18 Comments

i tell people just to say, “fry ’em.” it goes like this:

Mr. X, do you think you can be impartial in this case?

Fry ’em.

But we haven’t heard any evidence and

Fry ’em!

And this is really just a breach of contract case…

FRY ‘EM!!!

“Oh, he’s innocent, I can tell just by looking at him.”

I’m a big fan of “he’s been indicted, so he’s probably guilty, right?”

Every time I have jury duty, I get as far as the question “What do you do for a living?” and get dismissed. So far my answers have been “aircraft mechanic, CAD designer and Engineer.

My experiences are much like Jim’s.

Try mentioning that you used to sell firearms and body armor to law enforcement, but now work as legal staff for a major manufacturer. Its worked every time but one. Multiple charges of Rape/Attempted Rape/Assualt/Assault with a Deadly/ trial, involving multiple victims and several incidents.

I kind of wish I was on juries more often, but whatever I bring to the panel is something that one side or the other typically doesn’t want in the jury box.

“Every time I have jury duty, I get as far as the question “What do you do for a living?” and get dismissed. So far my answers have been “aircraft mechanic, CAD designer and Engineer.”

Well of course you get sent packing. The last thing they want is a gainfully employed and educated male.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/sotomayor_misses_supreme_court

Bring some FIJA pamphlets with you.

My grandfather was a Chief of Police in Kalamazoo and Denver. Prosecution loves me. Defense uses a challenge I get excluded.

These were all funny. In practice, people usually come up with stuff that is uniquely uncreative.

The Federal corruption trial of Birmingham Alabama Mayor Larry Langford began yesterday, and a jury was seated. Among Judge Coogler’s instructions to the jury, in addition to the usual admonitions to avoid news coverage, was to refrain from using social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. As easy as this rule is to break, and as difficult as it is to enforce, I would think it provides ample material for automatic appeals.

I knew we would immediately digress into sharing our own experiences. Well, I don’t want to be left out, so… Last time I was called up, I was way too close to the front row, the weather that week was beautiful (rare around here), and it was an incest case. I could cite examples favoring either side for each question the councils put to us, so I simply chose to cite examples favoring the defense. Defense would tend to have more strikes in hand in a case like this, right? At some point in the afternoon, the plaintiff council called on me to answer his question by pointing to me and saying, “Let me guess, you have a friend who…” It worked like a charm.

Correction, plaintiff would have more strikes. Defense had to use his on the “fry ’em” crowd.

Then, why do people want to get out of jury duty in the first place? Because it is a costly interruption of their employment and a burdensome interruption of their lives. If selected for a jury, you could be tied up for months, paid a pittance for your trouble, and watch a judge overturn the verdict or sentence you labored to deliver.

If you are called for jury duty in my jurisdiction, you are paid $6 per day for the first day, which will barely pay for your parking at the courthouse. Each additional day, you are paid $40, which is well below the federal minimum wage. Meanwhile, the judge gets paid $600-700 per day and each of the lawyers gets paid $2,000. No wonder people try to shun jury duty, when it means being treated like a peon.

In my county those tips might get you off of a jury, but not out of jury duty. Around here you have to go downtown and sit in the county courthouse for a week whether or not you are actually selected for a jury.

I have been called for jury duty several times. The new jurors arrive in a bad mood and grumbling about having to give up a week of their time, but at the end of the week almost unanimously those who served on a jury say it was a worthwhile experience and are glad they did it.

has anyone ever tried suing to enforce the minimum wage act for jurors?

I know we are ordinarily agains t lawsuits here, but that would be fun to try.

Jack,
while I am likely in the minority, I believe Jury Duty is just that, a Duty of citizenship – and a small price to pay for our right to a jury trial in many cases. That I am paid by the state in an amount less than the fees incurred for parking near the courthouse and the gas I used in travel to get there is immaterial to the performance of that duty.

Almost everyplace that I have worked at has paid time off for jury duty. All you have to do is to sign the check that you are given over to the company and you are paid for the time. The only time that I have ever had a problem with jury duty was when I was in the pool for Federal Jury Duty. I had spent most of the past year training and qualifying to play in a tournament at the national level and had to drop out because I couldn’t guarentee being availible if I was needed for duty. I offered to let them extend the time I would be in the pool, but, they wouldn’t go for it. I never did get a call to report and missed the tournament.