Jury Duty and How NOT To Get Picked

by Kelly Siegler

How do you feel when you get that familiar jury summons to appear in court on some future date? Excited? Nervous?

Maybe you're one of those people who simply toss it into the trash?

If you are one of those people, why are you avoiding jury duty? Because you think you have too much going on that day or because it will cost you money if you show up rather than go to work? Or maybe because that is a civic responsibility "for other people"?

Ever thought about what would happen in our criminal justice system if every responsible citizen thought they were too busy or too "important" to report for jury duty?

The system would utterly collapse; that's what would happen. Can you imagine what our juries would be like if they were totally made up of citizens who wanted to be on a jury?

When someone who resides in Harris County and who is either a registered voter OR has a Texas driver's license gets summoned for jury duty, the procedure they are required to follow is pretty typical. They are encouraged to visit a Web site where they can read all about what exemptions they can legally use or what might truly disqualify them or how to reset their jury duty if their designated date is not convenient for them.

As a lawyer with enough experience picking juries or should I say, "trying to pretend like I knew what the heck I was doing when I picked juries," let me give you a clue. . . .

There is a really easy way to get out of being picked for a jury by either side's lawyers.

It's called answering the questions. Answering every question. In minute detail. Ad nauseum. Until everyone gets tired of hearing the sound of your voice.

Because the more you talk, the more you increase the odds of being struck by one side or the other, if not both. Remember jury "selection" is not really that at all; no individual juror is selected at all.

In reality, the six or twelve people lucky enough to make the final jury are really "what's left" when all of each side's strikes are gone and their juror numbers happen to be low enough in the panel to make it on the jury.

Why do I say talk and answer the lawyer's questions A LOT? Because a good many years ago when I was a new prosecutor in felony district court and on a day when I was charged with the responsibility of picking a jury in a routine no-big-deal possession of crack cocaine case, I made the big mistake of NOT listening to a lady called down for jury duty.

I selected (which really means that I did not exercise a strike on) a very verbose, very opinionated, but very state's oriented lady on the panel because I was so busy focusing on her answers that I did not listen. Had I listened I would have appreciated that she was SO opinionated and SO strong and SO disagreeable that eleven other people would never be able to stand being in the same small room with her long enough to come to two (guilt AND punishment) independent verdicts!!

But I was young, and can we say naive? The very experienced and wise judge who presided over that trial called it in a heart beat and asked me what I was thinking as soon as all twelve jurors were seated in the jury box. I responded that she gave all "state's oriented" answers to all of the questions put to her. And he sagely replied, "Maybe so, but they will be ready to strangle her before they're done."

And he was right.

Since that day and that trial, which I pretty quickly lost, I have given a name to jurors like that lady with personality traits like hers. I call it the "bow-up" factor.

Bow [Bo] up.

You know. People who "bow up" over any little thing, who are always getting worked up over things that most others would consider petty or insignificant. People who enjoy arguing. Who like to be contrary and difficult.

We all know people like that. If you're one of those kind of people, just let your true colors shine through if you get called down for jury duty. You ought to be safe.

If you aren't one of those people and you want to get OFF of jury duty, then the first step is to keep on talking.

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Body of Evidence

by Connie Park

Homicide investigators realize it just takes seconds to dramatically change someone’s life. But you’d never think a teenager’s life would end that one day she decided to miss school with her friends. That one day changed not only the teenager’s life, but the lives of many. In fact, it had an impact on one particular homicide investigator for over two decades.

While in homicide, I’ve had the opportunity to work with several of the best homicide investigators in the nation. Their combined experience adds up to over 1000 years in the Homicide Division alone. I guess I’m dating their ages, but we won’t tell them that. Sgt. John Burmester was a coworker of mine when I first began working in homicide. He worked for the Houston Police Department for thirty-one years, a quarter century in homicide. Burm retired back in 2003 and currently is loving retirement.

I joined HPD’s Cold Case Squad in 2006. Eager to start working on cases, I called Burmester one day. I asked him if there were any cases that were unsolved, cases he’d like me to look into. Without hesitation, Burm told me the story of Sharon Darnell, a 14-year-old girl who was violently murdered and found in an abandoned apartment building. He gave me the case number, the date, and the location without consulting a file. That was amazing to me--that he recalled all the detailed information after twenty-three years. Every investigator has those certain cases that really stand out and have a dramatic impact.

On February 7, 1984, Sharon Darnell was on her way to school in southeast Houston. She was just a freshman and looking forward to her high school years. That day Sharon and a few friends decided to skip school and go over their friend’s house. They’d stayed a couple of hours watching television and playing video games. It was time to go home and Sharon and her friends started walking back to their apartment complex. Frederick Johnson, 23, told Sharon he’d walk her through the empty field to make sure she got to her apartment safely. That was the last time Sharon’s friends saw her alive.

A few hours later, two kids walking back from school found a girl’s body in an abandoned building. They saw that she was dead, possibly strangled. Police were called out to the location and learned that the dead girl was Sharon Darnell. She had been sexually assaulted and brutally murdered. She was found lying on the floor nude, her throat slashed from ear to ear, and her hands bound together.

Original investigators that made the scene were J. G. Burmester and S. P. Ward. They processed the crime scene along with Crime Scene Unit Officer Tony Blando. They set to work, collecting physical evidence from both the crime scene and the victim’s body. The evidence from Sharon's body was the key to solving this case. Frederick Johnson (pictured above) was listed as a suspect, but he was released due to lack of evidence. With no other suspects, the case went nowhere.

Fast forward twenty-three years to 2007. The evidence from this case that the investigators collected back in 1984 was sent out to an independent lab in Dallas. The test came back with a male DNA profile that matched that of Frederick Johnson’s. Johnson’s DNA profile was stored in CODIS, a national DNA databank. DNA testing and technology have advanced so much over the years. The results were astounding. MiniSTR testing is one of the new advancements in DNA technology where information can be recovered from degraded DNA evidence, as in this case. Johnson was already serving a life sentence in a Texas prison unit for two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a juvenile. Surprised? The worst part about it was that without the murder charge in 2007, Johnson would have been was eligible for parole in 2009. Frederick Johnson was charged with capital murder for sexually assaulting and killing Sharon Darnell. He is awaiting trial in the Harris County District Court.

We informed Burmester and Ward of the results of the new DNA testing and the charges filed against Frederick Johnson. When I called Burm on the phone, he was excited the case was solved and that it will bring some peace to Sharon’s family. He wanted to give us the credit for solving the case but Burm is the one who never forgot about Sharon. He never forgot that day Sharon’s life ended and the impact it had on so many lives. Ironically enough, Sharon would be thirty-eight today, my same age.

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