Roody

Well, very few people enjoy jury duty. You'd have to have a pretty big stick up your ass to think it's un-american to be happy about getting out of it.

velocycling

Where I live, if you do not take a parking pass the Court gives you a free bus/train pass. I took that as encouraging alternative transportation. ;-)

The lawyers must not want me on their juries. The last two times after answering questions from the judge, the laywers excused me from duty. Oh well, so I just had to ride home of course.

scattered73

Being a convicted felon I have a free pass from doing jury duty. Jury duty can be a financial burden on some; a coworker got stuck on a high profile case that lasted four weeks. While they did put him up in a hotel room his bills were racking up and his job didn't pay for the time he missed.

Sailorman13

Financial hardship is not a reason for being excused, no matter how severe.
Last time I was selected from the pool for jury duty, it was going to be a long case and during the questioning I told the judge (honestly) that I would be driven to distraction by the fact that my one-man business would suffer not just for the time I was there, but probably permanently. Didn't cut it. The response was, in effect, Tough luck & sucks to be you.

"I sure wouldn't want me on my jury", I pleaded. "Well,...you're not on trial" the judge retorted...

Then the questions from the lawyers began.
During my answer to one question, I let it be known that I don't trust a thing cops say and I believe they lie as much or more than criminals. The judge looked at me strangely.
"I cannot vote guilty if the defendant faces the death penalty", I responded to another question.
"You don't have to decide the penalty, just the guilt or innocence" the judge said.
"But if he's found guilty, the defendant is subject to the death penalty, right?"
"Right", the judge said.
"Then I cannot, in good conscience, vote guilty", I replied.
"You're dismissed", the judge said.

Take home lesson: If you think cops are not above "testilying" and you are against the death penalty, they don't want you on a jury. The defense might, but the judge and prosecutors sure don't.

BTW, people who didn't have transportation were told to take a bus or a cab. No reimbursement was offered. Compensation was $6/day. This was some years ago. It's probably $15 by now.

I-Like-To-Bike

Do you have any personal experience with jury duty, anywhere, or you just repeating something you read on the Internet?

mr geeker

i've never experienced jury duty, but from what i've heard its a pain in the keister. getting out of it for walking there... thats kinda funny.

as for the guy on the bike that almost got a speeding ticket on the bike trail, well, was there a posted speed limit? i also agree that it would be worth keeping to hang on the wall... though i doubt i'd pay it. to me thats just a cop trying to meet quota.

gwd

I'm one who enjoys it as an entertaining and educational diversion. Is there a fairer way to deal with people accused of crimes? How about secret military tribunals? Its a small way that a car-free perspective can be injected into these decisions. You also get to represent intentionally car free people as decent citizens to the judge and attorneys. I've never been on a case where car-free
was an issue but the assistant DA was impressed when the car-free guy showed up in a snowstorm while some of the car-dependent assumed the court would be closed and didn't even bother to call. The car-free juror also showed up on time when the car-dependent sometimes had the "traffic" excuse for being late.

BarracksSi

I can't agree about it being entirely voluntary. They'd end up with people whose hobby is going to courtrooms and looking to either make or break convictions.

Okay, THAT sucks. It should be illegal to withhold pay when someone's called for jury duty. Employers continue paying military reservists when they get deployed, so how can they basically penalize someone who's stuck doing something that they didn't volunteer for at all?

I'd do jury duty if I could, but my job won't let me go for an undetermined length of time. Each time I get a summons, I tell my CO that I really wouldn't mind going. But, he says that they can't afford me to be gone (even if a months-long case is rare, it's still a possibility), and I get a letter to submit to the court to be excused. So, I haven't had to do it yet in DC; but still, I feel like I'm not fully doing my share as a local citizen.

Roody

I said most people don't enjoy jury duty and I stand by that. I don't agree with trying to get out of it, but you don't have to pretend to be heart-broken if you do get out of it.

I enjoyed one stint of jury duty that involved a federal civil case--a truck driver who was hit by a train. I found the expert testimony to be very interesting, as transportaion is one of my interests. (I love trains, planes, trucks and automobiles--and especially bicycles.) I was the lone holdout on the jury. I thought the dead truck driver's family should have gotten more compensation than the other jurors wanted. Federal civil cases evidently allow one vote short of unanimous, so I didn't cause a hung jury. Who knows--maybe my carfree perspective made me think differently about the case, but I really don't think so.

zeppinger

I have gone to the summons twice but never been "selected." I also volunteered about once every two weeks when I was in highschool for "peer trials." Basically, an underage criminal who has already been convicted or admitted guilt is punished by his peers. There is a sort of mock trial but the person is already guilty, all you, as a mock jury member, do is deal out punishment in community service time, repayment, juvy hall, ect. It was pretty interesting at the time and I dont know if they still have that program or not. That was back in the day when I was still considering law studies.