jury duty

[bnsafe]

after 41 years of never getting called in mo I get called in the first year out here. I just don't get it.
YES, I do believe in the death penalty for jaywalking, may I go now

[Lefty]

quit voting

My wife has been called twice since we moved to Idaho Ive been called once. My duty ended when I showed up and the defendant plead just minutes before

My wife sat in on a drunken shooting,an interesting trial.A he said she said, The people were real dirtbags in the case,.. but no evidence .

[WapitiTalk1]

Ha . I get a notice every few years or so in WA. Hope I'm not the one being tried for jaywalking in your trial .

[cnelk]

Scott
Did you call the number? Most times they settle before you need to attend

[Bullnuts]

Ha ha! Civic duty my friend, civic duty!

[Swede]

Scott, be sure they get a fair trial before you hang em.

[>>>---WW---->]

Do you have any friends in law enforcement? (Bullnuts doesn't count) That will help to get you disqualified if you tell the judge you may be a little bias because of it. Out here, there are so few people that my wife and I both get a summons about twice a year. As a matter of fact, I'm probably about due any time now. But like cnelk said, call in the evening before as most cases are canceled before they ever go to trial.

What really ticks me off is when they cancel because one of the lawyers has other obligations. Like "Don't we all"?

[bnsafe]

I showed up but got off after sitting there for about 3 hours. guess they didn't want the guy hung on a misdeameanor. lol

[pointysticks]

i've done it twice. i learned about the process in school..but never really understood until i went thru it.

i dont mind. if i did, i speak thru a sock puppet, in a darth vader voice.

[JohnFitzgerald]

You can also get out of jury duty by prefacing every answer with "according to the prophecy"!

[WapitiTalk1]

i've done it twice. i learned about the process in school..but never really understood until i went thru it.

i dont mind. if i did, i speak thru a sock puppet, in a darth vader voice.

Yep, that'll do it "Judge, I'm your father".....

[bnsafe]

some great ideas, I will put them in reserve for next time.

[JohnFitzgerald]

some great ideas, I will put them in reserve for next time.

I think you should forget them all because I envision a "Contempt of Court" fine otherwise. Although pointysticks might be able to bail you out.

[Navesgane]

I love jury duty! When the selection process is taking place I usually raise my hand and get excitingly nervous and beg to be selected because I can tell if someone is innocent or not with one look at them, and I'm proud to openly admit that to the court!
http://youtu.be/Dj3GH5myc3M

[pointysticks]

honestly, i enjoy the process and take it seriously.

my work will continue to pay me. i once sat in on a one month trial. we (the jury) got pretty tight and continued to hang out afterwards. the case had this HOT DA investigator. she had a badge and a gun. sexiest thing alive.

if anything, i come across too enthusiast now, and i never get chosen. i want to sit in on a civil case for the experience, and call it good.

[JGH]

True story:

1 week before my week-long elk trip last year, I got the call ... I should expect to be in court the whole week, they said.

I had taken no other vacation the whole year ... everything was riding on THAT week ... and ... jury duty! ... really?

Stupid me ... I hadn't told them I would be out of town. Luckily, I wrote a plea to the judge, and hand-delivered it within the hour. He let me out of it.

Moral of the story: If you are on the "list", you do have the right to give the Court a list of times you are not available. Tell the Court "I'll be out of town the entire month of September."

[wawhitey]

seems to be a lot of talking about how to get out of it, so ill throw in my thoughts and maybe you guys will think im a p.o.s. for it but oh well. i got the letter in the mail and i just threw it away, nothing ever happened. the fact is there arent jury duty police that are going to come break your door down if you ignore the summons.

[>>>---WW---->]

seems to be a lot of talking about how to get out of it, so ill throw in my thoughts and maybe you guys will think im a p.o.s. for it but oh well. i got the letter in the mail and i just threw it away, nothing ever happened. the fact is there arent jury duty police that are going to come break your door down if you ignore the summons.

Maybe not in Wa. but around here if you don't show for jury selection without a legitimate excuse you stand the risk of being fined, especially if they can't find enough qualified jurors from the ones that did show.

And over in the county next to us there was at least one time that the judge sent deputies out to grab people off the street for jury duty

[Elkduds]

C'mon, Americans! Say YOU had the misfortune of being wrongly accused of something and a jury trial was your only alternative. Would you want intelligent, rational, consciencious jurors, or 12 idiots who couldn't figure out how to get out of jury duty? I say step up and serve b/c it is the right thing to do. When I have been rejected 3x from serving during voire dire (attorneys questioning jurors), it is b/c I gave honest answers to their questions. I think they wanted simple, predictable answers. Once I was seated as a juror in a civil suit, they kept us in the jury room for 3 hours while the attorneys reached a deal before the case was heard. That sucked. But I will always show up when summoned, or notify the court of other plans and serve a few months later.

[pointysticks]

C'mon, Americans! Say YOU had the misfortune of being wrongly accused of something and a jury trial was your only alternative. Would you want intelligent, rational, consciencious jurors, or 12 idiots who couldn't figure out how to get out of jury duty? I say step up and serve b/c it is the right thing to do. When I have been rejected 3x from serving during voire dire (attorneys questioning jurors), it is b/c I gave honest answers to their questions. I think they wanted simple, predictable answers. Once I was seated as a juror in a civil suit, they kept us in the jury room for 3 hours while the attorneys reached a deal before the case was heard. That sucked. But I will always show up when summoned, or notify the court of other plans and serve a few months later.

I had a lady on my jury I had to explain this to. The guy on trial was entitled to our best as a jury. She came around and was awesome.

[mtnmutt]

seems to be a lot of talking about how to get out of it, so ill throw in my thoughts and maybe you guys will think im a p.o.s. for it but oh well. i got the letter in the mail and i just threw it away, nothing ever happened. the fact is there arent jury duty police that are going to come break your door down if you ignore the summons.

Maybe not in Wa. but around here if you don't show for jury selection without a legitimate excuse you stand the risk of being fined, especially if they can't find enough qualified jurors from the ones that did show.

And over in the county next to us there was at least one time that the judge sent deputies out to grab people off the street for jury duty

Small CO mountain town I lived in, not enough people showed up. The judge was royally pissed off and made sure that never happened again. I actually understood why people did not show up. Most in that county have 1-3 service type of jobs and cannot afford to lose the pay.

I was on the list, but...I had had moved out of the county and then moved back just when they sent the notice to an old local address. The notice took too long to be forwarded twice to make it to my current mailbox until after the date.

I get a notice every 2 years. Once for Federal in Denver. I have a note from my audiologists that I can't hear well enough to sit on a jury. I actually went once because I think it is our duty to do so. I had my service (hearing) dog with me and the judge gave me the option to try or not. Unfortunately, the audio was too poor in the courtroom. Last year, my brother convinced me it is not right for me to sit on a jury if I can't hear well. I would go if I could hear because I agree with Elkduds.

We make fun of something we take for granted that others do not have in other countries: Right to a fair trial. If servicemen and women sacrifice so much to defend our country, I can certainly take a little time to sit on a jury. Hopefully with my new hearing, I can actually do it next time.

I had a friend thrown in jail in another country without due process. In that country, you only get fed if friends or relatives bring food to the jail for you. Eventually, the State Department intervened and got the person out.

[bnsafe]

I was only kidding to start this out with. thought the jaywalking comment was funny. I don't want to serve but I went an will always go when called. my reasons are I don't believe I can ever know for absolutely sure what really happened so I don't want to make a decision that will affect someones life. I just don't want that on me. but, I would if ever called upon.

[wawhitey]

well here is my thought on my summons that i threw out. ill try to say this in the least guaranteed-to-get-me-banned type of language. at the time this happened i lived on hilltop in tacoma. for those of you not from washington, hilltop = ghetto. bad time in my life financially. that being said, if i went to court, guaranteed the trial i would be on would be for somebody that i would look at and instantly see as guilty. not just of the accusation but of every crime in general. im talking top of the pants below the bottom of the ass type, speech barely recognizable as english, never have a job / think "hustling" is the way to be a man type of people. i had my car SHOT with my girlfriend in the passenger seat, bullet went through the passenger window right next to her head... shot fired from a group of 15-20 black guys. only reason i can figure is because i was the only white guy in the neighborhood. also had two friends stabbed within one year / within two blocks. you think i should be serving on a jury there? would i be an unbiased representative of the community? if i responded to the jury summons and was honest i would have been kicked out, and wasted everybodys time, not just mine. hence summons went in trash, and i improved my situation and got the f out of there. never experienced any repercussions from throwing away my jury duty summons, and dont think i was in the wrong for doing it. youre supposed to be judged by a jury of your peers, and nobody in that area is my peer. not the way i see it.

[mtnmutt]

My comments were not meant as a personal slam on any one individual's decision to serve on a jury or not. I apologize if it was taken in that manner. I should have left out other people's quotes. It was a poor choice on my part.

Each person's circumstance is different. As I noted, the people in my county could not afford to take off for jury duty because they do not get paid by their employers for jury duty. It would have meant they they had a real hardship of perhaps not being able to pay their rent or buy food for their kids.

When I went for jury duty, there was this rich arrogant fellow that basically said he was above all this stuff. Since there were so many people that showed up for jury duty, the judge let him go because he was likely tired of listening to him. That experience left an impression on me.

Based on my limited observations of the courtroom, I can understand people's perceptions and comments. They are not off base and are grounded in facts. I had hard time not rolling my eyes at some of the stuff I saw and heard in courtrooms. Therefore, I understand our jesting comments.

[Triplebhunters]

I was only kidding to start this out with. thought the jaywalking comment was funny. I don't want to serve but I went an will always go when called. my reasons are I don't believe I can ever know for absolutely sure what really happened so I don't want to make a decision that will affect someones life. I just don't want that on me. but, I would if ever called upon.

+1.
You are innocent till you run out of money.
For the most part it's how terrible (good) an attorney is. Nothing is as it seems.
My wife just received her papers for jury duty and they gave her a preference as to what time of year. She didn't choose sept.

[jrnorton4]

As an attorney, thanks to the guys and gals who serve on jury duty and pay attention and weigh the evidence. I'm not judgmental of those who don't serve, as I have been in that position where I couldn't afford to miss work; I'm not much past there now. Our right to have an impartial jury weigh the case against us is one of the best safeguards of freedom in the world. It is far from perfect; there are are wrongful convictions and acquittals, but as a whole intelligent people on a jury make a difference in keeping us safe and free.

BTW, in MS you can't serve on a jury if you admit that you are a habitual drunkard or common gambler, and its one of the first things the Court asks the jury panel...

[cnelk]

. BTW, in MS you can't serve on a jury if you admit that you are a habitual drunkard or common gambler, and its one of the first things the Court asks the jury panel...

Having those two items on your resume could certainly cloud your judgement....

I gambled off shore of MS for a weekend once. Not sure if I was common or not...