# Dopers: Help me get selected for jury duty!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-help-me-get-selected-for-jury-duty/77453>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 22, 2001, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-help-me-get-selected-for-jury-duty/77453 "2001-08-22T00:34:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-help-me-get-selected-for-jury-duty/77453/1 "2001-08-22T00:34:01Z")

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Now there’s a sentence you don’t hear every day!

Here’s the deal: I’ve been on jury stand-by since Monday. This means I sit in the jury lounge all day and suck down free coffee while watching the USA channel on monitors bolted to the ceiling. Today I actually got to go into a selection pool, but after 6 hours and about 200 questions from the judge & council that all essentially asked us the same thing (could I be a fair & impartial juror?), I was not selected. ☹

Why wasn’t I selected? The world may never know. I was probably the sharpest dressed person there, and that isn’t saying much. Unshaven people wearing raggedy jeans & Reebok t-shirts & who appeared to have lost their hairbrushes got selected, while I (in my snazzy khakis & button down crisp white shirt with conservative tie fixed securely in place with silver tie tack) was not. ☹ ☹

What motivates the council in their selection? What can I do to make myself look like jury material? I was not the same race as the defendant, could that have had some bearing? Now that I think about it, out of about 50 people in the pool, I was one of three white males and none of us were selected. ☹ ☹ ☹

The only question I _personally_ was asked (by council) was what books have I read recently. I answered (1) The Betrayal of America by Vincent Bugliosi and (2) The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan, (oddly I happened to have both with me in my shoulder bag). Did that do me in? Should I have said The Little Engine That Could and Garfield Gets a Bath?

I’ve got eight more days of on-call duty; what will make me jury material??

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**Author:** ![Tyklfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tyklfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyklfe)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-help-me-get-selected-for-jury-duty/77453/2 "2001-08-22T00:38:47Z")

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Well, … heaven forbid you should look reasonably able to understand the legal issues at hand because if you can then the counsel can’t sway you by actions and _greasy_ speech alone…

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**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dopers-help-me-get-selected-for-jury-duty/77453/3 "2001-08-22T00:39:17Z")

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I’d say pick up a couple of very short books and read 'em tonight to push Vinnie a little lower on the list.

How 'bout _Johnathan Livingston Seagull_ and _The Rules_?