and on) was read out, you could spot the "1" by the look on their face

Doozergirl

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

It is a kitchen surface - a massive, cheap island, more suited to a greasy spoon than a home!

This is the "before", from pretty much the same angle

Wistful sigh. It looks lovely in that picture even; it's going to be great!

I can't live without decorating something. Seeing as we're moving into the other house, I'm now looking at wallpaper for the kitchen. I'm going to buy a pot of magnetic blackboard paint and make a big area in the kitchen to stick all the kids bits and pieces to and try and make us a bit better organised. A complete un-necessity for selling a house but it's for my sanity really.

They're talking rubbish about short leases on HUTH. :wall:

lostinrates

michaels wrote: »

I did jury service for 2 weeks (probably could have got out of it but I do suffer from a bit of a sense of civic duty) and almost every day involved coming in in the morning and again after lunch and then not being picked for a case.

exactly this. I'd love to do it. I could arrange cover here, justify buying a kindle and go somewhere where I could read all day unless picked to do something useful. I'd quite like to be a magistrate as well.

chewmylegoff

PasturesNew wrote: »

Isn't that fraud?

i demand trial by jury.

lostinrates

Doozergirl wrote: »

pot of magnetic blackboard paint and make a big area in the kitchen to stick all the kids bits and pieces to and try and make us a bit better organised. A complete un-necessity for selling a house but it's for my sanity really.

I absolutely love black board walls. Until we moved from the time of getting better enough to right I had a white board for an aide memoire. It was ace. Now I have a pad and pen and its easier to ignore.

The only problem with that pot paint for boards (I have a board for outside which I presume is done with that) is that you have to use stupid chalk pens, and the chalk/chalk pen always leaves a nasty shadowy mark. I hope the pots at home are better.

michaels

May be some our resident legals could help out with 'beyond reasonable doubt' - I think this is very difficult for a lay person - say you are 90% sure the defendant is guilty but they have provided a possible (but unlikely) alternative in which they are not guilty - is that 'reasonable doubt'? How about if it is 95% or 98% likely?

Also it is hard not to form an opinion based on the behaviour and demeanour of the witnesses and accused whereas in reality some people may just 'look' honest and others 'guilty' regardless of their actual guilt or innocence but how not to be swayed by our inbuilt genetic predisposition to make character judgements?

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

Witness box I hope rather than the dock...?

Oh... I'm so innocent, law-abiding and naive, I didn't know they were different

I just know I stood the same place he stood, on a podium thing. Luton Crown Court ... circa 1983.

silvercar

lostinrates wrote: »

exactly this. I'd love to do it. I could arrange cover here, justify buying a kindle and go somewhere where I could read all day unless picked to do something useful. I'd quite like to be a magistrate as well.

That's what MIL thought, but her fellow unpicked jurors could talk for England, she couldn't get a moment's peace.

Then the judge said he wanted a unanimous verdict, and the two mouthy jurors kept harringing her to agree with them, but when she gave in they then had a go at her for not "doing her civil duty" by sticking up for what she had believed to be true.