Excuses either given at check-in, to the judge prior to selection, or during selection itself.
I was just at Jury duty and since I’ve been to jury duty 3 times in 5 years already I’ve heard a number of bad excuses. During actual jury selection the #1 I’m constantly hearing is “I’m Christian and we’re not allowed to judge others” which would make sense of you were a Jehovah’s Witness or some other specific domination but the sheer amount of people I see pull this is astounding because I think we all know they most likely are constantly judging others. Or the more science based “I can’t in good faith be completely unbiased” well duh nobody can but we all know this is just an excuse to get out which half the jurors try to pull it.
In terms of SPECIFIC excuses I heard, somebody claimed they couldn’t participate in a domestic violence case because “I once had my car broken into and a laptop was stolen” because apparently being a victim of any crime once meant you could no longer be “unbiased” in any criminal proceeding.
I was in jury selection proceedings for a domestic violence case many years ago. At our first break, one guy said he had things to do that afternoon and if he got called up, he was going to say he hits his wife. We thought he was kidding. But he did and was discharged. I was stunned that someone would actually do that.
I served on a jury more than a decade ago. One woman claimed limited English fluency as an excuse but one of my fellow jurors said that woman’s English was just fine, when my fellow juror had a brief conversation with her in the ladies’ room.
I wondered at the time if just saying something like that could lead to some sort of investigation. I kind of hoped it would because you would have to be a really shitty person to say that.
I had a juror yesterday who was literally the last juror selected and as a result during his screening pulled out all the stops.
He had
NUMEROUS crimes committed to him, had his home vandalized twice, broken into 3 times, his car stolen, all property crimes which would be harder to prove on the spot as part of the effort to say prior crimes may influence your decisionmaking.
Despite all these crimes he had MULTIPLE cop friends (since they ask you if you’re close friends with any police or attorneys) including his best friend was a cop and his neighbor was a cop.
He also gave every single “Can you give a verdict without bias” question a “I MAY be able to rule without bias” or some weasel word that forced the judge to directly ask him if he could be an impartial juror.
Despite all of this he was still on the jury when they dismissed everyone else including me.
Maybe not on point, but I moved from Ontario to Alberta. I had Canada Post put a redirect on my mail, so anything addressed to me at my Ontario address would be redirected to my Alberta address. I’d already let things like magazine subscriptions know, but something always slips through the cracks, so it was prudent to do so.
About a week after I had moved into my Alberta house, I received a redirected notification that I was being summoned to an Ontario jury. There were various warnings about what could happen if I didn’t appear at the appointed place on the given date and at the appointed time, but there were also check-boxes indicating why you couldn’t serve (religious reasons, being a lawyer, etc.), but also an “Other” box, with a freeform field as to why.
I ticked “Other,” and wrote in the freeform box, “I’ve just moved to Alberta, but if the Ontario government wants me to serve on an Ontario jury, I’d be happy to, as long as the Ontario government picks up all my expenses for flights, hotels, ground transport, etc.” I put my Alberta return address on the return envelope, and dropped it in the mailbox.
I have never heard from the Ontario government since.
Many years ago, I was called to jury selection for a civil trial. During voire dire, they explained that the case involved a motor vehicle accident; had any of us been in an accident? Yes, most of us had. It happened at such and such intersection; were any of us familiar with that intersection? Yes, most of us were (I used to live about two blocks from there; but lots of traffic goes through there). Had anybody witnessed the accident? Quite a few hands went up. This was the plaintiff; did anybody know the plaintiff? Some hands went up. This was the defendant; did anybody know the defendant? Some hands went up. Did anybody know the attorneys? Some hands. Did anybody have this kind of car? Some hands. On and on like this, with the judge and attorneys periodically dismissing people.
Finally, the attorneys conferred with the judge for a long time and then they came back to us and said, “we just have one more question; does anybody know what temporomandibular jaw syndrome or TMJ is?” I put my hand up (because I have it (along with 10% of the population)). They said “you can go”.
When I left, there were still a bunch of prospective jurors who had witnessed this accident, were personal friends with both the plaintiff and the defendant, and had been riding in one or both of the cars during the accident.
Last year I was on a jury relating to pimping and human trafficing and during the selection process one guy kept mentioning at every opportunity in a whiny and complaining voice that he was on the board of some start-up company an had an important meeting in a couple days. It worked and he was dismissed. A woman said she has small children (girls) and would be traumatized by the details of the trial - she got dismissed, too.
Went through two selection processes, served on one jury.
Lots of pathetic claiming of “this is just too much for me”, often seasoned with religious tinges. A surprising number of school teachers saying “my kids need an education”. Some were so blatant that when they were excused, you could see them literally skulking away out of the courtroom trying to avoid contact with the other chosen or prospective jurors’ eye daggers.
Saw one doozy though: an old, well I’ll just call him “angry old rural white guy” who ( over ) played the race card. ( the accused was black ) and ranted on about how “I don’t like these people, Ah don’t trest 'em”…in a very foghorn leghorn style of delivery. The judge calmly excused him but told him to sit back down on the benches. After the jury was finally selected he thanked the rest of us for coming told us we can all go…then a short pause. He then said all of us except this gentleman ( foghorn leghorn ) and sternly detailed how at the end of the day/evening they were going to have a long discussion about courtroom etiquette.
As we all filed out, you could see everybody looking at him in a way that said “Jackass!”.
Question was “Do you have any biases that would lead you to not judge this case fairly?” Lady in her early 20’s says in her most pretentious voice, “I’m a psychology student and we all have inherent biases.” Attorney says thank you and the girl gets up to leave. Attorney: “Whoa! I didn’t dismiss you.”
She was still there looking miserable the next day when I was dismissed.
How did I get dismissed? By telling the truth. I told the defense attorney that as a mathematician if they want me to focus solely on the facts I can do that. But if the strategy was to make me to feel sorry for how his friends led him to make bad decisions, they probably didn’t want me on the jury. I was promptly dismissed.
For the first time in my life, I have to report on Monday morning. I have no idea what will happen, besides a lot of waiting, but I do have a partially-read copy of “Moby Dick” that I will probably take with me.
Judge: “Has anyone got a court case pending?”
Guy puts his hand up.
Judge: “What for?”
Guy: “DUI.”
Judge: “How many DUIs have you had?”
Guy: “Two.”
Judge: “That’s a misdemeanor, it doesn’t disqualify you from serving on a jury.”
[Guy is obviously disgruntled by this.]
Judge, several questions later: “Has anyone here been convicted of a felony?”
Guy puts his hand up.
Judge: “Still DUI? Still two?”
Guy: “Yes.”
Judge: “Still a misdemeanor. You can serve.”
[Guy is obviously even more disgruntled, to the point where I wonder if he’s going to go and gat another DUI on his lunch break.]
An hour or so later:
Judge: “OK, I just have a few more questions, and they’re going to sound a little weird, but we still have these laws on the books, so I have to ask. Has anyone been convicted of bootlegging in the last five years?” [Obviously not, it being more than five yars since Prohibition.] “How about timber larceny? Anyone with a conviction for timber larceny? … Lastly, is anyone here a habitual drunk or a common gambler?”
[DUI Guy puts his hand up. With enthusiasm.]
Judge: “Drunk, I take it?”
DUI Guy: :“Yes, Your Honor!”
I did not enjoy having to say to a roomful of people, including some of my students, that I could not serve a multi-day trial because I had to have oncology imaging the next day.
That’s really unfortunate. In all the courtrooms I worked in, the judges would offer private discussions outside the hearing of the other prospective jurors if any PJ wanted that.
I heard that for a while some idiots had heard that they had two magic words they could say- “Jury nullification”. Obviously some of them couldnt even explain what that meant.
I suppose if one was a strong believer in that and could explain it, that could be different. But not mgic words.
In all the courtrooms I worked in, the judges would offer private discussions outside the hearing of the other prospective jurors if any PJ wanted that.