I’d love to serve on a jury at some point, but my bosses would shoot me dead before allowing it, and of course, they pay zero days to be away.
So, I go when summoned and torpedo myself off the jury. In all probability, though, I’d never survive all the preemptory challenges and actually sit on a trial. As stated, the jurors that actually get seated are pretty marginal individuals, by and large. There are notable exceptions.
Anyway, just so that you know here is the foolproof way to spend the least amount of time in the court room:
1. When you’re called from the pool to go into the court room for the interview process, DO NOT claim financial hardship EVEN if they say this is a long case— like a murder case. Just shut up and stay there. If you say you can’t do a long case they’ll just keep sending you back to the pool and trying you out on other cases until they find something that fits your schedule.
You want to get out of there fast. Getting called into five different court rooms is not the way.
2. Once you’re in the court room you will be asked a series of questions designed to determine your biases. Do not be an a-hole about it. Just casually mention that your brother is Department of Justice, your godfather was the captain of your hometown police department and your best friend was in the Secret Service before he joined the FBI.
You will be GONE in the first round of preemptory challenges.
Declare yourself in favor of jury nullification, and no judge will let you sit.
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.
In most staes, lying to get out of Jury Duty is Perjury, so I don’t recommend it.
Any time anyone asks you a question or gives you a direction, simply cup one hand behind your (presumably same) ear and ask, 'Huh?'.
You'll be out of the pool in 10 minutes, won't even have to sit for voir dire.
Like the jury in OJ's murder trial.