Last time I got called, I actually got to serve! Go me!
(verdict: not guilty, and don’t do it again!)
I consider my duty discharged if I show up when they tell me and answer them honestly. If they don’t want me, that’s their decision.
but if you were accused of a crime, would you expect the right to a trial by jury?
Just asking.
Yet again, I’m baffled at the common belief that only morons actually serve on a jury and anyone who has common sense, a working brain, a 12" cock, or whatever, is excused. You guys realize saying that is a pathetically transparent attempt to humblebrag (golly, I’m just wayyyyyy too intelligent for them to want me on that jury! They sure would be intimidated!) that only reveals your own insecurity and lack of critical thinking, right?*
Unless you yourself actually work intimately within the court system, who the fuck are you to believe you know the intricacies of the judicial system and methods of jury selection? I, too, have a Super Official J.D. obtained through years of studying under the venerable Dean Dick Wolf. I still somehow understand that I don’t actually know jack shit about the court system compared to even the worst lawyer. Why? Because it’s a tv show!
I know this might sound crazy, but hear me out: maybe, just maaaaybe … There are factors in jury selection that you aren’t even aware of and would have no reason to, since you don’t work in a field directly involved in it. And so maybe, just maybe, reaching your conclusion about who is chosen for a jury based on limited and self-selected information actually says the reverse about your own intelligence or critical thinking abilities.
But hey, I’m sure you guys love when other people, who are quite intelligent but haven’t worked or studied in your field at all, tell you how it really is in finance/IT/insurance/whatever, right?
- And this is from someone who has been summoned 6 times in the 12 years I’ve had my driver’s license, yet hasn’t ever served.
You are aware that this is the SDMB, right?
Juuust checking. 
If you get picked for a pro-slavery trial feel free to nullify.
I hope that no one who feels that only idiots and suckers get stuck serving on juries never have to appear before one.
Been summoned 4 times but never served. I want to serve, I crave serving. And I would be the best juror of them all because I think I would be good at listening to all the details and dissecting them to find out the truth. It would be like arguing on the SMDB, but this time, it matters! Someone might get the death penalty because of me! Or they might be saved because of me! I won’t deny that this power gives me a thrill, but I think that’s ok because either guilty or acquittal will satisfy me, so I’m perfectly unbiased
I do think, however, and you guys will probably flame me for it, that I have a need to try to outsmart whichever side I think is lying to me. Therefore I don’t think I’d listen exactly to the instructions. If I’m not sequestered, I’d definitely look stuff up on the internet about the case, or about terms and CSI stuff that I don’t immediately understand. In effect, I’m going to try to solve the case. Does that make me a bad person? I don’t think so. I think it makes me a detailed person who isn’t going to just eat the bullshit some slick lawyer is trying to serve
Lets face it, lawyers are one job that people always talk shit about. I don’t doubt that a lot of them know their job, but I do doubt, having spoken to some good lawyers (an assistant DA even and the general counsel of a corporation) that they seem to be more interested in their “side” than getting to the truth. I disagree with their stated purpose of what the law is for, so I will not be on the side of anyone who’s simply trying to do the best by their client but not the best by justice.
If you mean that this board is prone to transparent attempts at humblebragging about intelligence, then sure. 
I think if I really wanted to get out of jury duty. I would answer all the lawyers questions with: “I really don’t want to be here.”
If replied with a legal threat, such as it’s my duty to serve bla bla bla. I’d reply :" Yes I understand, but I really don’t want to be here."
I was using that example because I figured that it was something that all of us could agree on now in hindsight, but of course there are plenty of current examples of laws that many people do not feel are just. With the current trends, I think in a few years most people will look back at the current era’s marijuana laws and wonder why we screwed up so many people’s lives over minor drug offenses, for example.
I also find it ridiculous that even though juries have the right to do this, the system is designed to intentionally mislead jurors into thinking that they don’t.
I received summons twice in college, but was able to get excused because I was a student.
Several years ago, I was summoned and showed up ready to serve. I arrived at 8 am and sat in a large room with about 150 other potential jurors. Around 8:45 a judge read off a list of names and about 80% of the people were directed to other areas for further selection. The rest of us were thanked for our time and dismissed. Oh, and we got a $6 check!
While I think it would be interesting to sit on a jury, it would wreak havoc with my job if I was assigned to a long trial. I’m a high school teacher and I teach AP classes. But I know a lot of people feel the same way about their jobs, and I don’t claim to be any more deserving of being excused.
If I were on trial, I’d rather be held to the law’s standards than yours. The law’s an ass, but it’s a predictable ass.
Ok, you’re entitled to that view, but I am curious: What is it that you’re afraid would happen if someone who was on a jury against you were to be aware of their right to choose not to enforce an unjust law? This is not some new idea. Jury nullification has been a power of juries for hundreds of years.
I am kind of surprised that you would take this attitude of “Well, the law’s the law” since a few decades ago you could have been prosecuted for a felony for having married someone of another race. The law doesn’t always reflect what is right. In some cases, it doesn’t even reflect what most people actually believe in.
“Jury nullification” is taking the law into your own hands. It’s essentially being a vigilante within the court system.
And I don’t trust you (or anyone) with that sort of power.
You use the example of miscegenation, but what if the juror thinks someone who assaults me should go free because I am married to a black man? What if the juror decides that it doesn’t matter if I’m guilty of breaking the actual law or not because the juror is using her own laws?
You seem to think by default that it would only be used to combat unjust laws, but your definition of an unjust law and mine are not the same.
I just got a summons yesterday for “Standby Jury Service” which means I have to call the night before to see if I need to come in. I’ll be disappointed if the recording says I don’t have to report. I want to serve. I haven’t been chosen in the past because I answer yes to the question “Have you ever been the victim of a crime?” and it seems they don’t like that.
The only downside is that I live in the city and the courthouse I’m summoned to is in Rolling Meadows, which, like all burbs, may as well be Siberia to me. goroo.com comes to the rescue though. It’s luckily not that hard to reach, just time-consuming (via a CTA bus, a Metra train and a Pace bus).
The instructions that the summons (and the online trip planners) give you tell you to get off at the Arlington Heights Metra station and take a Pace bus from there.
There is a much easier way.
Take the Metra train to Arlington Park (not Arlington Heights). The court house is a very short walk from there. Just walk past the race track and it is immediately on the other side. The sidewalk is wide and well-lit after dark (and it is a very safe area). Unless you have a physical disability, the hassle of transfering to a bus at Arlington Heights is just not worth it.
The train station is actually much closer to Wilke Road than the map says.
The courthouse is on the corner of Wilke and Euclid. The line on the map directs you to the parking garage entrance. The pedestrian entrance is closer to Wilke (in the back of building at the corner).
Things are very different from state to state but around here minor drug offenses are not heard in front of a jury.
What unjust laws are you against and what are you doing to get them overturned?
I’ve served twice. Once for a criminal trial and another for a civil trial.
The criminal trial was back in the late 80’s and I was not happy to be picked. I was struggling to live on my crappy paying job and the trial lasted 12 days, paying like 10 bucks a day.
The trial itself was pretty interesting. Drug dealing goons shot up a house killing one guy and shooting out the eye of a surviving woman.
I can still remember the address of the house since they said it so many times. I recently looked it up on Google maps and it is now a grass lot.
The best part about the trial was the actors Harrison Ford and Brian Dennehy sat in on the trial for a few days since they were filming the movie "Presumed Innocent"in the city.
There were 3 defendants (2 goons & the head drug dealer). Unfortunately, we had to find them not guilty due to lack of evidence. The main witness looked terrified, sat on the stand and blurted, “I didn’t see nothin’!!” The prosecutor said to him “According to pretrial testimony, you provided detailed eyewitness information.” His reply, “I lied.” Obviously his life had been threatened if he testified, so we had no choice, but to find them not guilty.
That 12 day trial put my in the red financially for many months after that.
By the time I was picked for the civil trial many years later, one of my job perks was a full days pay for jury duty. Hell yeah!! Unfortunately, it only lasted 2 days.
Plus I’ve been called for jury service and never been picked. I love those too.
Now, I get the notice in the mail and never even get picked for standby. ~sigh~
Another way NOT to serve is to take the notice and throw it right in the f’n trash.
Notice? What notice? I didn’t get a notice.
Those of you coming up with stunningly clever methods for avoiding jury service might want to consider some of the potential consequences of your brilliant gambit.
Or you could throw away the summons like Shakes suggests, and risk a bench warrant and/or fine for not showing up.
Lots of really good advice in this thread. Smartest board on the Internet, I hear!