blog-12 Jury essay

Jury Essay



Hunter Kurtz
3/10/08
Bananas

There are a few qualifications you have to pass in order to be on a jury. The first one is that you must be a citizen of the United States and must be at least 18 years old. If you are younger than 18 then you are not allowed to be on a jury. You must also have resided in the judicial district for at least one year. This means that you have to have lived in that area of the state for at least a year. Another qualification is that you must be able to write, speak, read and understand the English language. If you cannot do this tasks then you will not be able to do what is asked when you go to court. The next qualification is you need to be mentally and physically able to render satisfactory jury service. Insane or injured people might not be able to be part of a jury, depending on their condition. The final qualification is you must not have any felony charges against you, or have been convicted in a state or federal court of record of a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year, and your civil rights have not been restored. This means that if you have committed a crime or have been accused of a crime then you might not be able to serve as a jury member.

The selection of jury members is random and precise at the same time. First random people are sent notices in the mail asking them to appear in court on a certain day at a certain time. Everyone that goes is assembled in a room. Then you are brought in the court and the judge tells you about the case and the two sides. Then you are asked questions. They ask you these questions to figure out if you might be bias to one side of the case even a little bit or if you know someone else there that you could make bias or anything else that might lead you to giving an impartial verdict. The group is narrowed down to 12 people. Those 12 people will then serve on the jury. In some trials there can be a few less than 12 jury members.

There are some ways that you could be excused form a trial. One of them is that if you do not qualify as written above then you will be excused. Also, if the case settles then you can be excused that way too. If you are over 65 then you can write a letter to be excused. These following reasons are ways that people are sometimes excused; problem related to work or occupation, self employed, student teacher or school teacher, you have to care for someone and your absence will put them at risk, you are a volunteer firefighter, rescue squad member or ambulance crew member, if you have had a bad hardship, or if you have any other problems that might get in the way of serving as a juror.

The basic details of being a member of a jury are simple. You receive a letter by mail and go to the courthouse. You are selected out of a group of jurors to be part of the trial. Then you listen to the argument and decide if the accused is guilty or innocent. You discuss the case in a room you are told to and then give the judge you decision once an agreement has been reached.

The jurors have many duties during the trial. One of them is to not talk to other members of the jury about the case or to do any research on your own about the case either before you here the arguments. Then your duty is to listen to both sides of the case and decide of the accused in guilty or not. Then you and the rest of the jurors go into a room and deliberate. You deliberate until ¾ of the people agree on a civil trial and all of the people agree on a criminal trial. If after a long time you and the other jurors cannot agree then you are excused and other jurors take you place. After you all have reached an agreement you go back to court and deliver you verdict which is announced. After that the juries’ duties are over and you can leave the court.

blog-11 rescued

As our ship cruised toward the island i kept wondering what we would find. we had been patrolling the area looking for enemy. so far we had not found any other ships but then we saw the strange smoke coming from the island. when we got there i stepped out of the boat and started to walk along the beach. The smoke seemed to be coming from a fire that was sweeping across the islands. i could hear wierd ululations in the distance. i could visualize the sounds coming from some strange animal. Probably some king of crazy monkey. the wierdest thing was that i could not figure out what started the fire. there had been no recent lighting that could have struck a tree and our radar would have picked up a projectile launched at the island. then suddenly a young boy heaved himself out of the jungle and fell into the sand. he was wearing tattered clothes and was very dirty. His clothes looked like they were the remaining pieces of a school outfit. then i remembered hearing about a plane full of school boys that was shot down. he must have been a survivor. "are there any adults here?" I asked him. He replied, "no". a few seconds later a bunch more boys came out of the jungle. they were wearing some kind of elaborate paint all over their bodies. I asked them if any died and they said only too. wow, i thought. Being british like me, they should have done better. i told them that and they seemed to cower. well at least they have been saved i thought as i led them too my boat.

blog-10

Today we woke up and got ready to go to rock castle. yesterday night jack and a few of the hunters came and attacked us in the night. i kneed on of them pretty good but they stole piggy's glasses, which they came for, and left. Now that we don't have piggy's glasses we cannot start any fires and our hopes of getting rescued are gone. we could not keep the fire going anyway. there were not enough of us. piggy needs his glasses too. Ralph told us that we need to get them back so we set off to go to jacks castle. we decided to take spears and piggy wanted to cary the conch so he brought it to. when we got there they challenged us and asked us who goes there. i think it was supposed to down our spirits but it did not. then jack came out of the jungle. Ralph told him we wanted the glasses back and called him a thief. he got mad and then Ralph and jack fought. they stopped fighting and piggy explained that giving them back was the right thing to do. they didn't listen. rodger started to throw little rocks and one of them almost hit us. it was very frightening watching all this. then rodger releases a huge bolder and it fell down and glanced piggy. he was knocked off the cliff that we had to walk along on the way up. he fell about 40 feet and his head cracked open, spilling his brains out. the waves carried his body away. Ralph told us that that is what we get, and that he is chief. he threw his spear at Ralph and it cut through his side. other hunters started throwing spears and Ralph ran off into the jungle full of fright. they tied us up and forced us to be part of their tribe. they poked us with spears and gave us no choice.

blog-9 the theft

i can't believe this happened. my glasses, they are gone! Everything on this island is getting worse and worse!. just a day ago Simon was murdered. i still can't believe this happened. i know that me and Ralph decided that we were innocent but i still think that it was partially my fault, i mean, i just stood there while everyone chanted and then attacked him. maybe it was his fault for just climbing out of the jungle like that. i thought he was the bloody beast too! As i looked at the phosphorescence on the waves i was reminded of my glasses. i started to cry but when Ralph walked up i stifled my crying. "Ralph," said,"what are we going to do?" He gesticulated and said he didn't know. "remember when we talked about being innocent?" "ya" he replied. "well i think we are actually partially responsible for his death." "we couldn't have helped, "said Ralph,"they would have just smothered us and killed us too." I shuddered just thinking about that. The image of Simon getting murdered kept running through my head. it had been the whole day. now that they have stolen my glasses they might just kill too. just like Simon i thought. now i can barely see and i cannot carry any logs to the fire because of my asthma. am useless. i hope i don't die.

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As i sat there looking at the pig head i got tremulous shivers throughout my body. Flies were covering its face eating away at the roting flesh and yet it still sat there, staring at me. Then it started to talk to me. it said that i was just a silly little boy. it told me was i was not wanted. i knew that this was the beast. and then all of a sudden its mouth got really big and it swallowed me up. i woke up later, lying there in the grass. the pig head was no longer the beast but was now just a pig head. i knew that i had to prove the thing wrong so i went up to the mountain to confront the beast becuase i think there is no beast up there. there is only the beast inside of us that makes us currupt. as i walked up the mountain at a steadfast pace i could see a big shape up there moving. when i got up to the top i saw that it was only a dead man with a parachute on his back. he was stuck on some rocks and the wind would blow back and force filling up and deflating the parachute, making it look like he was rising and folling. i released him and the wind carried him away. wen i look down at the beach i saw there was a fire and it looked like everyone was were jacks tribe is, probaably having a big meeting. i headed down there and walking out of the forest onto the beach. i told hem about the parachutist and for some reason started chanting and then chased me down to the water and killed me. now i am dead.

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