True dat, monster.

If there were a threat to the US sytem, a threat which would irradicate it, a fight would be in order to maintain the Judicial system.
There are a few reasons why people don't want to participate.
A whole bunch of people do want to participate, and some are gungho.

Probly a common trend to "apathy", is it's expected to "not show" your gungho-ness. This makes the litigaters "work" for their money.

Alot of people look at jury summons as being "drafted"... and if enlisted, you become nobody for the duration..... until deliberation.
You "have" to presume the accused is innocent. And it is a scary thought to think if you have to vote guilty, or... "are you absolutely positive its so beyond a reasonable doubt"

Most cases are ramrodded through in half a day. The states attn probably only has three witnesses, one of which is the arresting officer.

Many people don't want the duty in serious cases, because these are more time consuming.
In cases of violent crimes, many people don't want to be the target of all the friends and families of the accused, especially if a guilty verdict needs to be delivered.

Jury duty is like the income tax... ya know you got to pay it to help support the country. But at the same time, ya could feel like ya just don't want to do it.

Tv law shows are entertaining. And as an observer, we get to see all kind of stuff and hear arguments and see evidence that might be dismissed and get an entertaining all round view.. The jury doesn't see shit, but technical crap, and there's the feeling of "what are they not telling us, or showing us".
This makes jury duty a complete yet incomplete entity.

My experience has been contrary. Everything that happens in or around the court house is like a soap opera....come back in a week and pick right up on the proceedings. Delays, breaks, procedures, bullshit.....hurry up and wait.
Be there at 8am.....the judge shows up at 10.
Lunch from 11:30 to 1:30.
3:30, well that's it for today...be sure to be back here by 8am.

Grrrrrr.....they make me nuts. :rar:

Like being drafted? Very close.

I hope I'm not stuck with that next Tuesday. But the day of summons was like that. 8am = 8:45 to get ball rolling. 15 minute break = 30 or more before action happens. Two jury pools were out and the lady comes back and says, "Judge Jones will be calling for an afternoon pool. He said we'd start after lunch. It will be a long lunch, be back at 2:15pm" .... (It's 11:45am) I tease the lady with, " Hell I wish my job would give me 2 and half hour lunch breaks"
I walked downtown, and hit one of our scenic "Bourban Street Ambience" type bar/and (well it did have a restuarant aslo)

Afternoon pool didn't start until 5:00pm.


Tuesday, they got a trial before us (starting at 8am in this particular court room) they want finished by 11:00am and our crew of misfits are to show up at 12:45pm to try a 4 hour case...

lol, we'll see.

If I'm innocent, and wrongly accused, I'd excuse the jury and ask to be tried by the Judge. I'd put more trust in them being able to understand the subtleties of the evidence.

Excellent point, sm. I hadn't thought about that. There could be some pitfalls if you were.... say ... OJ, but for somebody innocent it might be a good choice. :thumb:

While they may be more perceptive than the average juror, my experience has also been that they care even LESS about the whole process than a random juror, as amazing as that is. Every judge I have seen or talked to, inside or outside a courtroom, is incredibly jaded, assumes both sides are lying through their teeth 100% of the time, and doesn't lose a second of sleep over the possibility that an innocent person might be wrongly judged.

Bummer, I thought they were all pompous asses because they were proud of their knowledge, ability and effort to be fair. :(

@ Bruce, .... I feel with you... Im sorry they (judges/litagaters/crockabullshithers/assholes who will take your home for any realty development that can happen)

don't give a shit...

Fortunatley... I did not have to pass judgement.

I Probly would have voted for the guity bastard/

We (misfits) got cancelled before the court actions.

I do show up if called (only called once in my county (but twice in counties in which I don't live!)), and would serve if chosen. That time, they filled all juries before my number came up. However, while waiting, I ended up sitting next to a woman who had the same dorm room as me twenty years before (at CWRU in Cleveland). Weird.

?


The SAME dorm room?


We call that "shacking up"

But, yeah, I don't think they asked if we shacked up with the other "jury poolies"...

Same here. I was on standby once but was never called in. My company will pay me during jury duty, provided I sign over the $5-10 a day the county will pay me. Not too difficult a choice there.;)

Ooooh I don't even know where to start on this one. :)

Juries have been taught how to act by what is seen on tv.
You can't have a case against someone without some kind of DNA or hair, or a fingerprint, right? That is the case of the defence.
On the prosecution we may have a lot of circumstantial evidence. We can show that this guy is a cheater and a scumbag, so there's no doubt he killed his girlfriend/ wife. That's the way it is on CSI, right?

By in large, a jury is made up of a body of people that are ignorant of the duties assigned to them. I am not saying they are ignorant people, I am saying that by design they are often left uneducated about the issues at hand.
Most people get their courtroom "education" via the TV and are easily swayed by the cool & sexy evidence presented & manipulated by the attornies on both sides.
They are frequently asked to deliberate over evidence & issues that are far beyond the attorney and the judge's scope of education & experience.
This is not done by mistake, believe me.

You have attorneys "interpreting" evidence like forensic, behavioral, chemical, physical, et al to the jury as though they themselves were an expert in those areas, but they most certainly are not.

Anyway, this is obviously an area I care a great deal about so I could go on & on.... and I don't want to slam the jury system. I want it to be better.

Here is the cool thing about being a juror..... you can ask questions and you can (pretty please) use critical thinking. Don't trust anything spoonfed to you in a courtroom - even if it comes from an expert.

After all, an expert is just a...... has-been drip under pressure. ;)

*teehee*
That's right xoB - just cause someone is an expert in court doesn't mean that he is an expert at home. :)

They would not have me. I even wanted to serve. Cowards.