The responsibility of jury duty

For a long time I treated it as a sacred duty, and once served where I was the only one on the jury who didn't want to convict the poor kid, who IMO was clearly entrapped for selling drugs. (Eventually I caved.) After that I just ignored any notices I got. Now that you mention it, I haven't gotten any in years...didn't realize we outgrow the responsibility if we live long enough. Something positive to aging!
 
I was called up for jury duty about 8 weeks ago. Two envelopes arrived the same day. The first one told me I must attend on the
panel and then the next envelope told me what courthouse to go to, and it could go on for 8 weeks. I immediately rang the number to be excused and told them I was 81 and thought I might too old to do the job. She asked me if my health was good and when I told her all my past operations, she said I can be excused. If I'd been much younger, I would have done it.
 
Not anymore, I was summoned several times in a short period of time. I won't do it anymore and this area only does it by voting rolls. I don't vote anymore either.
 
Oldeagle66 said:
Not anymore, I was summoned several times in a short period of time. I won't do it anymore and this area only does it by voting rolls. I don't vote anymore either.
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I think it's by voting rolls here, too. My son has really considered not voting because of it. My husband was called last month and he's 74, I served several times and enjoyed it, but that's when I didn't have a job to worry about. I was called for Grand Jury duty a few years ago and I was one of the only two rejected out of about fifty people. He and I felt sort of hurt.
 
I havenā€™t been called in years and have never been required to report.

In this area we are assigned a number and are required to call a recorded line to see which numbers are required to report.

We donā€™t have an upper age limit but if you are over 70 you can request an exemption, which may require a doctorā€™s note.

In this area the pool of potential jurors are randomly selected from lists of registered voters, holders of driversā€™ licenses or IDā€™s issued by the Division of Motor Vehicles, New York State income tax filers, recipients of unemployment insurance or family assistance, and from volunteers.

I would prefer not to be called for a variety of reasons.
 
In NJ, everyone gets called regardless of occupation, etc. You, of course, must be 18yrs old. The names come from registered voters lists and driver's licenses and volunteers. Once, I was called and my group was being impaneled. Well, the case was fraught with medical problems which led to a serious felony. I was excused out of hand because I was a nurse and former cop. Never called again.

We can request permanent excuse from Jury Duty after age 65 or if we have a disability.
 
The one and only time I was ever called up for jury duty it clashed with the finals exams for my degree. I told them this and was excused.

In a way I'm sorry about it because I think it could be an interesting thing to be a part of. I've never been inside of a courthouse so just the fact of going somewhere I've never been before would be interesting in itself. Add to that the importance of being put in a position of having to decide on someone else's future based on just one set of evidence and rules regarding it, and I think it makes for an interesting episode to live through.
 
I was called for jury duty. I was on several cases, but they were all settled by plea deals.
I always thought that I could judge someone just on the facts-no emotions. We, the jury panel, were seated right behind the defendant. He was this weaselly guy. He had this unbelievable gorgeous girlfriend. He was laughing and making fun of the people in the room. I didn't know anything about the case, but I knew that weaselly SOB did it.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I was called for jury duty. I was on several cases, but they were all settled by plea deals.
I always thought that I could judge someone just on the facts-no emotions. We, the jury panel, were seated right behind the defendant. He was this weaselly guy. He had this unbelievable gorgeous girlfriend. He was laughing and making fun of the people in the room. I didn't know anything about the case, but I knew that weaselly SOB did it.
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And if you were wrong and he really hadn't done it --- who cares? ;)

The case I was on in Georgia was to decide if a young man who had a DUI could keep his license to get to work and back. He seemed really sorry about driving drunk that one time, he really needed his job and we felt bad for his little wife and child, so we were all set to let him keep his license. Then we quit for the day. The next morning the judge told us we were no longer needed. The man had seen one of our jurors at the Seven-Eleven, stopped and pleaded with her about the case when he knew he wasn't allowed to talk to any of us, plus he was drunk.
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I first served when I was 20 and not again until I went to work for UPS and then it was almost yearly. I was always picked, because they liked UPS drivers serving because they were paid their regular hourly pay, by UPS, for 8 hours daily. I liked it, but since normal daily wage included 2 hours overtime, it made for a smaller paycheck. It was also mostly boring and slow, even a murder trial which was the only one where we found the guy guilty. The other cases were game violations where the Game Wardens didn't have any evidence to counter reasonable doubt. One civil case that was so boring, that I wanted to sue both parties and attorneys for cruel and unusual punishment. :LOL:
 
Haven't been called in ages but would rather not serve again. I've lost a lot of confidence in our legal system lately especially at the top.
Plus I find it very uncomfortable to sit for long periods.
 

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