Not my experience at all. I was seated on a murder trial this past June and everybody that was seated with me were very clean-cut, educated people. In fact, all the "marginal" people you speak of in my jury pool were pre-empted. A slouching guy in a sweatshirt who was initially seated next to me fell asleep and the defense lawyer immediately pre-empted him off the panel while the selection process was still on-going.
While I have a very important job, it was a great experience to sit on a murder trial and see how the process worked first hand. Besides, I caught up on all my work-related email and phone calls during the many breaks we had so my employer didn't miss me that much at all (much to the chagrin of the people under me).
Yes, we did convict the guy and sent him to prison for life without parole. No OJ jury here.
You have a point. Many of the people seated seemed to be pretty decent and respectable— what I meant more by “marginal” was that most of them seemed to have zero personality.
Of course, I did not get to see the FINAL juror composition of any of these trials. My suspicion would be that the blandness of the jurors only increased through the process.
It truly is a life-goal of mine to sit on one or more meaningful cases. But I cannot do it now without jeopardizing my career.
In all liklihood, when I attempt to actually get seated, I will have to be FAR more devious and crafty in order NOT to get booted by the lawyers.
That’s the irony of all this.