Jury Service

[Long Lashes]

I am still waiting and hoping to be called up to sit on a jury, its not happened yet and might never happen.

I would like the chance to experience the court process first hand, nothing gruesome, just a simple straight forward fraud case would satisfy me.

Has anyone here sat on a jury? (obviously I know you can't discuss the details,) if you have did you enjoy the experience?

 

[James from London]

I've done it twice. I quite enjoyed the first time - it was a small case but interesting. The second time meant I missed out on a free trip to Southfork so no I didn't!

 

[Angela Channing]

I've never done it but would love to. For years my job meant I was exempt from serving on a jury but the rules was changed and I'm now eligible and I'm hoping the letter comes one day asking me to do it.

 

[Michelle Stevens]

I've been called twice but they always had enough jurors before I was either picked or rejected. I was called for both local and federal courts.

I would find it interesting and it's a civic duty but I would rather not bothered with it at least at this time. Here in the US I have found the money for this service is measly and many employers don't pay for your absence due to jury service.

 

[Alexis]

I have been called and absolutely hated it. I was picked for the first jury I was called for but was able to get out of it as I had once lived in the same street as someone involved in the case. I thought I had got out of it, but I had to go back the next day and got called for another jury. I had to go for about a week and just sit in a room with these random people. It went on for days we were brought in then sent back to the room then called again. Eventually we were dismissed as it was somehow settled or thrown out of court. I cant remember. I was only about 20. Then some years later I was sent the forms again to be called for Jury service. I filled it in with jumbo crayons and then I never heard anything back.

 

[Daniel Avery]

When I lived in Savannah I got called for jury duty (county court) and got chosen for the jury...to my chagrin. We were only thirty minutes into the (drug possession) case when someone realized the chain-of-evidence had been corrupted on one of the exhibits, so the judge (who was now totally PO'd), angrily dismissed the case, dismissed us, and was reading the riot act to some policemen as we exited the courtroom.

I moved to Florida in November of 2011, and by February I'd been called for federal court jury duty. I had not transferred my voter registration yet, so I figure they must have hit me up since I'd gotten my brand-new Florida Driver's License and was considered "fresh meat". I called a number every night for two weeks to find out if I had to report to the court house in Fort Pierce, and luckily I never had to.

But in May (just three months later) I was called again. Well, from how I understand it, I was called (along with about 125 others) as a potential member of a grand jury. We'd have to sit for (yikes...) three months hearing various evidence and deciding if the DA should prosecute the cases. Maybe I misunderstood some of it...all I recall was the "three months" part. My boss would have had a litter of kittens if I'd told him I'd be missing three months of work. So I admit I had every intention of saying something that would (hopefully) get me disqualified or at least passed over. By pure luck I drew a high number and they got enough jurors before even asking me any screening questions, and I've gone (knock wood) seven years without one of those scary-looking letters in my mailbox.

I understand civic duty and all that, but the randomness of it all can wreak havoc on those who are heavily involved in their work or family and have lots of other commitments. It can't be helped, I guess, because the randomness is kind of "baked in".

 

[Jimmy Todd]

I served as sn alternate, so I sat through the testimony for a week but couldn't bote unless for sones reason one of the regular jurors was sick or something. It was extremely boring and it seemed to me the guy was so obviously guilty. His lawyer was clutching at straws. I kept thinking about the episode of The Carol Burnett Show where she plays a court stenographer. She keeps interjecting with sarcastic comments because the defendant was obviously guilty.

 

[Willie Oleson]

We don't have it, so I can't do it. And I wouldn't want to do it unless it's a high society whodunit with a fabulous surprise witness.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Unfortunately that is what people think most of this is like, since they see it all the time on TV. Most of it is hopelessly boring and a whole lot of "hurry-up-and-wait". It's also nerve-wracking since (if you are taking it seriously) you know you are being asked to make a decision that will change many lives. It's not always an obvious situation; they won't play the sinister background music that lets you know who the bad guy is when they enter the courtroom. And many, many of the cases are plea-bargained behind the scenes (out of the jury's earshot) and makes their efforts a moot point in the end.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Now, for the last time, DID you or DID you not, ON the night of April 24...

Objection! He's battering the witness!

 

[James from London]

What I liked is that, as the jury, you're made to feel like the most important people in the room by the judge and lawyers. It's the opposite of TV where you're just a bunch of extras and everyone else is a named character.

 

[Willie Oleson]

It always amazes me that a group of totally different people can make the same decision.
Unless they don't, and this is also used as a plot device in TV courtroom drama.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I was called once, but wasn't chosen or even interviewed. So I was relieved. I had to miss work, too.

I was subpoenaed once for witnessing a bank robbery. I told the police he looked like Morgan Freeman, and that he looked at me and smiled when he walked up to the teller with a note. They always look at me and smile. That's probably the only reason I remembered him. The black police lady kept laughing at me rather derisively, and she probably assumed I thought all older black men look like Morgan Freeman. So who's the racist? He did look like Morgan Freeman.

I had to go to the courthouse three times as the case kept getting pushed back until they struck a plea deal and I didn't have to testify. In the lobby, which was always packed, I had to put all my belongings in a tray and take off my belt and my pants almost kept dropping to the floor (well, below my curvaceous buttocks). I never saw any white people, except for one attorney, I think.

The only time my father ever served on a jury was when a 20-year old kid (who "fit every stereotype," according to Dad) had been charged for … ummm … servicing a fellow patron in the lavatory inside a gentlemen's club. I never mentioned that I was a frequent customer at the very same establishment, so it seemed a weird coincidence. I don't think I was legally involved in any way.