I am one of the 1,000 people who received a summons for jury service in Greenwood County for the upcoming trial of Sheriff Matt Samuels. I have been ordered to appear on Tuesday Oct. 2.
Section # 5, under the heading "Excuses from Jury Service" begins like this: Under the law, the judge is permitted to excuse you only if your presence is required elsewhere for pubic welfare, health or safety............
Now I am wondering.... does this mean if a potential juror had plans that day to give a speech on sexually transmitted diseases, abstinence, or something similar, would they be excused from jury service? If one worked in a gynecologist's office somewhere, wouldn't this mean that they would probably be excused, too?
No, I don't believe so. To get out of jury duty, one must have a really, really viable reason. Mine have always been, I don't like the sheriff, so I don't think it would do for me to serve on a jury where he was a witness. Ha Ha
Yes, but my summons said if my presence was required elsewhere for PUBIC welfare, health or safety..... not PUBLIC welfare, health or safety.
Quote from: Marcia Moore on September 29, 2007, 08:55:42 PM
Yes, but my summons said if my presence was required elsewhere for PUBIC welfare, health or safety..... not PUBLIC welfare, health or safety.
(http://www.cascity.com/howard/animations/goof.gif)
Actually I dont think the sheriff is on trial but his killer is.
With 7,000 people in Greenwood County and a lot fewer than that eligible for jury duty, you must not be the only one in your area receiving a summons.
Can you explain why they are bringing this guy to trial almost three years after he shot and killed the sheriff?
Waldo, to put it vaguely, it has something to do with the challenge to the legality of the death penalty. Some claim lethal injection to be a cruel and unusual punishment. In my mind nothing could be too cruel and unusual enough to punish the killer of a law enforcement officer doing his duty. I would not make a good juror on this trial as my mind is already made up as to the guilt and punishment of the defendant. I did say vaguely, didn't I? I am sure someone else can clarify it.
Thanks Wilma,
I fished around and found an October 2006 article from the Emporia Gazette.
http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/2006/oct/26/state_try_scott_cheever_murder/
I certainly hope enough jurors can be found in Greenwood county. I firmly believe he should be tried there. I would enjoy being a juror but do not live in the area. Definitely, have my mind is made up. The term fair is not fair. The crime that was comminted was not fair. (I just removed the rest of my story. It should be put in soap box anyway. It ended up with Teresa being the heroine. Those with imagination can write the rest of the story.)
If you feel as strongly about this as I do, thanks for not putting it all on. I am afraid that if I had been an officer with Matt at the time, the killer wouldn't have lived through it. Or even an ambulance attendant if I could have gotten close enough to him.
Ditto
I know what you mean Wilma, I have been in that position a number of times on the ambulance. It is VERY hard to do the right thing in caring for a scum bag that has just caused the death of someone else. You just have to put on your EMT face and do what's needed, and hope that others will make it right in the end. You have to be so careful, because the defense lawyer will use anything to help his client.
My God people, I would hope they could find 12 people in this county to do their civic duty and listen to all the facts in court before making a decision on the punishment.
Sally, I hope they can find a jury, too and I am just glad I am out of the county. There is no way I could hear that case impartially. One of my fears while Janet was sheriff was that something like that would happen and it could have happened in Elk County as well as any where else.
Hey, Marcia....that's why people should carefully proof read their copy. Everybody has ''slippery eyeballs'' once in awhile. We read what it's supposed to be rather than what is really is. Public has turned into "pubic" on more than one occasion! ;D
Wilma, sure makes one hope people have elected well qualified county and district attornrys doesn't it?
To be truthful, I don't know who the county attorney in Greenwood County is. I think our Attorney General Paul Morrison might take a hand in this one.
I served on a jury once since I've been out here, and I found that one of the hardest things to do, besides being "impartial," was to obey the judge when he stated that we are NOT to discuss the case with ANYONE, once we're sitting on the jury, and once the trial has started. That was difficult to do, because you want so much to just discuss it, to get other people's points of view. So, Teresa, good luck, if you are selected to be on the jury.
Actually, it's Marcia that got the PUBIC summons. I laughed and laughed at that. Can't wait to tell our Clerk of the District Court about that. ha ha
Anyway, the Greenwood County Attorney is Ross McElwain. The Kansas Attorney General's office does have this trial. Most counties, except the big ones, call in the attorney general's office to take care of capital murder cases. This case is a capital murder case and is going to be a tough one to be on. I could not be impartial, but our judicial system and our country is based on innocent until proven guilty. We have to remember that. We also must give mucho credit to the officers that did arrest Scott Cheevers and managed to maintain their professionalism and do what it takes to get the alledged criminal to justice. That is why we have courts. That is why we don't lynch alledged criminals anymore. We have a court system that is supposed to work and in this case, I believe that it will. Remember, even though Sheriff Samuels wasn't given a chance in this case; the alledged murderer will be tried for capital murder and if everything goes the way it should, he will receive the death penalty. Currently, the state has about 10 inmates on death row. One of those inmates is waiting a new trial and the other one is waiting a new sentence. I don't remember why their cases are coming back to the courts. If Cheevers gets convicted for capital murder, he will be number 11 sitting on the so-called death row that Kansas has.
Now, let's talk about that. Death row means being in a cell house with the other death row inmates and any other special management inmates there are. The death row inmates cannot be housed next to each other. They have to have at least three cells between them. Right now there are 5 on one side and 5 on the other side. That makes it easy to keep them apart. The death row inmates are the quietest inmates there are. They are polite. They don't complain. They do their time. They work on their cases. They are not hard to manage. You just have to be cautious with them, but you have to be cautious with all of the special management inmates. I'm not being a cheerleader for the death row inmates by any means. I can just tell you how I was treated by these inmates and I would rather deal with them then some of these guys that get into trouble time after time after time and still are a problem in prison. Death row inmates are housed at El Dorado and if the state ever carries out a death sentence, that inmate will go to Lansing before that time. But it will be a short time. The reasoning behind this is that staff gets attached to inmates and by carrying out the death sentence in Lansing, the staff won't know these people, so it will be easier on the staff. Go figure. I suppose they alledgely know what they are doing. Okay, enough.
Prospective jurors are to meet at Eureka Downs in the main concourse building at 211 N. Jefferson because the courthouse is not large enough to handle all the prospective jurors and the community building was felt to be an inappropriate place since it is now known as the "Matt Samuels Community Building."
"So, Teresa, good luck, if you are selected to be on the jury."
Whoops, Sorry Teresa! Good luck MARCIA!
That's ok Bonnie..
In this case, I wouldn't make a good unbiased juror either.
I could really get on my soapbox on this, but I am so dang tired that I can't wiggle, so I want to go to bed.
But let me say this.. about this case.
The scum bags that take other people lives just because "they can" ( policeman or not) are a waste of oxygen.
I don't want them on death row.. and I damn sure don't want to be paying for them while they are in prison.
What ever they did to their victim.. let it be known through out the land ( as a law) that the same will be done to them...... IF they make it to courts and don't end up with ..................................................................
Okay... You know?? I need to take a biiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggggg breath and settle down.
Sometimes I get very over passionate about issues... and before I end up with a 10 page rant...and being branded on here for thinking like a barbarian head of a vigilante..I better just not say any more and turn my computer off and go on to bed..
I am just not the person to respond to this. Nope! I'm suuure not!
Once again... I wouldn't be an unbiased juror.
Scott Cheevers didn't care about Matt Samuels.. .............or his kids......or his wife.......or anything. >:(
I would hang his sorry ass from a high limb!
Now.. I will go to bed..... :-X
And when you find that high limb, Teresa, let me help you with the rope. And now I am going to shut up about this, too.
OK, I want to join in on the soapbox fun, too... (plus I'm trying to get above "Junior member", hee, hee) ::)
The thing that irritates me the most is people TRYING to get out of jury duty... it's like a game to figure out how to get out of it! (Although I've been guilty about doing that, too.) I agree that I would hate to be on a jury for such a high-profile case like this; I would really have to examine my conscience. But for any other court case, if "I" were the one on trial, I would hate to look at the jury and think, "these are the only people who were dumb enough to NOT get out of jury duty... and they have my fate in their hands??" That's a pretty scary thought.
Then I think that the best way NOT to have to look out at the jury is to stay on the right side of the law..
I think that is where my happy behind will be.. ;D hahaha
I am not trying to get out of jury duty. I was simply wondering what good excuse might qualify for "if your presence is required elsewhere for PUBIC welfare, health or safety............"
We know, Marcia. I missed the PUBIC the first time I read it, too. As I have said before, I read what I think I see. I think it is funny, too. I am thinking that you are probably one of the best people to be on the jury, but your job might excuse you whether you want or not.
Reminds me of when I was working for the county attorney in Elk County and living in Greenwood County. He was reading the list of prospective jurors one day when I heard an expletive from his office and the words, "How did she get on this list?" He had found Wilma Weyrauch listed as a prospective juror. He had forgotten that Wilma B. Weyrauch was the Register of Deeds at that time and lived in Moline.
Aunt Wilma and I were confused in this way from the time she married my husband's Uncle John. Even after I moved to Haysville, I got her mail in my rural box. Her son lived on the same route that we did and some of her mail was sent to him. Our carrier would see the name, Wilma Weyrauch, and put it with our mail. We used the same pharmacy at Derby and they would file my new prescriptions under her name because it came up on the computer first. I think we got that straightened out after she died.
Wilma, you think that was a problem??? There was a Florence E. Smith living in Eureka. We both banked at the same bank, I won't mention the name, but she was much wealthier than I and I got her tax information one year. Needless to say I returned it to the bank "president" and informed him this never should have happened. Now on to Scott Cheever - I hope he has given his heart to God, cause I think Greenwood County is gonna have his ASS - prisoners who spend years and years on "death row" at our expense? As Ron White, the comedian says about Texas, and I think Kansas should do the same thing. Other states are building new prisons to house death row inmates and his state is putting in an express lane. If you are charged with capital murder and there are more than two credible witnesses, no appeals, no years on death row, no nothing, you go to the head of the line. Now, I gotta go fix supper.
I actually think I would really enjoy being on jury. I think it would be interesting. However, being totally self employed I would have no income at all and if the case went on very long it would be quite a hardship. I just simply write a letter stating my situation and I have always been excused.
Quote from: Roma Jean Turner on October 01, 2007, 08:03:43 PM
I actually think I would really enjoy being on jury. I think it would be interesting. However, being totally self employed I would have no income at all and if the case went on very long it would be quite a hardship. I just simply write a letter stating my situation and I have always been excused.
In Texas most employers don't pay for jury duty. You get paid 6.50 for reporting to jury duty but it cost 7.00 to park.
My mom got called for jury duty once and they called her for a murder trial. The attorneys were grilling her about the death penalty in which she told them she could not sentence someone to death (her reasoning, unless she was willing to kill the person, she couldn't force someone else too). The judge didn't believe her and threatened to throw her in jail for contempt of court. After much arguing and pleading my mom was fed up and told the judge to put her in jail. The judge dismissed her at that point.
Many years ago I sat on a jury for a law suit that involved up till that time the largest monetary amount ever filed in the state. It took a month to hear the testimony, much of which was useless. I thnk my pay was like $325.00; I bought a new washing machine and paid my father $100 for taking me back and forth to the court house. We weren't sequestered and it was very hard not to talk about it. The stress got to be evident toward the end of the deliberations, folks were snipping at one another. I don't think I would want to serve on a murder trial, but would consent if called; that is one of the duties of our citizenry, the other is voting. Should we all deny those duties we would soon have anarchy. My heart goes out to all those folks called to serve today.
I have served only on a jury in Colorado and nowhere else. I do not know if other places operate under the same premise. I have been on trials at the municipal and state level.
We are called for jury pool duty rather than duty for any one particular trial—apparently because there are so many trials pending and these trials need scheduling on a flexible basis. One court building was expanding to eighteen courtrooms to handle the flow. The duty is for three to five days unless one is selected for a trial that lasts longer.
Perhaps two-hundred prospective jurors congregate in a main room and wait. Many, many people do not show up for jury duty and I believe the entire court process is so overwhelmed with legal matters nothing ever happens to them. I once heard court authorities would call them for duty again and after so many times as a no show would then take action.
When a jury is needed, perhaps fifty people in the main room are called to a courtroom for a specific trial and the culling process to pick twelve jurors begins. It can take quite a while for the prosecution and defense to agree on twelve peers. Sometimes it gets comical to everyone involved. Other times it borders on stupidity to the prospective jurors but is highly serious to the prosecution and defense.
The twelve (sometimes six) selected as the jury stay in the courtroom for the trial, while the others go back to the pool in the main room to again wait for selection. This goes on for the three to five day period and sometimes it can get rather boring waiting around.
If one is picked to serve on a trial, he goes back to the main room after trial decision and waits to again be selected.
Some people get tired of the entire process and just go home. I do not know that anything much happens to these folks either.
I served on three trials during one week and was considered for a few others.
In one case a black women charged a police man for profiling. He clocked her going fifteen miles over the speed limit. She charged profiling because she was driving a Porsche. She claimed he stopped her only because of the expensive vehicle she was driving. She acted as her own attorney and she lost.
In another case, a man sued another person for damages to the front end of his car. He had rear ended the other person. In my opinion, this trial should never have come about. The suing individual did not win and his lawyer seemed quite upset.
In another case, I was picked for a sexual assault trial. During the jury culling process, they brought the charged individual in and he gave me an immediate mental image of being a bad person. Too late, I had already been selected to sit in legal judgment. It was 6:30 pm when we were dismissed to go home and report at 8:00am the next morning for trial.
The next morning twelve jurors were the only people in the courtroom talking as strangers with each other and trying hard not to say anything about the trial—the only thing we all had in common up to that point. One, two, three hours went by with the bailiff coming around periodically saying, "It will be a few more minutes."
Finally, the bailiff came in and said the man had pleaded guilty so he could receive a lesser punishment.
Jury service in Houston
Similiar to w Gray. You start in a big room with assigned numbers. Then they call numbers and dismiss you or send you to the courthouse for jury selection.
We are having such a problem with people showing up that one judge in Sugarland (small town sw of houston), sent his bailiff into the streets and started pulling in everyday citizens off the streets (http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=3372245).
Many potential jurors here have complained of being treated poorly by the officers of the court and the judges. They are trying to change this impression so much so that the judges are now sending thank letters to prospective jurors if they show up (my dad got one).
I was called for Jury duty a couple of months ago. I couldn't find anything on the "excuses" list to excuse me, even though my sister, in the Dallas area, says that their summons for jury duty does have an exemption for anyone over 70 years of age. But, i dutifully showed up, along with 200 or 300 other people, and since my name wasn't randomly selected to serve on a trial, I, along with all others whose names hadn't been selected, were told to go home, and we wouldn't be served with a jury summons for another year. And, they were very polite. We have the Superior Court in Vista and the District Court in San Diego, and I went to Vista. There are people who enjoy serving on a jury, and others who have never been called. I would always serve, if selected. The one jury trial I did sit on, several years ago, in Vista, was a rape/kidnap case. The guy charged had the nickname of "Rattlesnake," if that gives you a clue as to his "character." We actually went over and over the evidence, (I'm a secretary so I wrote everything down) and we did find him guilty. But, what we got into was, we felt that both, the accuser and the defendant, were probably not telling the truth about a lot of things, so it was a "he said, she said" sort of thing!
I believe that the judges in the 13th Judicial District, which is Elk County, Butler County, and Greenwood County, send thank you letters to the jurors that serve on a jury trial. I know for a fact that Judge Sanders does do that.
Al and I have each had jury duty several times over the years. New Castle County Courts are all 12 miles away in Wilmington at the court house. Years ago you were called for 30 days and had to appear each day until you were called to a jury or the time was up. Then they made it two weeks, but started cutting back on exemptions. Now it's one day, one jury with almost no exemptions except age or mental status. You call in the night before to find out the status of the case and get your court assignment. If you go early enough, there is free parking in the garage beneath the court house. Most employers give you your regular pay if you turn in your court check of $12.00 per day. If you are a no show, the sheriff will come after you. Late isn't tolerated without a very good excuse; you will be put right back in the next day's jury pool. The bailiff for the jury pool room is a very witty and competent lady who is really good at keeping everyone informed as to what is going on. You have to wait for a long time, but she explains why. Ours were all superior court cases. Al had capital murder cases and drug cases. Mine were all drug cases. All were found guilty. My last call settled by pleading guilty at the last minute so we got to leave early. I won't be called again for at least two years.
I was selected as one of the jurors for the Scott Cheever trial, and we finished up today. I didn't tell anyone before that I was selected to serve on the jury because I didn't want to welcome comments, since I was not allowed to talk about the trial. Hopefully I will never have to serve on another capital murder trial, but can surely say it was quite a learning experience.
I was heading to Eureka last week after dark on US 54 when I saw a remote Wichita television truck whizzing by going to El Dorado. I wondered what it was doing in such a desolate area.
When a second truck came by, I mentioned to the wife they must have come from Eureka.
The Eureka newspaper also had a story that the killer's mother was in criminal hot water. She apparently tried to influence some folks to lower the charge to something that would allow her son to live. She said something to the effect that she would do anything to keep him from the "chair." That type of action should not be condoned but there are many mothers who might do the same.
If you finished up, what was the verdict?
And the verdict.......???
You did a great job of not discussing the trial, as you were directed.
I think the jury did arrive at the correct verdict as the evidence indicated that Cheever killed the sheriff in cold blood and deserved the death sentence and also his family deserves some of the blame for how he was raised.
Yes, the verdict was death. All 12 jurors had to agree on the death penalty, otherwise the verdict would have to be life imprisonment. One of the jurors held out from agreeing to the death penalty for around two hours. Had it not been for the one holdout, the death penalty verdict would have been reached as soon as all of us had finished going through the new evidence that was presented in the second phase of the trial. The evidence only took us around 20-30 minutes to go through.
Is a juror asked if they believe in the death penalty, before they are selected to serve on the jury?
You did a good job. Thank you!
Yes. They are asked their opinion of the death penalty in advance, and they are asked their opinion of life imprisonment. They are also asked, if, when the end of the trial comes and the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors, meaning the death penalty should be imposed, will you be able to follow the guidelines and actually vote that the defendant be sentenced to death.
I'm sure that's easier said than done!