Adventures in Jury Duty

I've been called three times. The first time I was in college and was able to beg off due to being a full time student. But I swear the ink was barely dry on my degree when I got the second one. Spent two days waiting, and on the second day I was actually pulled to go to a court room, but right before we entered, the defendant cut a plea bargain and we were sent back. Never got called again. The third time, I got the summons with instructions to call the day before I was to report to see if I was needed, and I wasn't.

Of course, now that I've said this, I'll get called any day now.

I just got called again for the 5th time in the 16 years I've lived here in Atlanta. My date was supposed to be at the same time I'll be traveling for my new job, so they moved my date to July. However, I'm the sole means of support for my family, and if I don't work, I don't get paid. But my hardship isn't enough to get me out of it, but hopefully it's enough for a release from the judge (if I get picked). I was also an alternate (which I don't know if I will be again) on the original, which is similar to Richard's "call before you go" option.

I've served once (5 day civil trial) and was in the pool for the last time I was in, but the DA got the flu and couldn't attend jury selection, so they sent us all home. They like us IT guys, I think. If I was getting paid by my job while I was there, I wouldn't mind doing it. But if they make me try to serve when I don't get paid while I'm not working, I will be highly pissed.

HarleyQuinn22, I served once. There was no guilt or innocence involved, as the jury just had to decide how much $$$$ the person was owed. I said...$0, but I was threated by an older juror, who said that he would be willing to be there for...weeks, as he was retired. I folded, and that was that.

I was picked again. I didn't want to serve anymore, after that...Horrible...4 day experience. I was in the room with the Judge, the defense attorney and his client. I was asked a question, and I responded in my own imitable way, that I would pick that the client was...Guilty. This angered the judge, and terrified the defendant. I was told to leave the courtroom. As I left, the judge told me to stop, as he still felt the need to yell at me. That was that. Hopefully, I never have to serve again.

I have no problem with people who go to jury duty and bitch about it. They still did their duty.

It's the ones who refuse to go that I consider fucking shitstains.

I've been served three times: once in Orlando, once in Chicago and once here in Los Angeles. Chicago was a show-up-and-read-all-day without getting called in, but I got on a trial both in Orlando and LA. Orlando was a juicy, sordid attempted murder trial which lasted about 3 straight days. L.A. was a dreary, mind-numbing legal malpractice case which went 7 days stretched over a three-week period. Bleh.

I received a summons for jury duty around 8 years ago and I didn't take it seriously.

Don't EVER fucking do that unless you want a Sheriff showing up at your door with a court summons.

After visiting a judge, I was assigned a week to serve. Since I have a last name that starts with a W and the selection process was alphabetical, I basically spent four days sitting in a room, starting and finishing 1984 and White Noise and playing Metroid on a Game Boy.

My mother, on the other hand, was summoned for a federal jury in Atlanta. This wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that she had just started chemo for breast cancer and those assholes were fighting tooth and nail to keep from giving her an exemption. She was almost to the point where she was going to have to get a lawyer before they finally relented.

I got called in for my "civic duty" in 2003. It was the same day that the police raided Neverland Ranch, so on TV all day were a multitude of fat sheriff's deputies making statements about how they couldn't tell us anything at this point in time. All the magazines were a few months old, so I got to read about how Saddam Hussein most definitely has WMDs and they're pointed right at my face.

Then they sent us to another courthouse for more of the same. We were cut loose around 5pm.

Can't wait to do it again someday!

That's what mine was. The judge promised us on Monday when we got selected that the trial would end by Friday, and said that the lawyers had agreed to this as well. And it did indeed end on Friday. We deliberated for an entire 5 minutes before we found for the defendant.

No, we weren't there for MJ jury selection. The news just happened to break the same day, pre-empting Price Is Right and Dr. Phil. The actual MJ trial was months and months later. To be honest, I'd have rather watched Dr. Phil than hours of helicopter shots of Neverland's front gates.

I got called up three times. The first two I got out of on account of work commitments but on the third I figured I should do my bit for the community and after arranging cover for work (self-employed is a bitch sometimes) I bit the bullet and went in.

It was a day and a bit of waiting, reading, watching TV, listening to podcasts, and then I got called in. Then I got selected. Then, in the jury room, the other jurors chose me as foreman.

The case was assault with intent to injure, a road rage incident in which a large middle-aged, bearded white man had been cut off by a young, early 20s maori guy driving a truck (I think he was delivering bread or milk) in early morning traffic. Large Beard Man sped up and overtook, throwing the bird and hollering at Young Maori Guy, who also happened to have his girlfriend along for the ride. A couple of miles down the road, with Large Beard Man at traffic lights, Young Maori Guy pulled alongside, got out of his truck, went round to open the passenger door of Large Beard Man's Toyota Land Cruiser, reached in and grabbed him, and beat the shit out of him until his girlfriend pulled him away.

The kid admitted he'd beat the guy, but his defence was that he didn't have the intent to injure. After three and a bit days of trial and about three hours of deliberation in the jury room we returned a guilty verdict. It really shouldn't have taken us so long but over the course of the trial Large Beard Man had been revealed as such an unlikeable kind of guy that three or four of the jurors were leaning on, "He deserved it". Quite scary when people allow that kind of attitude to sway their decisions on justice.

I also felt bad for the young guy that I had to say the word he didn't want to hear. Having the responsibility of being the face and voice of the jury was something I hadn't wanted but when I was given it I took it very seriously and I think I did a good job at it. The offender had done a very stupid and unforgiveable thing, and I was certain he was guilty of the crime with which he'd been charged, but in a lot of ways he also reminded me of myself as a younger (and stupider) man, or one of my mates, and the victim really did seem like a knob. I never found out what happened on sentencing day.

Our poor foreman...we didn't elect him until we were ready to render our verdict. We filled out the form, and basically just put "defendant" on the form, but didn't put the name. He was already nervous, so he stood up, pulled out the paper, and said, "We find for the defendant..." and then said the plaintiff's name. The name wasn't written on the form, just "plaintiff" or "defendant", so he was ad-libbing. Whoops.

Also, post-trial weirdness...the lawyer for the plaintiff called every member of the jury and asked why we found in favor of the defendant. I told him that he didn't present a good case, and that at no time did they show any proof that the surgeon's work caused the woman to have a stroke. I also told him that he acted like a jerk, and was very unlikeable. I finished it with, "...anything else you want to know?" He wasn't interested.