Octang Frye

I agree with dc_koop; it is a civic duty. That said, I wouldn't want to be on a grand jury and sequestered for two years.

Last time I went, made it through the bit where the prosecution and defense interview the jurors. Was the first one dismissed.
At the start of jury selection, people were trying really hard to get out of it. Some of it was quite funny. People claiming medical issues (can't sit down - judge asks them if they have medication, and they say yes, so judge says, sit down, not excused.)
Some people have convictions of the same alleged crime. They were excused. This one guy asks to be excused and the judge asks why. He says, I don't like cops. Everyone laughed and he was excused.

Giantaxe

That murder trial I mentioned above had 600 potential jurors. Yes 600. Some excuses were fine, especially economic ones. But there were a fair few "I hate cops/minorities/you name it" type of answers, including one woman who claimed to hate the judge. That took some guts.

cheradenine

i'm not a citizen but recently received a court summons for jury. bit of a muck up there!!

dc koop

I was picked as an alternate juror on my last service. When the jury went into deliberation we two alternates spent 5 days up in the jury assembly room. Bloody boring, reading magazines all day long. We weren't allowed to speak to the other jurors about the deliberations if we ran into them during lunchtime break. When a verdict was reached we were allowed into the court again to hear it. Hung jury. Someone said, probably nothing more than a rumour, that anyone who had served on a hung jury never got called again.

One guy showed up the first day looking like a Hawaiian beachcomber. Hawaiian shirt, shorts and flip flops. He wasn't picked.

I was hourly paid as an employee of a local city. At first the only city employees who were paid for jury duty were upper management. Later after the union got involved we were paid also but in return had to give the city the money paid us by the court...... about 25 dollars usually...... double windfall penalty ha! ha! ha!

Steerpike

I got a jury summons a few weeks ago for Monday July 16 at Scottsdale City Court. I went online and registered for it, but then remembered I'm off to UK (already have tickets) on Saturday July 21 ... so I think I'm cutting it a bit fine! Not sure whether I should try to cancel now, after already registering, or just wait for the day and present my ticket as an excuse. Being a City Court, I'm assuming this would likely be a short affair?

username.exe

Those of you who have served on a jury, I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are on the general quality of the jury pool?

Would you be happy to have your case judged by a jury of similar peers?

Giantaxe

Jury pool or jury? I thought the two juries I ended up on were both excellent: everyone took their responsibilities very seriously and deliberated thoroughly. The jury pool, though, was a different story. Quite surprising how many people had no concept of things like "innocent until proven guilty", "beyond a reasonable doubt" etc. And it's going to sound racist, but I found it very interesting how many people of Asian descent believed that if a police officer provided evidence that evidence must be correct. All in all I felt both prosecution and defence attorneys did a great job of ending up with competent juries.

steveq

That that obligation can push a self-employed citizen into bankrupcy is WRONG - you need to be remunerated at a fair price.

Steve

scrubbedexpat091

Indeed.

watchamacallit

Yet another reason I will not become a US citizen.

steveq