I’ve been called about 4 times, only had to serve once and it lasted 2 days.  O enjoyed seeing how the process really worked.  It was a minor sort of thing, car accident, ditsy woman suing some guy, can’t remember all the details cause it was years ago.  More women on the jury than men, we were all about her age or the age her mother would be and yet. we found for the guy (defendant) instead of her!! 

You are lucky though they are sending you to your courthouse.  I usually get sent to the one up your way or to the one in Salem, MA.  and then end up sitting there for hours and hours before they dismiss us.  There is one about 10 minutes from me, but I never get sent there cause they usually don’t send you where you might know people!!
HA--my word is cold and it is, pretty, but cold.  We ended up with about 20” but like you, I considered it a bust!!

What is so rare as someone who wants to be an accused person’s peer?

Actually, I enjoy jury duty as well.  I’ve been called three times—for municipal court here (two days, not empaneled), for municipal court in Pittsburgh (just before I left for New Hampshire, excused), federal court in Pittsburgh (served on jury for three days, case was settled out of court). 

In addition, I served on a grand jury for a month, way back in my Louisville days.  That was cool, because we jurors got to actually participate—ask questions, seek clarifications, etc.  We shocked the prosecutors at one point, actually refusing to indict on one case.

I just think it sounds really interesting. And you’re one of several to hold someone’s fate in your hands. I should hope to put as much care into the process as I’d want someone to do for me if the roles were reversed. And I want an insider’s perspective to see how it really works. This may be my last bastion of idealism and I hope it’s not crushed.

I’m pretty sure I’d like being on a grand jury, too. But I won’t hold my breath that it’ll ever happen.

Heh. My captcha word is ‘quasimodo’. Not sure that’s a good omen.

I’ve been called a couple of times, but I’ve only served once.  I was fairly impressed with 9 of the other 11 members of the jury, but there were a couple of slacker kids who didn’t really give a rip.  They kept saying “Hang him!”

It was a case of theft from a Jack-in-the-Box, and the manager was accused.  We eventually found him guilty.  The preponderance of evidence was overwhelming, but that didn’t stop one of the jury members keeping us there an extra day because he kept thinking up more and more unlikely scenarios for how the theft could have happened without the guy’s involvement.  We finally had to say “Look.  We judge on evidence presented, not on what might have been.”

It was an interesting experience, although the number of delays was really a hassle (no court on Fridays; that was set aside for administrative work; lawyers negotiating for possible plea deal, so an hour after we got there we got sent home, etc., etc.).

I must fit some sort of profile of just exactly what lawyers are looking for in a juror, because every time I have been called for jury duty, I am selected as a juror.  Every single time.  And there have been some doozies too...there was the abortion protester who was arrested for criminal trespass and decided to represent himself at trial and started out by asking the head of the women’s clinic how many babies she killed that day; there was the poor 13-year-old girl who testified against her stepfather for sexual abuse (and the fellow juror I wanted to strangle in the jury room and threatened to report to the judge after she said she had a hard time convicting someone of a felony based in part on the testimony of a minor - a question we were specifically asked as potential jurors, i.e. “Could you convict someone of a felony based in part on the testimony of a minor?” and if you answered no, you weren’t selected for the jury); not to mention the various drug stings (2), rape trial, and insurance fraud trial.  I am exhausted just recounting them all! 

So, good luck!  It’s fun!  Heh.

I get called in all the time. I have only had to show up a few times though. Either the case was droped or my number didn’t come up on that day. But I get that little card all the time. If you don’t get to go in this time you can have my card any time you want lol.

That’s at least 6 times you’ve recounted, Alan. Are there more??? As you say, you must look/sound like the ideal jurist. What’s your secret??

That’s one of my fears, Linkmeister...being chosen to sit on a jury and finding a couple of the others who totally don’t want to be there and totally don’t care. I’d want to throttle them.

How is it that you’ve all been asked repeatedly and they’re only getting around to asking me for the second time ever? Here’s hoping the second time is the charm.

There have been more:  the drunk driver whose lawyer claimed the reason he was weaving all over the road and failed the breath test was because he was a diabetic who had not had his insulin shot (GUILLTY! shock) and the woman who worked at the bank and testified that she had absolutely no idea how vendor payment vouchers found their way from her hands to the teller cage to cash to her purse, over and over to the tune of $100,000+ over a two year period (GUILTY! shock). 

Whew!  I don’t have a secret for getting selected, but I have noticed if there’s more than one row of potential jurors, your chances of getting picked are greatly enhanced the further back you are.  I’ve seen it happen over and over - the lawyers quiz the heck out of the first few, pass them over, then run out of time and just tell the rest that they’re on the jury.  Makes you feel so important!