I have to show up and waste a day tomorrow. It would have been today, but the courts apparently take an extra day off for New Year’s, which is good because as long as they are not in session, the activist judges aren’t rewriting the Constitution.
But I will never, ever, ever, ever get picked. Ever. I’m intelligent, educated and half a lifetime ago, I was a deputy sheriff. So in the name of “civic duty”, I have to go waste a day sitting on my butt in very uncomfortable surroundings. If I would get picked, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing; at least, I would feel productive.
I guess I don’t handle rejection well or something. Plus, the so-called juror’s fee doesn’t even cover the cost of parking.
You’re the rootin’, tootinest, wrap yourself in the flag, “Ve must obey ze government unquestioningly” right-winger on this board. . . and you’re whining about having to perform the civic duty required of every registered voter?
What a hypocrite you are! I guess your patriotism only lasts until you are inconvenienced. :rolleyes:
Ha. I was one of 12 who found a crackhouse murderer guilty on the day before Christmas Eve. Then, the judge told the jury that we had to return on Monday the 26th to continue deliberating on the co-defendant in the case. This lead to a long chain of events that forced me to cancel my Christmas trip. We came back on the 26th, only to be deadlocked on the charges for the co-defendant.
Oh, and about that week before Christmas. My office was closed and I didn’t have to report to work. But I spent the week at the courthouse, doing my duty. And while it did put a major crimp in my Christmas plans, I’m glad I did it.
So, you have to go report to the courthouse for a couple of hours, eh? My heart bleeds.
A couple of weeks ago a Scott Peterson thread in the Pit was hijacked into a discussion about people scamming their way out of jury duty. I was the only one fighting against a few people who thought bullshitting their way out of jury duty was perfectly acceptable. The gods of irony were smiling because I got a summons last week. Of course I will show up and I won’t bitch about it. It’s part of the whole citizen of a free country thing.
yep, no sympathy here, either. I’ve worked w/offenders in this geographic area for 25+ years, and have been called for jury duty twice. And jury duty isn’t just for criminal trials ya know. not to mention that there’s possability that you won’t know the major particpants involved. and even if you do know some of 'em, you still may be able to serve (I knew of a case where the juror knew the primary witness, and the mother of the defendant 'cause both had been residents of the half way house she- and I- had worked at. she was allowed to serve).
Can you people read? He’s not griping because of getting picked for jury duty, he’s griping because he’s afraid he WON’T get picked to actually serve. Every time I’ve been called, I haven’t been able to go, and I would have liked to have served on a jury at least once.
(once I was pregnant, once I was nursing, once I was on unemployment, lived 20 miles from the nearest court with no income with which to obtain daycare or to travel TO the courthouse, I put those down on the summons paperwork as stated here and the courts found them more than adequate).
I kept making sure that I kept my voter’s registration up to date with the hopes that they’d call when I could serve, but I think they gave up on me, I haven’t gotten one for years. Do they just drop you off of the list if you aren’t able to the first and/or second times you are asked?
Are you registered to vote? Your location says Chicago area - I get called at least once a year for Cook County. I have to go on the 14th to the Daily Center, as a matter of fact. (but I am not complaining.)
Since I was 18, so for six years now. I’ve also heard that you don’t necessarily have to be a registered voter to be summoned for jury duty. But anywho, still no word.
The bottom line truth is that, depending on location, most people called for jury duty won’t have to serve. The two times I was called, I was up for a week, had to go in on the first day, was part of a group of 100 or so of which 12 would be picked. I was never even questioned.
and, of course, as I noted, jury duty also includes civil trials, and law enforcement history alone won’t necessarily bump you off. So, in other words, his gripe - essentially that he’ll have to take some time off work to report w/o the liklihood of serving- is true for (IME) pretty much all people who are called for jury duty, and his rationale for why he thinks he’ll ‘never’ get called wouldn’t, (again IME) necessarily be true.
I agree with you. But maybe this is the part about people wanting to get out of it. Maybe they don’t feel like they have to be on a jury. In a way, it’s kinda contradictory to say, it’s your patriotic duty as a citizen to vote, in this free country.
None of what you say above is what the OP addressed in his post. He doesn’t gripe about what TYPE of jury he’s hoping to serve on,
Maybe I’m the one who’s misreading hiim, but to me, his OP is pretty clear in that he hopes, and has hoped in the past to be picked, but has only had to do the show up thing. His OP reads like “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” to me, and that’s a legitimate gripe. Particularly if one IS interested in serving and hasn’t yet had a chance, I too would be dissappointed in his shoes.
Hey OP buck up, maybe you WILL be one of the chosen!
He gripes about ‘having to take the day off work’ and that he’ll “never ever ever be selected” mentioning his LE background.
each point is addressed in my post, which still stands. “having to take day off work” = civic duty - when called to jury duty everybody called has to take the day off work, regardless of if they will serve on a jury and again, most (IME) called do not end up serving.
“never ever ever be selected” = true for most people (again IME), but specifically the LE background he mentions as a likely cause for exclusion doesn’t exclude from civil trials and (again, IME) not necessarily in criminal procedings either. Again, depending on area, situation etc.
His gripe reads to me “I’d like to sit on a jury, but don’t think I’ll ever be able to 'cause I’ve got an education and a LE background etc. and yet still I have to take the day off work to answer the call to jury duty”.
to which I still respond "so the fuck what? answering the call to jury duty is the civic responsability, even if you never serve. and besides, you might in any number of cases. "
Seems to me he’d be okay serving on a jury, but he can’t be bothered to report to a courthouse to check in. Boo hoo. And it might cost him a couple of bucks to do his civic duty. (notice, no quotes around those two words.) Boo hoo, boo hoo.
No, again you’re mis-reading the OP. Voting is the responsibility of every citizen, to keep all them “activist judges from re-writing the Constitution” to do silly stuff like guarantee that minorities have equal rights – err, I mean special treatment.
Well, I guess I took him to mean something less sinister than others did. It seemed to me, based on his post that it’s NOT that he has to do the waiting thing, but that he’s frustrated with having to do the waiting thing AGAIN, and possibly getting rejected again after doing the waiting to no end.
I didn’t take him to mean that it was the waiting itself, or that he was too good for the waiting part or whatever, but rather the waiting and possibly getting rejected. But then, I guess I don’t tend to vilify things others say as having the worst possible connotations without first giving them the benefit of the doubt either.
Not that you’re doing that, but others seem to have a tendency to do that quite frequently.
So? Does this actually automatically disqualify someone from serving?
My husband served in NY on a jury- apparently both sides were going through the jurors and rejecting one after the other- finally the judge (I think) just picked he and two other people without asking a single, solitary question to them. Not even what they did for a living. It was a crimminal trial, too.