Posted on 04/17/2011 8:20:33 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
About two out of three people summoned for jury duty each year in South Florida don't show up. Although some are exempt, tens of thousands simply brush it off.
And while skipping jury duty is against the law, few are punished because court staffers say the process would be too costly and time consuming.
The spike in no-shows follows a change in who is being summoned. Jurors used to be chosen from voter registration databases, but the state in 1998 switched to driver's license rolls as a way to widen the pool.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
Sit in a small waiting room all day long watching CNN on the tv on the wall, come back and do the same thing the next day and you’ll think twice about answering a call to jury duty.
Oh, I forgot, you are excused every two hours, to go feed the parking meter.
I have ignored jury duty on numerous occasions. Jury duty is forced servitude. If forced, I will certainly appear but I will not voluntarily serve.
I was called for jury duty in Austin TX one time. The instructions indicated that you must not be late. I arrived in the parking lot with plenty of time to spare but I could not find the appropriate parking area. I walked in about 1 minute late just after the door was closed to the courtroom. I was certainly not alone with perhaps 30 to 50 people arriving after me. After 30 minutes, the officer announced that everyone late was dismissed. Sometimes, it does pay to be late.
There were several others who immediately raised their hand and "begged off". But, there were also a lot of people just dying to be chosen. They we adamant about how fair they could be and how they had absolutely no prejudices at all.
I came away thinking that the courts should have a way for volunteer jurors to offer their time.
I emailed them from my duty station on official letterhead stating that I was overseas, yet they responded that they expected me to be present in 3 days.
My response- F.U.
Too many localities think they can dictate a citizens movement, or require ton of paperwork to justify those moverments.
Those who refuse to serve on a Jury don’t deserve a jury trial.
Article Three, Section Two and Amendments Six and Seven leave us with a mudled view of what the jury system supposedly entails.
Stay Safe !
I was called for local jury duty on April 4th. I got eliminated - presumably because of my job as records manager for the Clerk of Courts in our county.
And, goody, I was also on call for the past two weeks, for Western District Federal Court jury duty. Again, I didn’t get chosen.
Hey, they say it’s a priviledge.
Who knew?
Jury duty is the civic responsibility of every legally qualified adult citizen. In my opinion,if you fail to show for more than one jury summons, then you forfeit voting privilege for say—five years.
Your post is spot on.
A juror really is a kind of judge.
So a juror should really get the perks that a judge gets: free parking at the courthouse, a spacious and comfortable waiting room, and respect for you and your time.
I know, that would all cost money. But until that happens, I can see why many folks avoid a second jury duty call.
I’ve been called twice, but never selected as a juror. I’m an attorney, so I’ll probably never be chosen. I’d rather like to serve (in a short trial) just to see what a trial is like from a juror’s perspective.
In my job my work was critical to my employer. The judge would not exempt me, despite my excuses. So okay, I'm in, put me in jurors chair #1. Then the lawyers start hitting me with questions, including whether I could be fair to an illegal alien. I said as loud as I could, for everyone in the courtroom to hear "yes, as long as he's not breaking any laws". Everyone laughed out loud.
The plaintiff was an illegal alien suing a landowner after the illegal was trespassing and burglarizing and injured himself. His lawyers wanted me off the jury and the judge dismissed me. Darn.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON (1804): Jurors should acquit even against the judge's instruction...."if exercising their judgment with discretion and honesty they have a clear conviction that the charge of the court is wrong."
Florida’s jury pool selection law is moronic. The mathematics of it would make a bookie insane. I’ll not write an explanation here, but when I tried to explain to the clerk’s office in Polk county how flawed the methodology was, the shuffling, drooling zombies couldn’t comprehend what I was talking about.
When I lived there I got called 8 times in 15 years, served on several. In the same time, no one on my street, including my wife, got called.
The ultimate stupidity of Polk County:
Some years ago, TWO YEARS after we moved to Kentucky, my wife received a jury summons from Polk County (addressed to our KY address!! NOT forwarded) We had sold our FL home, retitled our cars (including notifying the state of FL of taking residence in KY) & turned in our FL driver licenses. We had absolutely NO legal ties to FL, of any sort for over two years.
Still makes me mad when I think about it.
One problem with such volunteer jurors is that they are not what the judge and the lawyers want to see in the box. These people are probably retired, well off, competent, and are ready and able to be jurors ... that's exactly opposite to what the professionals in the courtroom want. The judge wants jurors that are easy; best if they know nothing at all because then they accept anything that lawyers say as truth. The recent trial(s) of Jammie Thomas are quite representative in this aspect because the jurors spoke after the trial and demonstrated, for all to see, their complete lack of clue.
Multiple juror experiences of such volunteers would also educate them beyond what is desirable. They'd become semi-professionals who are actually aware of their rights and not always willing to reject common sense.
In other words, jurors are like politicians - "if you want the job then you shouldn't get it." A juror has certain power over people; if chosen randomly and rarely, this can't be exploited. But if your neighbor is spending his time in courts day after day he becomes a somewhat important person, without being elected or hired by the parties.
South Fla has a lot of illegals...and using the Dr License means they get summons....but they ain’t showing up....they could get deported
Three states I never want to live in:
Florida
New Jersey
California
Those who refuse to serve on a Jury don’t deserve a jury trial.
Civil litigants should pay the jury enough to ensure they get one.
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