POOL IS CLOSED posted:

I feel like the only person on earth who wants to do jury duty, but I've never been called.

Aesop Poprock posted:

Same. I really really want to do it but I'm almost 30 and nothing. Do they think I suck? Cause I do

Pick posted:

I have always assumed if I went to court I'd have to play dumb for the first few hours while they made the jury selection. "I listen to tapes of law classes in my spare time and am obsessed with true crime documentaries, but am a scientist, and a feminist" is probably going to get me chucked out pretty fast.

POOL IS CLOSED posted:

My only other theory besides "court system secretly knows I suck" is that I moved around a lot until after grad school... But I've been a resident of my current state for about 7 years, with a state ID for most of that time, so that should be long enough...

Phanatic posted:

Courts are pretty good at spotting people who are trying to get out of jury duty by being smartasses and generally frown upon it.

Pigsfeet on Rye posted:

I missed a jury notification due to moving out of state the prior year, did all the paperwork updates and everything. The jury office tracked me down in my new state to inquire why I hadn't gone to the jury call. I had to send them a scan of my new license before they would believe that I was ineligible.

flosofl posted:

Did you register to vote? Because my county uses the voter rolls to build it's potential juror list.

Pick posted:

By the way, FF episode "Sharper Image" is all about how forensic odontology has problems.

POOL IS CLOSED posted:

I had to see if The Sharper Image still exists. Short story: sorta.

purple death ray posted:

Not getting picked for a jury is easy, just saying you've ever experienced anything even close to whatever the lawyers ask you about or could possibly have an opinion on it will get you out.

Phanatic posted:

Courts are pretty good at spotting people who are trying to get out of jury duty by being smartasses and generally frown upon it.

quote:

Nevertheless, on 9 May 1940, immediately prior to Fall Gelb, Van Severen was one of a number of far right and far left activists arrested.[5] The arrested men were put under the care of the French Army and stationed near Abbeville. On 20 May, when the advancing German Army cut off the area, a group of French soldiers carried out a massacre and killed a number of members of Verdinaso, Rex and the Belgian Communist Party, among them Van Severen.[5] Twenty one suspects of varying political stripe were selected and executed without trial.[9]

quote:

On 15 May the prisons of Bruges in Belgium were overflowing with "fifth columnists" and with the approach of the German Army the 79 suspects were despatched to Abbeville in France.


The convoy included Leon Degrelle - the well known Belgian Fascist. He was lucky; he was recognised and dragged out and beaten-up by French soldiers and handed over to the Sureté.


Also included was Joris Van Severen, head of a party called Verdinaso, very right wing and advocates of Greater Belgium (based upon Charlemagne's "Frankish -Flemish" Empire of 800ish). This party, however, was very anti-German.


The remainder were a very mixed bunch:

14 Germans, 6 Dutch, 3 Luxembourg, 9 Italians, 2 Swiss, 1 French man (from Alsace - with a German accent), 1 Austrian, 1 Czech and 1 Canadian - Robert Bell, Ice-Hockey Coach.

The remainder were of unknown nationality - in most cases lack of "papers" had been sufficient to get them incarcerated.


This motley group arrived in Abbeville on night of 19th may 1940 and for want of anything appropriate were locked in the cellar of a large shop. An unfortunate Belgian who had refused to join the French Army was added to the group.


On the very next day, 20 May Guderian's Panzers arrived.


Capitan Marcel Digeon (Major rank in the US or British Army) and his 5th Company, 28th Regional Regiment was in charge. He orders Sgt Mollet to dispose of the prisoners.


Mollet was uncomfortable and returns to Dingeon who this time is more explicit "shoot the lot" is the answer.


To get it over with a French soldier throws a grenade into the Cellar but it does not explode. Then Lieutenant Rene Caron, whose Platoon is involved and who is believed to be drunk, joins the group.


The prisoners are taken out and shot in groups of two and four.


A total of 21 are summarily murdered without even an attempt at a Courts Martial.


The slaughter is only stopped when another French Officer, Lieutenant Leclabart also of 28th RR comes by - "are you mad" he exclaims and stops the massacre.


Too late to save the 20 men and one old lady who have already been executed. Those executed included, a Benedictine Brother (but German), four Anti-fascist Italian Refugees, the driver of the transport (shot by mistake) and the Canadian Ice Hockey Team Coach.


The Germans set up Trial in 1941 but Capitan Dingeon committed suicide immediately prior to its sitting - it is unclear what happened to others involved.

quote:

Robert Arthur Bell

He was born in Lachine, Quebec 1905 and attended McGill University in the mid 1920's. [Not to be confused with legendary McGill coach Robert Blagrave Bell]. Bell then came over to Europe in 1927 as a member of the Montreal Victorias, invited by Swedish sponsors. Their exhibition tour in Sweden was a smashing success and they quickly recieved invitations from another six countries, ending up playing 14 games on their European tour, winning them all [Total score was 155-10]. The team had two ex-NHL'ers (Dave Campbell and Earl Robinson], plus one future NHL'er [Joe Lamb], so it was a very good team.

Bell was approached by HC Davos just after the Victorias had won a mini-tournament in Milano. Bell had scored 3 goals against a Davos/St.Moritz combination and impressed the Davos management. He wasn't cheap though, recieving a hefty 2,000 Swiss francs per month, which was a lot of money back then. Bell went on to play and coach for HC Davos between 1927-29. Bell also played for the Paris Canadians in 1928-29, made up of mainly Canadians studying in Paris.

He continued to play and coach for Zürcher SC, SC Bern and once again HC Davos until 1935, before moving to Germany. There he played for teams made up by German and European Canadians. He then played and coached for Düsseldorfer EG between 1936-38, before coaching SC Riessersee. In Düsseldorf he earned close to 400 reichsmark a month, plus a car and apartment.

Bell was well respected and popular among the players, a very good coach. He was hired to coach the German national team during the second half of the 1930's, leading them to several EC-medals.

Many details about his death is still unclear, but it is clear that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and that eventually cost him his life. He was detained during a border control in early March 1940, unclear where, and transported to Brussels on March 3. The reason was that he was travelling from Germany but had no papers/documents at all. He was suspected of being a German collaborator/spy. Bell was in a Brussels prison for nearly two months.


The Germans troops were getting closer to Brussels, so on May 15,1940 it was decided that Bell and 78 other suspected collaborators for the "other side" would be transported on trucks over the border to France instead, where it was deemed safer. A convoy of three trucks arrived to Abbeville (Northern France) late on May 19/early May 20 and the prisoners were crammed into a cellar below a music store.

The German troops where however approaching fast there too, so the French commanding officer, Marcel Dingeon gave the order to kill all 79 prisoners. Aside from Bell there were more than 20 Belgians, 18 of unknown nationality, 14 Germans, 9 Italians, 6 from the Netherlands, 3 from Luxembourg, 2 from Switzerland, 1 each from France, Spain, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Denmark.


Groups of two or four prisoners at a time were brought out from the cellar and executed with gunshots or stabbed with a bayonette. One of them was Bell, who according to the survivors heroically stood up and voluntarily climbed up the stairs out of the cellar, showing no fear at all. After having killed 21 of the prisoners (including Bell), the soldiers wanted to speed things up, so one of the soldiers threw a handgrenade into the cellar, but it didn't explode. The German bombardment around them intensified and the French soldiers had to take cover all the time, delaying the executions.

At that point, lieutenant Jean Leclabart went by the scene, knowing the rules of POW's very well. He asked them if they had all gone crazy and demanded to see a written statement that these executions were sanctioned. When the soldiers failed to give him any documents he ordered them to stop the killing, thus saving the other 58 prisoners. Later that day, the Germans brushed through Abbeville, completely destroying the village.



The questionmarks here:

1) Bobby Bell is said to have coached SC Riessersee to a German title in 1941.

2) I have a note from December 1940 saying that he was the coach for SC Riessersee during a tour to Italy.

3) Some sources say he was killed in 1945

But that can't be correct unless that was another hockey playing Bobby Bell.
In any case, it's a tragic but fascinating story, one of many in the hockey world.

pookel posted:

Jury duty sounds interesting to me

Flyball posted:

Unless you're an alternate. They don't get to deliberate unless someone leaves for whatever reason. Otherwise, it's sit in the courtroom by yourself and wait.

Avshalom posted:

egg

Avshalom posted:

egg

Avshalom posted:

egg

Guy Goodbody posted:

Pick posted:

Phanatic posted:

Courts are pretty good at spotting people who are trying to get out of jury duty by being smartasses and generally frown upon it.

bean_shadow posted:

In famous cases, how do they choose juries based on the fact that you'd have to be living on Mars not to know anything about the case? Like Casey Anthony or OJ Simpson? I'm assuming they have to work around that somehow. But how?

Fried Watermelon posted:

Getting out of Jury Duty is easy, the trick is to say you're prejudiced against all races

DogonCrook posted:

You made the unfortunate mistake of confirming that you recieved notice, something they could never prove otherwise.

Comstar posted:

I find it somewhat unnerving that you can be thrown out of being in a jury by telling them you know about an idea of jury nullification.

in Australia the lawyers are only allowed to look at you, and from that decide you're eligible to stay or not. Not ask any questions, just look at you.

Nckdictator posted:

Not really unnerving but still bizarre how some poor hockey coach ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

pookel posted:

Jury duty sounds interesting to me, but around here it pays $25 a day and I'd have to use vacation time from work, too. I can't afford that.

Jack Gladney posted:

I got dismissed for being a philosophy major back when I was in college. I've lived in three states since and never been called again.