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I’ve been registered to vote in my district for 7 years now and have never been called in for jury duty. Is that a sign???

The only other times I was called, I was either 9 months pregnant or had no babysitter willing to take my 2 pre-schoolers willing to accept my measly $7.00 a day stipend from the county in payment for services rendered.

I’ve always wanted to be on a jury, though. Nothing gross like a murder, but maybe something like fraud or DUI.

Can’t wait for all the juicy details, Connie.

Okay, off to work~~

I’ve been a registered voter since I turned 21 but I’ve only been called for jury duty once and that was in the county where I now live.  I can say with certainty that if I had ever had criminal tendencies, seeing those who would ultimately sit in judgment of me was enough to scare me straight.  Those of us who had more than a high school education or showed the slightest knowledge of the judicial system were dismissed.  Of those who were ultimately selected for the jury, about half had finished high school.  The remaining had dropped out somewhere around 7th or 8th grade and freely shared with the rest of us during the breaks their firm conviction that if the defendant was local he/she was surely innocent but if he/she was one of those “damn Yankees” they would make sure they paid for having the nerve to move into “their town”.  So reassuring…

I’ve never been selected ... you know why, Connie??? Because like PJ said they dismiss all the smart ones!

hahahahahhaha!!!

Eloisa

I’ve had jury duty at least 3 times in the last 17 years.  So has my husband.  But we must look judgemental or something; neither of us has actually had to serve.  Or maybe it’s all that mumbling under my breath about guilty until proven otherwise.

Out of law school I worked for a local trial court judge.  Part of my job was the care and feeding of a jury once it was selected.  Let’s just say, if you think the overall pool is scary, by the time the pick the third jury from the pool, it’s terrifying.  I sat at lunch (my job to take the jurors out for lunch and make sure they weren’t tainted by someone talking to them, etc), and listened to a comparison of AA Meetings, tatoos, guns, lack of high school diplomas (as PJ mentioned) and other interesting things.  And I saw this jury picked - these were the best of what was in the pool. 

After working with juries for a year, I tell anyone who want to go to court that they have a 30% chance of losing, no matter how “in the right” they are - because juries are crap shoots.  Well, you might have better odds in some areas shooting dice . ..

Lynn

I’ve been called to jury duty at least half-a-dozen times in the various places we’ve lived. But I’ve never served on a jury. I sit in jury purgatory for a couple of days and then, when it’s my turn to get up on the stand, a lawyer asks me what I do for a living, I say I’m a writer, and I’m released.

I asked a lawyer friend once why this was. His answer was that writers are considered unpredictable and their minds work in mysterious ways; they see connections and motivations no one else sees; and, as a lawyer, you have no clue as to which way they’re going to jump as far as guility or innocent goes.

Wasn’t Eloisa on the O.J. jury?

And I do NOT smell like cat urine!

Ladies, this is scaring me! PJ and Lynn,,yikes! No education is a plus!!
Thank God, I’ve been called twice, but have been overseas w/the military (now there’s a subject!) so was excused..
-Hey Connie, if you’re bored, can’t you read excerpts of “Hot Dish” for everyone? I guess no outside stuff allowed, huh? 

I was called twice and never picked to serve.  I dont’ remember what the first was about, but the second involved child molestation.  I have to say, I sat there feeling sick to my stomach and praying, praying, praying I was not chosen.  Luckily, I was unfamilar with the town the courthouse was located, got lost and was the last person to arrive.  They had their jurors well before they would have gotten to me.

Deb

I LOVE jury duty!  I had a murder trial 20 years ago and he was soooo guilty.  Two years ago I had a case involving a man who failed to pay his legal bills for a previous case.  His new lawyer was an idiot.  He should have paid his bills--his previous lawyer was worth the unpaid bills.

Jury duty is two weeks of forced inactivity.  20 years ago it was one TV with 3 channels and jigsaw puzzels.  Today it’s a large screen TV, several computers with internet access, a pool table, and much more comfortable chairs.  You can’t go anywhere, so what’s a book lover to do?  My TBR pile gets a serious workout when I have jury duty.  The judges come and have pizza with us once a week and our jury commissioner treats us like gods and goddesses.

I was summoned when my son was 2 weeks old, and I had to be excused.  I was summoned again in January, but regretfully had to seek an excuse as same son was diagnosed an insulin-dependent Type I diabetic in December and at the time we didn’t have alternate care available for him.  I was really bummed to miss jury duty again.

Yes, you certainly meet some interesting people on jury duty.  Remember, these are the ones who vote!

I’ve never had jury duty. I find this phrase to be pretty effective, when uttered with the right wild-eyed expression; “Excuse me, Your Honor? Is this going to be a capital case? I really hope it’s going to be a capital case. ‘Cause I don’t think the death penalty is used nearly enough in this state. Is a firing squad still okay?”

Oh, wait. Maybe that’s why you knew I’d never make the cut, huh? Or is it the fact that I show up with my underwear on the outside of my clothes?

My s-i-l was on the jury of a capital murder case a while back, and they gave the guy the death penalty. I’ve never looked at her the same way since.

Connie, my heart goes out to you.  I hope and pray never to get called again.  I have been called and sat on two separate jury trials.  Why wasn’t I eliminated?  I told them I was a data programmer.

Anyway, I was glad to see that the judges do try to make things fair.  I also saw a sleazy lawyer (not all lawyers are sleazy) try to manipulate the jury into making us feel sorry for his client.  They were suing a doctor.  We must have been a tough bunch because when we deliberated, none of us felt sorry for the client and ruled in favor of the doc! 

Good Luck Connie!

My husband was called once and it was a shaken baby case and he’s a nurse and had just gone to a seminar on “shaken baby syndrome” so they dismissed him.  I guess if you KNOW it’s bad to shake a baby to death, they can’t use you.

I’ve served on juries twice, once for a medical malpractrice suit, and once on a DUII.  And, I realize now, both times we found the defendent not guilty. Wonder what that means. I was quite impressed with the quality of the other jurors.

On the DUII, the judge came to talk to us afterwards, and he said based on that evidence, he would have come to the same conclusion.

I worked as a municipal court clerk for a while, and it’s usually enough to get me rejected.

martha

I’ve only been called up once and I was actually chosen!  It was a drunk driving thing...the guy was in a golf cart and he tried to get out of it by saying that that’s the only way he can get around cuz he’s disabled...um...ok...but don’t be drinking and then driving the stupid cart!  I think I was picked because when asked if I had any experience with drunk driving I told them of the time we were in a Hit and Run accident with a drunk driver.  It was on ok experience.  The only thing I didn’t like was that we had to keep reminding 2 or 3 jurors that it’s not how we FEEL about things, it’s about what the law says.

I’ve been called twice and sat on two trials. Once I was 8 months pregnant and they didn’t excuse me from jury duty! Nothing like tromping around in the snow, up and down the steep hills where the court house is located & walking by burly men in orange jumpsuits in handcuffs while feeling like a beached whale. The defense attorney did use one of his non-contested dismissals on me when he saw that I was pregnant - He was defending a child molester. I was just as glad NOT to be part of that trial. Here in the Akron, OH area we get a fairly “normal” cross section of people for jury duty. My husband has been called twice and has yet to sit on a trial. Maybe he looks too smart!

I’ve been called 3-4 times and served twice.  The first time on a double murder case - 2 teen boys killed another (gang related).  They both got life.  When it happened they were 14 and 16 years old. The judge was really great and told us all afterwards he would have ruled the same way.  The prosecutors also came to us afterwards with all the evidence not allowed in court that showed us these kids didn’t belong on the streets.  That case gave me nightmares for a long time. 

The second case was a traffic accident and I can’t even remember how it turned out.

I wasn’t picked to serve on a rape trial (Thank GOD!) If I never get called again I’ll be a happy camper.  I get nauseous just driving past the courthouse.

I know justice needs to be served but I DO NOT want to be the one to serve it.  Some mornings I can barely decide between bologna and PBJ for the kid’s lunches, I’d rather leave life and death to somebody else.  Does that make me socially irresponsible?  Yeah, probably, but you know, I think I can live with it!

I was on a Grand Jury almost 10 years ago.  The case that involved a drug deal gone bad, that had a drive by shooting killing an innocent teenager and injurying his friend outside of a convenience store. They were on their way home from school. They were two people that were at the wrong place at the wrong time because the drug deal went wrong at least 6 blocks away from the store. I was on it for 3 weeks, it was so hard especially since all the jurors couldn’t agree on a verdict: 5 guilty, 4 not guilty and 3 undecideds.  Last Thursday, I received my jury duty form to send in for March. I hope not to be picked.

Registered to vote for 5 years and I (knock in wood) have yet to be called for jury duty. I would be happy not to have to ever go. The thought of having someone’s fate in my hands makes me shudder. I don’t want that kind of responsibility on my shoulders. I guess this makes me socially irresponsible as well. But I suppose since I graduated from college and have some knowledge in the legal and politcal system, I won’t ever get picked.

*crosses fingers*

Probably about 9 years ago, actually.  I was picked to be on the jury (which I thought was fine since this was still more exciting than my job in Hades, working for Satan--our jury system at least was less critical.) Unfortunately I only had to sit in for one day.  I think it turned out that after all our deliberating, our defendent came to the same conclusion as Connie did--it was time to throw himself on the mercy of the court, than on a group of people who probably watched too much Law & Order and ate yellow cheese straight out of the can.  (I don’t know why that would be a problem either.)

P.S.  I do have a college education (whatever that might afford me) and I had it when I was called to jury duty--however, I probably looked wide-eyed and innocent enough to pass as moderately stupid.  (I was like 22 or so, I was moderately stupid.)

And I love cheese out of a can.

And I do adore how they pick the ones they think will be a threat right off.  One guy brought his Bible in, and they dismissed him without him having to say anything.  Nice.

Depending on the case, I might have to use Liz’s clever “capital punishment” one.

Actually, sometimes lawyers want well educated people on the jury.  The more understanding that is needed to reach a lesser verdict, the more likely well educated folks are included.  A number of crimes have an element of intent to them - and intent is hard to establish, since most of the time if the criminal had said, “I intend to” or “I want to”, the case has been pled out long before trial.  So I have seen juries that have had retired judges and attorneys included.

I think I got picked for jury duty because I told them I might throw up druing the process from being newly pregnant.  I shoulda used Liz’s line about capital punishment instead!

But it was interesting. 

This woman was trying to extort money from a guy with whom she’d had a traffic accident.  I would’ve had a more open mind if she wasn’t wearing that neck-brace and craning her head around to look at us all.  Plus also, I think this was her 11th time in court trying to sue people.

The worst part of it, however, was jostling the kid next to me all the time, to keep him from falling asleep.  He musta just turned 18.

Oh and btw, this was in the same court building where Brian Nichols shot four people, including the judge, then escaped and took that woman hostage.

quiltpcp said:Yes, you certainly meet some interesting people on jury duty.  Remember, these are the ones who vote!

Oh my! Now That is scary!

I have been called up for jury duty. But no one wants me. No One! I can’t understand it. I’m quiet, soft spoken, dress conservatively, and I look quite malleable and innocent. Really. Look at my avatar. Have you ever seen such a wide eyed innocent look in your life? Sigh… I suppose they heard about my frightening off a car jacking bank robber. Or maybe they heard about that “person” who kept poking me with her finger. Hey I warned her several times that she better behave herself before I flipped her over my shoulder and slammed her to the ground, gently mind you. And I only TOLD her what the next part of that move was…snapping her neck… I didn’t dooo it. Really, why won’t anyone let me sit on a jury? I simply Adore Justice…even if it’s just poetic.

Teresa said:

And I do NOT smell like cat urine!

I said:

“He musta just turned 18.”

See Teresa....if what you suggest is true, that if you’re an expert, then you don’t get picked, then now we can see why they really picked me.

Seriously?  You have to be 21?  That kid looked 12.

I wouldn’t make it thru the interview process? Excuse me? And why is that?

Not that I ever have, but again, why would you say such a thing???

A ha!  See?  I WAS right...not that anyone cares....

When you live in Washington DC and are a regular citizen you get called to jury duty A LOT.  The city is so full of convicted felons and high government officials, both of whom get excused, that the rest of us can count on being called pretty regularly every two years.  Since we’re also subject to federal courts, that’s potentially a lot of jury duty.  Years ago it was every day for two weeks but now it’s one day or one trial, which is much, much less disruptive.  The trick is to get called in August, when lots of judges and trial lawyers are on vacation so that there are fewer trials—you go to the courthouse in the morning, get dismissed at noon, and have a day to visit the museums and monuments.  The jury pools tend to be pretty well educated, again, a function of the city.  I’ve heard of other places where lawyers often get excluded, but if you excluded lawyers in DC you’d wind up with about 10 eligible jurors (not counting me and my husband, non-lawyers both).  Even people like Madeline Albright and Karl Rove are occasionally spotted in jury pools (they probably got dismissed though).

Maybe Connie has read some of your interviews, Xtina??? 

Hi J Perry!  I have your hysterical e-mail on my desktop and promise to answer after I finish writing today.  Oh, and mocking Xtina and Connie…

Personally, I’m thinking Connie should have shown up as “Kitty Kuttlestone.” She would be the perfect juror!  ("Hang ‘em high, baby!")

Just popped in for lunch before I head out to my blood drive…

Julianne...the Brian Nichols case is very interesting...there’s much more to that hostage situation than meets the eye, but I doubt if it will ever see the light of day.

Consider this your nag for the day. You’ve played enough...get back to work, girl! And I expect to see you Saturday!

About 10 years ago I got called to sit on the grand jury.  What an interesting experience that was!!  All we had to do was decide whether or not there was enough evidence to send it to trial or not.  Should be easy, right?  Wrong!  Those people were trying to decide whether or not those people were guilty or innocent, which was not our job!  UGH!  I got so agravated at some of those people I could have screamed.  At one point, one of the Asst. DA’s did come in and scream at us for letting some guy off!  Even thinking about sitting on another grand jury or being called for jury duty again scares the pants off of me.  I think if I get called for jury duty again I’ll ask if they still hang them or do they use the guillotine now?? 

--dorothy

Wheneer I got a notice about jury duty, the case never came to trial and I would be dismissed.

But my son got a summons for jury duty for Federal Court, a big drug case. He really wanted to be on that jury because he is strongly anti-drug, especially crank. After a three hundred mile drive and a night in a motel he was dismissed purely on appearance. He was never asked a question.  he was judged purely on the fact that he had piercings and had shaved the sides of his head. Duh!

LOL, Hellion! I’m still laughing over your responses...and I agree that there is nothing wrong with cheese in a can. LOL!

And no, I’ve never been picked for a jury. I’ve received jury summons before, but have never had to appear. All grad school stress aside, there is one benefit to still being in school!

And omigosh, I love the capital punishment line. I’ll have to remember that one!

LdyB

I served on two juries 20 years ago. The first was a civil case where an elderly woman slipped and broke her hip because of water on the floor of a grocery store. The jury gave her $70,000. Her equally elderly, frail husband sued for loss of consortium - essentially, loss of ability to have sex with her for a while. The others on the jury wanted to find for him but only give him $1 as a token, since we’d given the wife so much already. I said, “If it was me, I’d rather you find against me than say, ‘the sex you missed was worth $1’.” So, we didn’t find for him.

In the second, a hoodlum was on trial for rolling a drunk and leaving him to die under a mattress. One juror said the Lord had told her the guy was guilty and she wanted the max. Two others said they’d hang the jury before they’d send that sweet kid to prison. We compromised on a year in jail, only to find he’d already served prison time before. On that jury, I finagled my way into the foreperson position only to thoroughly screw it up by signing the verdict papers in the wrong place. Oops! The judge sent us back into the jury room to fix it. Embarrassing!! But very funny now. Talk about ego-deflating…

susanna in alabama said… We compromised on a year in jail

Susanna, that’s exactly what deliberating is in some cases...a compromise.  I was so angry at the other jurors, there were only two of us who saw it one way.  The others were blinded by sympathy and prejudices.  (They couldn’t possibly see how it could have been the wealthy, elderly, gentleman with the wreckless, 100K yacht...it just had to be the young poor kid who had no insurance.)

Well, when I hit my limit on compromising, I looked at the group and said, I have no problem sitting here for the next several days waiting to come up with a verdict. I will not give another inch.  By six pm that evening, they caved.  They were still wrong, but I would not let them hurt that young boy.  Whew!, now that that’s off my chest.  I’ll be quiet.

Morning all,,,OK, it’s morning here so I feel I can get away with that

I’ve been called up for jury duty exactly once. I sat there for a whole week and they didn’t even randomly pull my name out for a trial, so at the end of the week I went back to work. Obviously it was a quiet week. The thing is, I would like to serve. How can we have a judicial system in which the accused are tried by their peers if we don’t serve in the jury - that’s my argument to my family anyway.

orannia *who is wondering how like close to reality all the American criminal TV shows are*

PS My word today is hope73...I think someone is trying to tell me something.

I was selected for Jury Duty the week after I graduated college. However, at the time I wasn’t registered to vote (I know, I know...I should have been) so I don’t know how they picked me to come.

My dad had gone before, but had never been selected. He said, “Don’t worry they probably won’t even call you.  You can just sit and read all day.” I got to the courthouse all nervous and they said, “We have a trial waiting for a jury so we will be taking some of you up now.” I was one of the ones to go.

They asked a bunch of questions for hours and finally chose the jury and I was picked. The case was a drug case.  The guy was accused of running a drug house. He had sold some drugs to a man working for the police and the police raided the house and found him and the drugs.  The lawyers gave their opening statements and the first witness testified (the man who bought the drugs and identified the defendant) and the jury was sent out of the room.  We went back in the courtroom a little while later and the defendant was gone.  We were told that our services would no longer be needed...he had decided to change his plea to guilty and take a deal.  We never made it to deliberations.

Oh, and I didn’t really like the idea of being on the jury.  I hated the idea that I have the power to decide someone’s fate...too much pressure at the time.  I am still not sure why I was picked. I guess because I was young and had no experiences with drugs...plus my life was pretty boring compared to some of the others there that day...you get to find out all kinds of things about people through the questions the lawyers ask.  I did get paid $40 for my two days of service.  I kind of lucked out though...the other case that had jury selection that day was a murder case that was expected to be a long process.

The jury is now selected by whether you have a drivers license or not—at least in Texas. Which means there’s a lot bigger pool to pick from.

The only time I was picked was when I was working with juvies and PINS and because of this I was never selected.

They keep trying to call my 78 year old mother who never makes it past the ‘call everyday after 5pm to determine if you have to show up’.

They never call my husband who lives to do his civic duty.  Go figure!

I got called 2 years ago.

I got called Day One actually (usually, you go in and then call into the hotline to see if you have to go in or not).  There was a horrible molestation/rape case between father/daughter.  I so didn’t want to be part of it, but I didn’t have any reason not to be except that I didn’t want to.  Either way, I wasn’t chosen for the final jury which was good.  I wasn’t called for the rest of the week.  The only good part was that my county paid for the service in cash so that was nice.

It was mostly a boring and lonely day, but it was interesting.  The people in charge were fairly friendly.  Everyone mostly stayed to themselves.

I’ve never been called but my ex was once..it was a medical malpractice case.  Pretty horrific.  He was there about two weeks..looking at photos of this poor woman’s botched ‘female surgery’.  Gah!  Can you imagine?  The surgeon practically butchered this poor woman’s stomach.  I think it was a cyst removal and he ended up taking her ovaries and all so now she can’t have children among all the other horror.  I’m pretty sure she won and got a large settlement.

He goes faint at the sight of blood and gore and he had to spend two weeks looking at pics and hearing evidence about it.  Poor guy was green for weeks afterwards.

Christina Dodd said…
“The jury is now selected by whether you have a drivers license or not—at least in Texas. Which means there’s a lot bigger pool to pick from.”

That must be what they do now here in Georgia...they used to do it on whether you are registered to vote...but I guess they had to change that.

I’ve been called for jury duty several times.  Several times I’ve noted that we are friends with several police officers and that’s usually enough for the defense attorney to boot me off.  The first time when I was in the final pool I told the defending attorney that I was a kindergarten teacher.  I was told thanks but no thanks - it was a child molestation trial.  Having a teacher on those cases is usually not what the defense wants!  The second time I served on a jury that sentenced a young man to 65 years in prison.  He was a repeat offender who had committed several armed robberies in our county and had pistol whipped one victim and beaten another with the cash register.  No sympathy from any of us - the older gentlemen on the jury wanted the death penalty or life in prison but that wasn’t an option for the charges. 
And just for grins, my verification word is learned55.

My first call for Jury duty was a drug case involving a kid I went to grade school with. I was dismissed. The second - a child molestation case - I really wanted to be chosen just so I could say I sent that jerk to prison. He kept insisting that it was an “accident” that his penis was in his three year old nieces mouth. Yeah . Right!!!

The one and only time I’ve been called for jury duty, they gave us all a questionnaire to fill out. One of the questions was whether we would believe a police officer over another witness. I was pretty young, and I thought it over and answered yes. Well, the judge called me up in front of everyone and read me the riot act about it. (I’m guessing now that he thought I was trying to get out of jury duty on purpose, but at the time I was mortified.) They dismissed me on the basis of that.

Afterward, I indignantly told the story to a frienc whose brother was a police officer, and she said that after listening to him and his friends, she’d never be more likely to believe a police officer than anyone else.

I’m still not sure what I would say if I were asked the same question today…

Christina Dodd said…
The jury is now selected by whether you have a drivers license or not—at least in Texas. Which means there’s a lot bigger pool to pick from.

Darnit! I knew there was a reason why I hated driving her--apart from all the crazies in North Dallas...LOL!

LdyB

Oops! That should have been “here” not her. I’ve never driven X-tina anywhere…

*grumble* Stupid Monday fingers…

LdyB

Oh Ann In IL that story about the 3 yr old is terrible…

Does anyone know the answer to this question:  Do jurors get any type of help from a social worker, psychologist, or some other type of mental health professional to counsel them after a trial? I hope that there was some type of help available. Particularly in those cases in which molestation, violence or some other traumatic event, such as the malpractice suit described by Stacy N, was part of the trial. I would think that some of the things/evidence presented at a trial are very hard for a juror to forget. 

Julie, just wondering… and hoping that these people are not being left to cope with this stuff alone.

ldyblkny said “... Darnit! I knew there was a reason why I hated driving her--apart from all the crazies in North Dallas...”

Yeah, I know that Her was a mistake, but it was Still funny!

Julie said:

“Do jurors get any type of help from a social worker, psychologist, or some other type of mental health professional to counsel them after a trial? I hope that there was some type of help available. Particularly in those cases in which molestation...”

See?  Now I’d never get picked for one of those kinds of cases.  I have way too strong opinions about what should be done to sex offenders (chemical castration comes to mind....or a handy set of pliars).  They’d never pick me and in such instances, I really would love to do my civic duty.

J--off to go do her bi-monthly check on sex-offenders.  If any of you are interested, here’s the site:

http://www.familywatchdog.us/Search.asp

fill out your address, and it shows you who is living where in proximity...and those are just the ones we know about.

Now I feel like Orsen Wells scaring everyone about alien invasions.

Cindy--I’m there on Sat. and I love it when you nag me.  I’m also going to pull your tongue about what you meant in terms of the Brian Nichols case.

Teresa--don’t respond to me if it conflicts with your FOUR pages a day.

Actually, J, just last week, she did 5 1/2 pages. Not that I’m anxious or interested or anything ...

I was called up one summer when I was home from college.  It was a trial for a man accused of murdering a prostitute on while they were riding around the bayou on his houseboat on Easter Sunday.  Really, the things I heard were so strange.
It was farcical, and incredibly depressing at the same time.  The accused was a drunk, and the cops found him laying on top of the dead prostitute (shot) curled up in a fetal position, with absolutely no finger prints on the gun, the steering wheel of the boat or his liquor bottle.  Granted, being passed out on top of a dead body is suspicious, but in our justice system it shouldn’t be damning (unless there’s other evidence to support it, right?).  Well my local law guys thought they had everything in the bag, so they didn’t follow up on plenty of other tips/leads etc.  The end result of the trial- we all agreed that the guy was creepy, and had probably done some terrible things in his life.  Did he kill her?  Could have, but there were so many holes, so many unexplainable elements that no one bothered to consider, that we as a jury had too many collective doubts to convict him.

They go by driver’s licenses and ID cards in Florida.  Which is good, I guess, for voter turn out, but bad for those of us that would rather not vote than serve jury duty.  I have been called three or four times, but never had to go.  I’ve never been called for my county, always to the big court house in Jacksonville.  Luckily, I’ve always had babies at the right times.