It would be funny as hell if she made him do that.
And sad as hell if it’s true.
I’ve never been called in sixty years, and I dont know anyone who’s tried to get out of it, but we use juries for far less things here, and not for civil trial at all (except libel, and not often even then).
I think it’s very jurisdiction-dependent. In a modestly-populated Texas county Mrs. J. and I were called three times between us in a 5-year period. By contrast, when we lived in a more populous Ohio county for close to 20 years, there were no calls to serve on a jury.
Apparently there are attorneys wary of prospective jurors who are eager to serve. Although most of my information on that score comes from reading “Lincoln Lawyer” mysteries.
Too eager might be a problem, but we do like jurors who are not going to resent the whole experience. A happy juror is a good juror. (for my cases, anyway)
Let’s get a whiskey and cut cards, your honor. If I cut high, I get excused.
I’ve tried and failed to remember any excuses i heard on the few occasions when I was called for possible jury duty. Now I’m aged out of the system. I’ve proofread transcripts of a number of jury impanelments and the reasons given for exclusion are pretty much all bog-standard and legitimate. Some judges will press harder than others on reasons given.
The only time I came close to being on a panel I was excused because I’d proofread some of the pretrial depositions in the case.
A VP I worked for mussed up his hair and put on old clothes so he could claim financial hardship. Fortunately they filled the jury without getting to him.
Once when I was called, the defense attorney explained that “Just because someone is asleep in a car that also contains an open bottle doesn’t mean they are drunk”. When she got to me I told her that “a few days before I was near the front of traffic stopped by a head on collision between a drunk and a local couple. I watched for two hours as the police removed the couple piece by piece from the wreckage. Sounds like you are going after getting this guy off on a technicality. You do not want me on your jury”. I was released without further questions.
“I run a private investment fund and being out of the office would compromise our operations.” Except when the judge pushed, he admitted he was taking no salary and would lose out on no money by being out. There were no pending deals that would be affected. I had spoken to him earlier and he basically said that he and one of his friends from college (or maybe a consulting firm? It’s been a while) were starting a fund with friends and family money. There was nothing behind the fund at this point other than ideas. He seemed really aggrieved to be empaneled.
Out here they get your name from voter registration and driver’s licence/state ID records. Sometimes I’ll get called every year on the dot and then go for several years without hearing anything from them.
I’m in Santa Barbara. They announced that they were soon to empanel the jury for one of the Michael Jackson trials and fuck me I got notified the next Monday. I was horrified until I realized that his trial was in the Santa Maria courthouse and not my district. Those big trials in small jurisdictions fuck the pool for a year because you get released for an entire year just for showing up (unless you get excused and rescheduled).
This is true according to a good friend of mine who was the lead felony prosecutor for a small county in Northern California. She did the murders and child abuse. They actually want people who will be swayed by the evidence and impartial before that. Activists with their minds made up tend to bulldoze their way through the other jurors and piss them off. She was on a horrible child abuse case one time and she excused someone who she recognized as just such a person. They showed up at her office very early the next morning and waited for her to show up. They lit into my friend and told her the she fucked up and she would have fried that asshole. My friend explained to her why she did what she did and the defendant was ultimatelyconvicted.
I’m surprised she was on the list anyway, if that area does it the same way mine does, via voter registration lists. Some extreme fundies don’t allow their wives to vote, either, because she might disagree with him.
As for my experience today, several jurors were chosen for this anticipated 3-day trial before lunch, and after lunch, we waited, and waited, AND WAITED, until just before 3PM when the judge walked in sans black robe, and said the defendant took a plea deal and we could all go home.
Anyway, I had started reading “Moby Dick” last summer, and brought that with me. I got the second 1/4 read, just today.
I’d say Yay!
One juror was excused today, because he mentioned that his grandfather had died and the funeral was Wednesday.
I don’t know if it’s the worst excuse or not… but my dad got called for jury duty six months after he died. Mom called the court to explain the situation. The woman who answered the phone started going off on Mom immediately. “There’s no excuse, he has to show up, why isn’t he calling himself?” Mom says “He’s dead.” Mom said the lady on the phone back-pedaled so fast. I don’t remember if Mom had to send in a copy of the death certificate or not but Dad never got called for jury duty again!
That seems like a lot of wasted effort. Why not just put the notice back in the mail with “Deceased” written on it our just throw it in the trash?
I was just reading about suffragettes. In the 19th c. it was considered absolutely scandalous for a woman to speak in public and much of the opposition to women voting was based on that. And apparently even today there are some husbands who show up when their wives vote and expect to go into the voting booth with them to ensure they vote “right” (pun absolutely intended). I think some doper who acts as an election official reported that last November.
Well, to be fair, I never claimed I didn’t have to go to court pretty frequently. 
That’s why a lot of states have expanded how they get names for the jury pool - not so much because of fundies like you described but because a lot of people won’t register to vote if it gets them out of jury duty. My state uses voter registration and driver’s license and non-driver ID lists. People might not register to vote to avoid jury duty but they won’t go without a DL or non-driver ID just to avoid jury duty.
Almost 25 years ago a coworker told me this story. As far as I know this guy
was not racist and he got along well with everyone in the office.
One day he was called in to do jury duty for a trial where the defendant was
black. Not wanting to serve, when it came his turn to be questioned he made
several racist comments about black people. The lawyer then said something
like “Thank you very much, sir” and immediately dismissed the him.
I was released for something similar. It was clear the defense was going to get us to pity how HER client was the victim of being lead into poor decisions by his friends resulting in shooting at cops. I said I am a mathematician so if you want my to decide on whether or not the prosecution has proven their case through the evidence, you want me on the jury. If your strategy is to make me feel sorry for your client you don’t want me on the jury.
That was the second day of jury selection. Early in the first day they asked a very young lady (one of the original 12 to be seated for voir dire) if she felt she couldn’t be fair. She said that as a psychology major, she learned everyone has biases. The attorney thank her and she stood up. He stopped he and said she was not excused and she was very unhappy. She was still there late on the second day when I was excused.
I once got a person out of jury duty. A very good friend of mine was on trial for a serious crime.Some of his friends, including myself, were present during jury selection. During a break in the hallway outside the courtroom I overheard a potential juror whining “Oh just say he’s guilty so we can get out of this and go home” I found my friend’s lawyer and pointed that woman out to him after telling him what I heard. Oh, my friend did not go to prison, he got two years of probation for assault. It’s a very long story that I can’t go into here, but we are still friends