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Jury Duty: Service or Servitude??

Woodman909

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I had a conversation with a friend who has been called for jury duty. She is not happy about it and is trying to come up with any excuse she can to get out of it. Her reason was that she does not want to be involved with making such decisions that effect the lives of strangers. I do not understand this attitude. My comment to her (to which she has not responded), was "..how would you feel, if it were you on trial and no one wanted to serve on your jury?..." I've always felt it my civic duty and I've never tried to get out of it.

I open this up to ask how you feel about serving on a jury, and why?
 
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I had a conversation with a friend who has been called for jury duty. She is not happy about it and is trying to come up with any excuse she can to get out of it. Her reason was that she does not want to be involved with making such decisions that effect the lives of strangers. I do not understand this attitude. My comment to her (to which she has not responded), was "..how would you feel, if it were you on trial and no one wanted to serve on your jury?..." I've always felt it my civic duty and I've never tried to get out of it.

I open this up to ask how you feel about serving on a jury, and why? Note: This question is NOT for you if you are self employed and/or serving would cause you loss of income.

I've been self-employed virtually my whole life. I've always looked at jury duty as a privilege. Hell, I'd volunteer if I could. I've been called to "possibly serve" twice. Have never made it onto a jury. My loss.
 
I've been self-employed virtually my whole life. I've always looked at jury duty as a privilege. Hell, I'd volunteer if I could. I've been called to "possibly serve" twice. Have never made it onto a jury. My loss.

Perhaps my desire to exclude those self-employed was not well thought out. Your input is welcome and appreciated of course. I have since excluded the exclusion.
 
Jury duty is an honor and an integral part of our justice system. I have no patience for those that try to get out of it or worse yet serve on a jury without taking it very serious.

Last time I was up for jury selection, I made it into the courtroom. One man answered all the questions inappropriately.

"Do you think you could be fair in deciding guilt or innocence in this case?" (He'd given a summary of it.)

"No, your honor."

"Why is that, Mr. Whatever?"

"Because I hate cops and could never believe they were right in arresting someone."

"You would automatically believe a law enforcement officer was committing perjury on the witness stand?"

"Yes, your honor."

It went back and forth like that a few minutes, and finally the judge said something like, "Mr. Whatever, I think you've made your intention to purposefully avoid jury duty crystal clear. And I'm going to honor your request. You are dismissed from jury duty. Now, please take a seat at the back of the courtroom where you will remain until the conclusion of this trial."

I swear at least a dozen of us wanted to applaud. What.A.Jerk.
 
Last time I was up for jury selection, I made it into the courtroom. One man answered all the questions inappropriately.

"Do you think you could be fair in deciding guilt or innocence in this case?" (He'd given a summary of it.)

"No, your honor."

"Why is that, Mr. Whatever?"

"Because I hate cops and could never believe they were right in arresting someone."

"You would automatically believe a law enforcement officer was committing perjury on the witness stand?"

"Yes, your honor."

It went back and forth like that a few minutes, and finally the judge said something like, "Mr. Whatever, I think you've made your intention to purposefully avoid jury duty crystal clear. And I'm going to honor your request. You are dismissed from jury duty. Now, please take a seat at the back of the courtroom where you will remain until the conclusion of this trial."

I swear at least a dozen of us wanted to applaud. What.A.Jerk.

I served on one jury which I promptly hung. :lol:
 
I had a conversation with a friend who has been called for jury duty. She is not happy about it and is trying to come up with any excuse she can to get out of it. Her reason was that she does not want to be involved with making such decisions that effect the lives of strangers. I do not understand this attitude. My comment to her (to which she has not responded), was "..how would you feel, if it were you on trial and no one wanted to serve on your jury?..." I've always felt it my civic duty and I've never tried to get out of it.

I open this up to ask how you feel about serving on a jury, and why?


I am exempt from jury duty. In fact, I cannot serve on a jury even if I wanted to because of my job in the legal profession. That said, I see both sides to it. Some don't mind it and like being off work; some do not want to do it and it can be a real issue with their employers because of the length of jury duty (a month in my area) and the inability to plan your life that month, let alone your work schedule since you will not always know when you have to report until short order. I personally would have a harder time sitting on a civil jury than a criminal jury because of the damages issues.
 
I don't like the interruption. I think they are often very archaic in their system of on-call, like when you have to sit there for 6 hours and never even get selected, etc. But I'd never try to get out of it because I didn't want the responsibility. I got to sit through selection recently, that's the closet I came to actually being in jury...it was very interesting once we got into it, and I'd have gladly gone through it to hopefully see some justice served. That's the entire point, if we don't have that responsibility, someone *else* will, and that's ?strictly? worse. Goes to show you though that some people really do WANT to give up responsibility to others...voluntarily. No really, please, hold onto your freedom and just loan it to me...really, keep it....STOP TEMPTING ME!!!
 
I have no interest in serving, I think our current system is fatally flawed and so long as it is, I don't want to take part in it. It's no longer about coming to the truth regarding a case, it's about who has the fastest talking shyster lawyer that can convince a jury of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of it that their side is the most emotionally enticing.

No thanks.
 
I've been self-employed virtually my whole life. I've always looked at jury duty as a privilege. Hell, I'd volunteer if I could. I've been called to "possibly serve" twice. Have never made it onto a jury. My loss.
Being self-employed myself is the major reason I don't want to serve. The last one I was called for was going to last a week or more. I just couldn't take that much time off.
 
The problem with jury duty is how it interferes with a person's life. Luckily, I've never been called *knock on wood*, but if I were to be called, it would place a big strain on my professional career, as well as place a strain on my employer, both logistically and financially. If I knew I could be called for a trial which would not interfere with my job, I'd have no problem with serving. Want me to serve on a trial during the summer, when my job is not in session? I'll be there happily, and probably enjoy it.

But I should not be forced to serve on a jury, when doing so directly impacts my career and by extension my life in a negative fashion.
 
I do see it as a duty by not to the state, but to the individuals involved. The last thing I'd want (if chosen) would be the State trying to railroad someone into jail and conversely, a person who may be guilty getting away with a crime. It's up to the citizens to make sure the system works properly.
 
We should replace juries with online polls. You watch the trial and then get to decide their fate. Think about it, as a criminal defendant I would not want my deep red hang him quick peers deciding my fate--I would want those anti-war/anti-corporate people who support war-mongering, big business subsidizing Obama deciding it because they are more readily pliable.
 
We should replace juries with online polls. You watch the trial and then get to decide their fate. Think about it, as a criminal defendant I would not want my deep red hang him quick peers deciding my fate--I would want those anti-war/anti-corporate people who support war-mongering, big business subsidizing Obama deciding it because they are more readily pliable.

That would have made for an interesting decision on the George Zimmerman case...
 
Being tried by a group of professional jurors would not be 'trial by peers'.

Service.
 
We should replace juries with online polls. .

They tried that last Sunday night at the Miss America Pageant. The liberal pageant judges ignored the majority who overwhelmingly voted for Miss Kansas, Teresa Vail and decided to crown Miss New York in the name of diversity.

Online jury polls, OJ would be sitting on death row today.
 
I had a conversation with a friend who has been called for jury duty. She is not happy about it and is trying to come up with any excuse she can to get out of it. Her reason was that she does not want to be involved with making such decisions that effect the lives of strangers. I do not understand this attitude. My comment to her (to which she has not responded), was "..how would you feel, if it were you on trial and no one wanted to serve on your jury?..." I've always felt it my civic duty and I've never tried to get out of it.

I open this up to ask how you feel about serving on a jury, and why?

You have it exactly right. Anyone who would want to protect the right to a jury trial for himself must be ready to serve when called.:peace
 
That would have made for an interesting decision on the George Zimmerman case...

I dare say quite a few DP members would have broken their index fingers clicking that mouse 24/7 ;)

They tried that last Sunday night at the Miss America Pageant. The liberal pageant judges ignored the majority who overwhelmingly voted for Miss Kansas, Teresa Vail and decided to crown Miss New York in the name of diversity.

Online jury polls, OJ would be sitting on death row today.

Well, they certainly seem to always pick the most marginally talented person on American Idol to win. I don't watch beauty pageants though--I think they objectify women :mrgreen: (well either that, or much like the computer killing the typewriter, free internet porn allows me to free up all but 94 seconds of that time to do other things :lol: )
 
I had a conversation with a friend who has been called for jury duty. She is not happy about it and is trying to come up with any excuse she can to get out of it. Her reason was that she does not want to be involved with making such decisions that effect the lives of strangers. I do not understand this attitude. My comment to her (to which she has not responded), was "..how would you feel, if it were you on trial and no one wanted to serve on your jury?..." I've always felt it my civic duty and I've never tried to get out of it.

I open this up to ask how you feel about serving on a jury, and why?

I served on a murder trial a couple of yrs ago.
Quite interesting but scary,the lack of regard for human life was
rediculous.

Ambush a guy in broad daylight,nobody saw anything(ha)

A man from out of state & a woman in rental house were the only ones to come forward.
Thankfully the 25 yr old perp is doing 60 yrs in the state pen.
 
Peers implies regular people with jobs of various sorts, not professionals of the justice system.

Working people ? Those are usually the ones who are pissed off being stuck on a jury and they ask themselves, why am I here and they stare at the defendant and then the DA.

At least that's what happens to me when I'm stuck on jury duty.

I would suggest that juries be made up of retired grumpy old men and women who serve one year on a jury being paid at $200 per day.
 
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