Jury Duty

[Noca]

I wish I would get called into jury duty, at least it would be something interesting to do instead of sitting at home being bored out of my bloody mind.

 

[Acme]

Went to jury duty 2 days ago. Slept good for an hour and a half while we all waited in the main room, then went home when they said they didn't need us.

 

[Lorraine Manca]

Its pretty easy to get out of jury duty. Get the appropriate person on the phone and talk about how your beagle is in critical condition with an anal gland infection. He must be watched at all times, therefore you will be coming to the courtroom with a howling beagle. Is that ok? Just kidding. But I got out of it saying I wasnt living at my permanent address at the moment. Another person i know got out of it by saying he would have to bring his baby to the court room.

 

[Lorraine Manca]

oh! you already did it. never mind!! sorry, ignore me.

 

[iamthenra]

I had to perform jury duty last year. The defendant was charged with 3 charges. One of the charges was he interfered with a 911 call, and the two other charges was for assault. Basically the guy was a stoner, meth head... He beat up his mother who at the time was in her 80's. The prosecutor had photo's of her face and she had a broken nose, black eyes she was a mess... His father tried to intervene and he got beat up too... Then his father tried to use the phone he hung it up a couple times before he finally got through to complete the 911 call. Then we were sequestered, meaning that we had to stay in deliberation until we reached a unanimous decision. For us, it was fairly easy to come to a unified decision. We found the defendant guilty on all counts. The defendant represented himself, and was dressed up pretty good. But underneath his nice white shirt was what looked like a massive belt, something that a weight lifter would wear around his back... We found out after the trial was over, that this "belt" was more or less a shock collar for the defendant, and the bailiff had the transmitter... He was a dangerous young man, the look in his eyes were pure evil. The way he looked at one juror, it looked like he wanted to kill her... But we were never in harms way, not ever... I had allot of fun going through this, even though it was drawn out allot because the defendant represented himself, it took much longer. I was a little nervous at first... It all starts off with the prosecutor and judge asking each juror questions, to determine if you would be "prejudice" against the person who is on trial... There were jurors who were dismissed and didn't have to serve because of their answers to the questions. Like one ex police officer was asked if the arresting police officer could have made a mistake in arresting the defendant. To which, the officer replied to the judge and prosecutor: that the officer would not have made a mistake, because the defendant was arrested... So the ex cop was released, because he was biased or prejudiced against the defendant... It was very interesting! I am glad that I had the opportunity to see how our judicial system works. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

 

[Redzer]

i was supposed to go when i was 20 bu i never did and nothing happned, but as far as i know its an offence not to turn up.

 

[dooby-duck]

Yes it's quite a serious offence. The system was changed a few years ago I think (in England anyway) to make it hard to get out of. I was called up for Jury duty when I had just started at Uni. I wrote to them and was excused for a certain number of years. My Dad has done it twice and my brother once. My other brother was excused due to being in the armed forces. I remember my Dad saying when he was there several people never turned up. They were traced and made to attend, and had to go before the Judge for a telling off. Some times if they are short the Judge sends the Court officers to the job centre to get extras.

 

[Fighter86]

Where I live, there's no jury duty, the judge melts out the judgment, but I think I would actually love to be part of a jury though, it sounds fun, besides, I have not been to a court room before to see its proceedings.

 

[Septor]

Jury duty for me was a nightmare.I had the worst panic attack in my life because jury duty.I went to jury duty impart because I thought it couldn't be as bad as I thought it would be because often times people with anxiety problems will imagine that it will be worst ,then it really is.I was wrong though,it was worth then I thought it could be.

I got pick,of course for the first part of jury duty ,where the lawyers started to examining people and picking who they wanted to be on the jury,for the case.What freaked me out was,they would ask people to go to the front of the court room ,in front of 60 people and the lawyers would start asking personal question about them.Im not sure,what would have happen if they had called me on the first day of jury selection, it wouldn't have been pretty though.In any case jury selection took two days.I was so scared of being picked and having to go to the front of the court room ,that I couldn't bring my self to go the second day.Luckly for me,they was randomly picking people and they never picked my name,so they never knew I didn't come on the second day.I even got paid five dollars for jury duty too.

 

[turtlett]

I freaked out when I got that letter in the mail...I think that was last year. I just never even thought about it happening. I started crying and thinking of how to get out of it, but my mom told me I couldn't. I ended up going and my stepdad stayed there with me because I could not have handled it alone. He had left me there for a little while because he was tired of being there and I of course started panicking. I did not get picked to be on a jury and I was VERY happy about that. I don't think I could have handled getting questioned by a lawyer in front of everyone. A group of us had got called in a court room but then they decided they didn't need us because they settled the case on their own I think. I was so happy to hear that because it was towards the end of the last hour until we could leave and I thought we could all just leave, but then the judge said the bad news was that we all had to go back to the waiting room and wait the last couple of minutes just in case we were needed by someone else. Those last minutes were hell. Luckily no one else needed us.
I do not want to ever do that again.

 

[Tiercel]

I actually was supposed to have jury duty on Monday. But on Sunday night I found out I was "excused."

I have a newfound appreciation for all those rich lawyers' and judges' mid-August vacations.

 

[JCS008]

A few years back, I got called for jury duty only a few months after graduating from college. The first time I was on standby and didn't get picked, and literally a month later, they called me back in to go to the courthouse. I ended up actually getting picked to sit on the jury for the case that lasted two days. Kind of a interesting experience, and something I think that's worth doing at least once in your life.