First OP, no one is allowed by law and on contempt of court to discuss anything that was said in jury room including anything related to whether a juror got dismissed after jury selection. Anyone who does so here, knows this, it was said often enough by the judge . So they’re being rather silly if they do.
answering other questions…
our court was fairly modern, I’d say but in 1970/80s…so no oak panelling anywhere…sorry…the old court was still used to hold a few backlog cases and was all wood, but we were allowed to opt out attending there if we had dodgy backs, long legs etc as jurors seats were hard wooden benches! I dodged out due to crap back thank goodness. Only crown I saw was modern one behind judge. The thing that I was surprised at was the “dock”..it was a big room at back of court, glass panelled off..I kept thinking you’d could try the whole mafia in there 😱🤣🤣. Our defendant looked a little lost in there. So you’re having to look in a lot of different directions, the witness stand is beside the judge, opposite jury, and the barrister/solicitors/clerks are in between the judge and the defendants “room” in a huddle of desks and screens, with the public gallery being tiny and way over back of court.
All jurors, for all courts, wait in large lounge until they are selected, and you go back there each day for lunch or longer breaks in oroceedings, when the judge dismisses you, until you start deliberation. There was a large canteen attached, where some people worked whilst eating to be called. Our lounge was quite nice, reasonably comfy seats and by late morning quite empty as most jurors not called on that day would have been sent home for day.
so we were only in jurors deliberation room for shorter or unplanned breaks in proceedings and final deliberations , which in our case happened way too often, and I think this is what many people find. Way, way too much time sitting around in tiny room, waiting for court proceedings to start up again.
jurors are not allowed to speak about anything they’ve heard unless they’re in jurors deliberation room AND all jurors are in room and present. So every time someone goes to loo, conversation or discussion about case has to stop.
Our deliberation room was small bare shabby meeting room , with a large table like a meeting room table. Barely room to move around table and chairs. There was an old cupboard with tea and coffee stuff that remained LOCKED until the clerk would open only when we’d been in there for over 2 hours. There was water. But that was it. You couldn’t take food or drink into jurors room. One toilet off jury room for 12 people. And of course we all wanted to use loo every time we were about to get called in agian. 🙄🤷♀️. It was too hot, then too cold and we couldn’t control temperature- only the clerk from outside. To say the court system is tight with money spent looking after jurors is a massive understatement. It’s bloody outrageous frankly.
I don’t think door was locked (fire reason) but the lift and doors to stairs to go back to main jurors lounge were kept locked. I assumed that was more to keep people out or the accused making a run for it 😯🤣
we were asked to line up outside deliberation room in same order each time (don’t remember numbers though even though it was only 18 months ago) on entering court so we always filed in in order and sat at same desk (not just seats, we had full desks and screens - and we had to use them as we had 4 hefty leaver arch files of evidence to refer to during proceedings, and video evidence. ). I think all modern courts do. We had pretty comfy executive office type chairs too. We could take a cup of water in, hankies etc but that was it. We couldn’t pass anything to each other - not allowed.
If any of us had tried to talk to one another we’d have been heard and potentially got into trouble. So nope. No talking. You listen in silence. If you have a question or issue you write it down, catch the clerks eye and pass to them to pass to Judge. Judge was very good at checking in with jury to ensure we were hearing stuff ok, or picking up vibes of us not being able to find relevent bits in our copius files. We were mostly too busy trying to track which file note we had to refer to and looking at witnesses and suspect, to be looking at each other
I can say , re my fellow jurors, as I gathered this outside of juror deliberation room, that we all took it very seriously. We were a very good cross section with some very young, older, and racially and professionally diverse. I actually came away with my faith restored in my fellow ordinary British public that we were all bright/educated enough to cope with understanding the evidence, using common sense, and listening well to sometimes complex and emotionally challenging evidence. In fact everyone took deligent notes, afraid to miss things. We worked as a good team as jurors, getting to know each other well enough to adjust for personality differences, we got on well enough for 4 weeks outside the deliberation room, when in lounge etc. we had some cracking games going (lounges usually have good selection of games) and just good conversations about our different experiences in life. We looked out for each other as well. Nobody distanced themselves form others, sure some were quieter but they were still engaged.
Certainly we didn’t have anyone who just wanted to “get home” . But, bloody hell, we ALL felt that the court system was appalling in terms of time wasting, at our expense. That certainly pissed people off. Particularly when around half were loosing a wage. Expenses they got no way made up a days work even at minimum wage. It shocking just how caveliar courts and legal teams are at the expense of jurors. Why does it take 4 hours to re print out a section of written evidence that some bozo had printed too small for anyone to read, which should have been checked before case started. Why does it take 5 hours to fix a sound system? I could go on and on and sheer waste of public money and our time.
the only positive for me was my restored faith in my fellow humans to take their public duty responsibly. It is certainly not something I’d want to repeat knowing what I saw of the mechanics of the law courts and legal professions.
Sorry, this ended up long..was trying to answer all your questions 🤷♀️🤣🤣🤣🤣