What are your thoughts about being called in for jury duty?

Wow. Nobody loves me :(

I got my jury summons a few weeks ago, I’m actually going in for jury duty tomorrow.
I don’t think I’m able to be a good juror either. I’ve got social anxiety as well , and I’m also too likely to just go along with what some other jurors say, regardless of what I actually believe, for the sake of keeping out of conflicts.
I know this. And I know that it would make me feel like shit to pass off a guilty wo/man as innocent, or vice versa.

However. I don’t agree with the idea of professional jurors. I think it’s important to keep a very diverse selection of your city/county. I’d rather have people from all walks of life and all perspectives, randomly chosen, deciding the fate of someone, rather than people who are there for a paycheck.
If they’re paid by the case, you’d see people more often voting whatever way that ends the case sooner. Perhaps not everyone would do this, perhaps there still would be good jurors. But I don’t think they’d be the majority.
I don’t think it would be possible for professional fate-deciders to actually rule fairly.

If you are in a situation of extreme financial hardship, at least where I live, you’re able to mail back the jury summons with a request to be excused from jury service. There are a few other excuses you can mail back to get out of it.
Also, there’s a high probability of not being picked to actually serve, even if you go in on that first day. First time I got summoned, there were like 200 people, and about 4 cases on that day. I got called up to a courtroom with about 40 other people, and the prosecutor/defense/judge all asked us questions to weed out people who they think would rule unfairly.

I actually have never managed to go inside a gas station and pay. I’ve always used a card at the pump. If the reader doesn’t work, I go to a different station

I think it’s a duty and a privilege to perform jury service. That doesn’t mean it’s fun. Not everything has to be fun to be worthwhile. I think it’s important.

Judges do excuse some prospective jurors for reasons of hardship.

It isn’t a social situation, though, any more than voting is a social situation. It’s a matter of public responsibility. You report, and they tell you where to go and what to do and when. Some trials might be unpleasant, but many are routine.

The practice of having a jury of twelve peers in U.S. criminal cases comes from the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution and is based in English Common Law, as are many of our other laws. Not to say that people shouldn’t discuss this all they want, but I don’t actually think I’m better qualified than the framers and interpreters of our Constitution to say how this ought to be done.

There’s a constitutional requirement that you get a jury pool of your peers. Plus, a fulltime professional jury is more susceptible to corruption than a random selection from a pool. Finally, who chooses that professional jury? Who chooses that service? Right now, it’s randomly pulled from a data base, then lawyers for both sides get to pick which juries they want.

Don’t look at this as some kind of burden that government has imposed upon you. Unfortunately, people tend to think this way. The right to a jury trial was a right that the Founding Fathers fought hard to secure. It’s a protection for all citizens. It’s not a burden. Like @Jeruba said, it’s a duty and a responsibility. If you want the same protection for yourself, then it automatically follows that you may have to perform your duty for others.

Jury duty is fine. I went and really was hoping I would be selected, knowing that because of where I worked and the type of volunteer work I did, I wouldn’t be picked. It’s not that bad… a lot of waiting with a few periods of activity in between while they are making selections.

@bobloblaw The issue with the current system is this- even though we shouldn’t feel it’s a burden, most do. And I wouldn’t want a jury full of people who wanted nothing more than to get the heck out of there and go home to their normal lives. My fiancé said that all he heard while in court on Monday was complaining. Nobody he spoke to wanted to be there. They were pissed. Most even stated they were planning to purposely say the wrong things to the lawyers just to avoid being choosen. I’m not saying this is right and I’m also not saying I would ever stoop to that level. But these are just the facts. That most people don’t want to be there. And I think it’s a risky thing to force people into something they clearly don’t want to do. It’s unfair to the person on trial.

@ItalianPrincess1217 Yes, people don’t want to be there. Yes, people lie to get out of jury duty. Yes, all sorts of things happen. I accept that most people don’t want to be there, but we have a system to compensate for it. It’s called voir dire. You’ve sort of described it in your response. Lawyers for both sides get to filter through the list of prospective jurors until they get a set that both parties are relatively happy with.

It works out better than you think. None of the jurors are necessarily forced into jury duty (the ones that don’t want to be there and the crazy ones are found quickly). The lawyers tend to ferret out the ones that want to be there or ones that they feel be able to render a fair verdict (that is, a verdict in favor of their client) pretty well. The system works. It’s not perfect, but, for the most part, it works.

@bobloblaw You’re probably right. I just hope they continue to find the willing people. I hope that there will always be enough people out of the hundred or so that are summoned that want to be there. Because from what I’ve seen and heard, the majority would prefer not to be.

I think some people think it’s cool to complain and uncool to serve willingly. Those are probably the same people who badmouth the companies they work for. Negativity is just so cool.

One thing I learned from serving on a jury (especially the second time) is that I never want to find myself or anybody I care about at the mercy of a bunch of bozos like that. Not only could this lot not think clearly and didn’t know why they held the opinions they held but they couldn’t see beyond race. Six of them judged the guy innocent just because he was of the same ethnicity as they.

I’m not speculating here. I heard them in the jury room. They all walked in with the opinion already formed that he was being victimized by the cops because of his ethnicity and that he therefore must be innocent. They didn’t even allow for the possibility that he might have been victimized and guilty! They couldn’t see his lies on the stand when they were picked apart line by line in the transcript and the contradictions exposed. I really wanted to ask them if they honestly believed that no one of their ethnicity was capable of being guilty of anything, but I couldn’t find a way to put the question that wouldn’t sound downright inflammatory.

That education alone was worth the price of admission. For some reason I thought people on a jury would make an effort to rise to their civic duty and not try to use it as an opportunity to settle scores with authority.

I’ve never been. I think that it might be fun to go once, but more than that would be tiresome. Maybe if the case were interesting.
Aggravating the problem is a certain tendency to nod off (or otherwise let my attention wander) in a one-to-many scenario, like lectures. For instance, I once wrote out the entire plot of a story I’m working on to the tune of my Marketing prof’s droning.

It is a civic duty. I never try to get out of it. I have seen too many ignorant juries bring back horrendous verdicts because the jurors didn’t have the intelligence to understand the evidence or courage to not be swayed by charismatic counsel.

I’ve not been summoned yet…... altho I suspect my reaction would be… “Woohoo, time off work!”

The jury needs to be made up out of a group of unbiased peers. I don’t think having this as a daily job is a good idea.

However.. I also have problems with social situations and would rather be sent to prison than serve jury duty. (Seriously. I’ll be pulling my hair out from nerves.)

I did it a few years ago. In my state (NY) you don’t have to show up unless they need you. You check a website the night before and it tells which numbers have to go the next day. My number came up the fourth day and I consider myself fortunate to be selected for a trial. After sitting through 8 days of a felony case, I came away with a good impression and an even better understanding of the system.
Do not worry about it. This will be a learning experience you will never forget.

Coming from me, this is a rather subversive answer. As a lawyer I understand the theory of compulsory service, but personally I think that we create more harm than good by forcing people to do it when they don’t want to be there. Two other points follow.

One, for lawyers, like me, to be called for jury duty is a complete waste of time. You will inevitably get bumped off by a peremptory challenge by one of the attorneys representing the parties. They only call lawyers for jury duty to make it look like everyone is being treated equally.

Two, if you are called for jury duty and you don’t want to sit on the case, here is what you can do to maximize your chance of being excused. If your being questioned for suitability to serve at some point you will have the opportunity to say, “I just don’t think I can be fair about this case.” That may be enough. If they ask why, you can say something like, “All my instincts are telling me which side is right here and I don’t see how I can get around that and make a fair decision.” DON“T say, “I think the defendant is guilty” or “I think the plaintiff should win.” That will make the judge angry. Keep your comments vague so that you don’t suggest who you think will win, just that you are hopelessly biased from the get go. There may be a follow up question like, “But wouldn’t you listen to the evidence and the judge’s instructions and try to be fair?” A good answer there would be something like, “I don’t see how ‘trying to be fair’ has anything to do with it. I just don’t think I can be fair.”

This won’t necessarily get you off jury duty altogether, but it probably will bump you from that specific case. If you get lucky you might be excused altogether.

@semblance I can’t help but be surprised that you are offering advice on how to get bumped from sitting on a jury.

@thriftymaid Well, be surprised then. I said it was rather a subversive answer. As a lawyer trying a case, though, I would rather have those who really don’t want to participate to be off of the jury rather than sitting there, resenting being held prisoner for the length of the trial. I won’t defend my answer on any grounds but pragmatism.

@semblance As an attorney, I sit on the other side of the fence. So what’s new, huh?

@thriftymaid You have an unusual and somewhat politically incorrect fluther name for a lawyer. LOL.

I certainly agree that lawyers disagree all the time. I have been practicing so long now – 30 years – that my idealism has faded in direct proportion to my increased cynicism. Thus, I am often guided by what I view simply as practical.

@semblance I get a lot of questions about my online name. I’ve grown kind of fond of it. I’m pretty politically incorrect a lot of the time actually. And, most of the time, I’m on the side of practical too. Nice to meet you.

@thriftymaid The feeling is mutual. For what it’s worth, I personally think your online name is sweet and is reminiscent of a somewhat more innocent era when the term “maid” was rather complimentary. .