Jury Duty

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sts23

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May 17, 2009
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Right now I am in court awaiting to be selected for jury duty.. apparently im going to have to be here until almost 5pm... its 953am now..

anyone has experience with jury duty?

share your experiences, or whatever...
 


i received a letter once to appear and dumped that shit in the trash ;]

ive been ignoring it as much as i could..and then i got a letter saying im going to be prosecuted or something if i ignore the next one...
 
I get hauled in pretty regularly, and last time I served it was for a day and got excused later. The clerks seem to understand there's a group of people they can't tap reliably for a case, so keep them around for an afternoon as a formality. After doing the day's "service" you're free to go in my county (Nassau), and they don't bother you for four years.

One day, I got a notice from a court in another county (King's) that I don't live in, to show up for federal court. Federal courts can and will tap people from several surrounding counties. This was a disaster, because federal trials last for a long time, and it was very inconvenient for me to haul ass at 8 am to Brooklyn. Reading the fine print, I found out that I would be able to be excused as a sole proprietor of a business, so I grabbed the business cards and the corp. papers and sent them a large packet of copies that got me off the rolls.

Whew!
 
Ignoring them is the wrong way to go, they can actually jail you for that.

Instead, appear extremely incompetent or extremely bias, but masked with a hint of trying to get on the jury such on the day of jury selection. :P
Here's a tip they don't want you to know: The threats are mostly huffing and puffing to scare you into complying. The courts lack funding and staff to chase people, so you can get away with a lot of non-compliance.

In case I'm about to be flamed, I have served several times and was picked for a jury once. The case got settled as the jurors were awaiting trial (picking a jury is a way to force the sides to settle, meaning jurors are merely a bargaining chip in the process).
 
yeah im in queens. my dad ignored it for a while and i am not sure (i was young at the time) but i believe they actually had a warrant out for his arrest unless he complied..

i guess it depends on the county you live in but here in new york its a bit of a different story..

yeah my dad just received a federal jury duty summons but he is really sick and disabled now so i sent that in and lets hope he can get out of it.
 
Most people don't know anything about jury nullification. Which is too bad, because it can save lives from bad laws.

If you tell them you understand jury nullification, they will never call on you. Technically, the citizens on the jury are to judge the facts AND the law, but in modern courts, the judges insist upon INSTRUCTING what the law is and never advise jurors of their right to nullify.

For example, if a guy was called into court for possession of marijuana, and the jury decided the law was unjust, then he would get off even if he had clearly possessed marijuana in violation of an established law.

Jury nullification is the people's check on the judiciary.

FOXNews.com - Justice Often Served By Jury Nullification - Opinion

Fully Informed Jury Association
 
I was 9 months pregnant and had to go for at least the initial screening. They kept me there all day and then let me go I think because they decided I wouldn't be too lenient with the 3rd time offender child molester that was on trial.
 
Im 23 and ive had jury duty 6 times, ive served twice. I really dont know why any lawyer would want me to be on any jury
 
the last time I got called I had 2 houses in different counties, so I just told them I moved to the other county and provided the address of my other house... haven't been bothered since...

that was a number of years ago, and these days I wouldn't mind serving on a jury or 2... got a little more free time now than I did back then...

Most people don't know anything about jury nullification. Which is too bad, because it can save lives from bad laws.

agreed... it's a shame that most are unaware of jury nullification...

although in my state marijuana is already decriminalized, so most cases of possession never make it to court unless multiple kilos are involved... the odds of catching a pot related case in my area are pretty low, otherwise I'd be more willing to step up for jury duty and help out some fellow potheads...
 
Most people don't know anything about jury nullification. Which is too bad, because it can save lives from bad laws.

If you tell them you understand jury nullification, they will never call on you. Technically, the citizens on the jury are to judge the facts AND the law, but in modern courts, the judges insist upon INSTRUCTING what the law is and never advise jurors of their right to nullify.

For example, if a guy was called into court for possession of marijuana, and the jury decided the law was unjust, then he would get off even if he had clearly possessed marijuana in violation of an established law.

Jury nullification is the people's check on the judiciary.

FOXNews.com - Justice Often Served By Jury Nullification - Opinion

Fully Informed Jury Association

A mere mention of this during the jury selection phase has gotten me out of jury duty many times. Judges and lawyers HATE people that know the law.
 
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You're going to jail if you ever get pulled over.

Just sayin.

Maybe in Texas. I've chuckled at and immediately discarded a couple jury summonses in the past (and subsequent threats).

It would be pretty tough to police us deviants, considering only 10% of us show up for jury duty.

EDIT: I understand the article is 10 years old, but I can't imagine it has gotten any better.
 
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