Jury duty in France

[bjd]

This is mostly for Kerouac, who is the only one likely to ever have to do this.

As I mentioned a while earlier, my name was drawn to be a juror at the Criminal Court. Jurors are chosen from the entire department, with some restrictions -- citizenship, over 23, not a cop or magistrate and a few other things.

Since my session was to last 4 weeks, I thought that was it, but in fact, there were 9 trials, each lasting 2 or 3 days. All of us whose names had been drawn in a preliminary round -- 40 main ones + 12 supplementary jurors) had to go each time and a jury would be picked for that day's trial. Since the Cour d'Assises is a criminal court whose sentencing can be over 10 years, the trials were 1 murder, 1 manslaughter, the rest mostly rape with quite a few dealing with minors.

The first day we were informed about how everything works, who does what, etc. Regular trials have 9 jurors, plus 2 extras in case, and 3 magistrates including the president of the court. Condemnation and sentencing is by majority vote (8 out of 12). The defence lawyer can recuse up to 5 jurors, the prosecutor, 4. I only actually attended one entire trial, since once the trial was postponed because the pathologist was sick; and I was recused 3 times. Since there were many rape trials, they didn't like having too many women in the jury.

Anyway, it was much more interesting and less gruesome than I had expected. And I wasn't at the most unpleasant trials. So much for watching Perry Mason when I was younger! It's really "the luck of the draw" -- one guy had his name drawn nearly every time; another was drawn once on the last day. The worst is to be drawn as an extra because you have to listen to it all but do not attend the deliberations.

[Deleted]

Fascinating. Since I was drawn but never called, I had no idea how it actually works. Maybe next time.

My brother in California seems to be on jury duty regularly because they do juries for traffic court -- days and days of boredom!

[bjd]

In France there are no juries in Tribunal d'Instance nor in Correctionnel.

There are, of course, trials that last much longer -- like the Fofana trial in Paris these past 2 months. Would have hated to be a juror on there. But in the ones I was at, there was a bit of examination of the accused, some witness testimony and then testimony from various experts, mostly psychiatrists., or DNA specialists. I realize too that it's not PC, but you are definitely dealing with the dregs of society here.

If you are not drawn for the day (or two) you can go home. You don't sit around, unless you want to sit in on the trial,which is open to the public. Most people went to work. We were usually out by 9:30. You are also allowed to talk about it all, except for what is said during the deliberations. We were also told that there are 3 instances when there are no juries in Cour d'Assises because of potential danger to the jurors: international drug smuggling, terrorism or state secrets.

[tillystar]

It does sound interesting.

I always wanted to be called for jury service as i thought it would be interesting but my colleague was called for a 6 week child abuse case in January and at the time had terrible dreams and still gets upset by it and certain images stay with him. He isn't one for drama and exaggeration and now I hope not to be called.

Although if called I wouldn't try and get out of it. It irritates me when people ask for work to write excuses as to why they can't go as I do think it is a person's responsibility to go if called.

[traveler63]

bjd:


How does the French legal system approach the crime of rape ? I am assuming that you are aware of the status of rape trials here in the U. S. and what evidence is allowed and not allowed. Is rape considered to be criminal or civil? I would assume it comes under assault and therefore would be considered criminal. I am just curious to how it would be handled.

[bjd]

No, I don't know what the status of rape trials is in the States. As I said, I wasn't at most of the trials, but from what I saw, to end up in criminal court, it seemed to be "more serious" rape crimes, if I can put it that way.

The first was rape+torture+kidnapping -- they guy grabbed the woman as she was going to work, and kept her prisoner for a week. He had already been in prison for robbery. He got 30 years, but has already appealed. In one of the cases concerning minors, it was the kids' uncle (aged early 20s), but apparently the whole family was complicit, since the rapes took place during family gatherings and in the grandmother's bedroom. One of the jurors told me that the whole family should have been on trial.

The case at which I was a juror, the victim was mentally handicapped, so it was considered more serious than it would have been otherwise. The "evidence" was that the woman became pregnant and DNA tests showed that the accused was the father.

From that, I would assume that other rape cases might be judged in the court without a jury. But, as I said, I am not competent in this at all.

[traveler63]

In the U. S. rape cases are handled somewhat differently than other assault cases. The woman can be shielded, but that plays hell with the defendant right to be confronted by his accuser. However, the woman is shielded from any questions having to do with her sexual life, how she dresses, etc. With the advent of DNA it is a little easier, but DNA can cut both ways. The justice system takes rape very seriously and even has come around to looking at date rape, (no means no, not maybe), spouse rape and drug rape(rohepanol, probably spelled wrong), which leaves the victim with no memory of the rape at all, matter of fact no memory of anything after ingesting the drug. It is colorless, tasteless and that is why most women are very careful about accepting drinks from strangers, or leaving a drink unattended. Still there is some people out there that still think the old ways. Most rape cases that I know of are a jury trial.