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by lifeisstillgood 4421 days ago
Don't get me wrong but isn't this the fault of the juries? Who by the way must also be the voters?

I mean if you are happily awarding damages to heart surgeons who only save half their patients when the rest of the planet does not better, then the problem is in the jury box? no?
1 comments
dfc 4421 days ago 

  > Who by the way must also be the voters?
I am assuming this was a question and not a passive aggressive taunt. The answer is "No, it is not the case that being on a jury is proof that the juror has voted in an election." Many states use voter registration rolls as an input to the jury duty selection process but I can not find any that screen potential jurors based on actually participating in an election. Furthermore voter registration is not the only way that a citizen can end up being called for jury duty; states often use other DBs eg DMV, Hunting/Fishing licenses, etc for jury duty.
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lifeisstillgood 4421 days ago
Not meant to be P-A taunt, though hell this is the Internet so reasonable supposition :-)

No it was really "the public" I meant. Voters, jurors, us in other words. If Texas juries in one county are making patents a laughing stock, it really is upto the rest of us - either in that county, or in juries in other counties and countries, to change that. Or perhaps vote it out of existence. It just seems to me that we read an article and get the "something must be done"'feeling, and are happy when the something does not involve us, hard work, care or a long time. Yet those something's rarely work out.

in short, the current problem with patents is not the fault of various jurors and voters in a small part of Texas. it's our fault.

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dfc 4421 days ago
Okay, I am in complete agreement with this sentiment. Where I disagree is with the notion that jurors and voters are equivalent and/or using the two terms as if they are interchangeable. I think it would be interesting to compare the demographics of juries vs voters.[^1] I have a sneaking suspicion that the two populations are dramatically different.

[^1]: I posted a question at the SX for politics but I have never had much luck there. http://politics.stackexchange.com/q/3218/1926

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lifeisstillgood 4420 days ago
Well I have only ever been in one population to be honest, so maybe. But it is probably pretty random, so I would be quite shocked if there was a dramatic difference in demographics of both.
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dfc 4420 days ago
Why would Jurors be random? You think that voir dire is just two attorneys rolling dice?
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