Is a diagnosed mental health condition enough of an excuse to get you out of serving on a jury in a murder case?

Factual Questions
1

I’m in treatment for bipolar disorder with manic-depression. It’s severe enough that I’m considered disabled and am receiving Social Security disability, though thankfully I’m mostly asymptomatic at this time.

A lot of nights recently, I have to play calming music just to get myself to relax enough to get to sleep, after reading Facebook or a newspaper and getting so deeply concerned with the current state of the world.

Would this condition disqualify me from serving on a jury in a murder case? I can do bad all by myself without being subjected to grisly photographs of a brutalized body. I don’t even watch Law and Order, for crying out loud.

2

Yes, you could probably get get out of jury duty for a murder case. If it’s not a hypothetical question, I’d advise you to get a note from your doctor or therapist explaining why it would be difficult for you to sit through a trial with such issues.

I’m had civil trial with some very distrubing photographs. During jury selection we bring it up, and some potential jurors indicate that they wouldn’t be comfortable.

There are usually other cases going to trial in the courthouse, and judges are usually happy to reassign you to a boring tax fraud case.

3

My mother was once called for jury duty in a murder trial.

The lawyer asked her “Is there any reason you don’t feel you could reach a fair verdict in this matter?”

Mom said “Well, no. He killed the guy, didn’t he?”

She was promptly excused.

4

As an aside, I would avoid reading anything on Facebook, and curtail your exposure to news (in any medium). Your life will be better. One does not need to have a mental health condition to have anxiety over the state of the world right now. WRT news right now: less is more.

5

It is a hypothetical question, but one I’ve been worried about for a little while. Actually, I haven’t been called in for jury duty since I was 18.

6

During the selection process you get all kinds of questions relating to your ability to be impartial and handle the details of the case. I was selected for an underage sexual assault case a few months ago and many people were dismissed because they did not feel they could listen to the victim describe the details while remaining impartial.

Diagnosed manic-depression may be enough by itself to be dismissed on a medical basis, but even without that it’s likely that you’d be dismissed if you simply described your condition.

7

If this were enough to disqualify potential jurors, there wouldn’t be any.

8

It seems there are two different ways to do this and they mean very different things.

One is getting excused from jury duty altogether. The rules on exemptions vary, but you’d probably have to get a doctors note and you might also need to make the request in advance. That would get you out of showing up at all, but your condition might not rise to the level required in your jurisdiction.

The other is avoiding being seated on a particular case or type of case. In that case you’d still have to sit around the jury room all day waiting, then possibly get called for a case, then you’d go into voir dire, where the lawyers (with or without a judge) question and ultimately select their jury.
At some point you’ll need to talk to the judge, or both lawyers if there isn’t a judge involved. (the last three times I served on civil jury duty the two lawyers were expected to pick their jury without a judge involved and frankly, that made it way easier to talk your way out of it)

But take them aside, either at the beginning of the voir dire session or when they call on you during the session, and let them know about your conditions and concerns. They’ll probably send you back down to the jury room.