Are you a scumbag if you escape serving on a jury?

[Warik]

This has been bugging me for about a day.

I had jury duty yesterday. For those not familiar with how it works, you sit in a room with hundreds of other angry people and waste a day. You get called a few times to be interviewed by a judge and some lawyers for a particular case, then they decide if you're going to be on the jury. If you get picked, 2-3 more days of your life are gone forever. If you don't, you go back to the waiting room until they call you again.

If you don't get picked all day, you're off the hook for a year.

This was for civil court. I got called twice and effortlessly got dismissed (most assuredly by the defense) both times. Many other members of the potential jury had PERFECT opportunities to escape and did not seem to take advantage of them for some reason. Example: Both cases were related to auto insurance. The lawyers asked if anyone was insured by these people. Some people said yes. They were all asked if they would be biased one way or the other since they were insured by these people. Believe it or not, they ALL said "no I wouldn't be biased."

Well, I wasn't insured by the insurance companies, but when asked, I said that I was biased against insurance companies because I believe premiums are too high, especially for one in my age+gender+marital status group, and that I've had bad experiences with insurance agencies in the past and so I did not believe I could be a fair juror.

I don't feel like a scumbag because I got off (after all, I was completely truthful, not like I lied under oath or anything), but I do feel a bit guilty that it is my civic duty according to the Constitution and that I managed to escape.

So... am I (or are we) assholes if we can avoid having to serve on a jury with 100% certainty every single time, or are we fulfilling our civic duty and being upstanding citizens by SHOWING UP for potential jury selection, and it is not our fault that we don't get picked as long as we're perfectly honest?

[pokerdirty]

this is what you get for exercising your right to vote.

[rohjoh]

I showed up for jury duty in shorts and was instantly dismissed. They did not say you could not wear shorts, and I fugured if I got a day off, I was going to dress like I had a day off.

[PocketJokers72]

If I ever went to trial for something (civil or criminal), I would be petrified by the simple fact that my fate was going to be decided by 12 people who were too dumb to get out of jury duty.

Hooray Bench-Trial!

[4_2_it]

I look forward to performing my civic duty, but alas never get selected to serve on the jury.

Last time I was asked by the prosecutor if I was biased against law enforcement and I said, "Absolutely not. Nobody really believes that police go around arresting innocent people, do they?" I was immediately excused after that answer. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Warik]

[ QUOTE ]
this is what you get for exercising your right to vote.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not complaining about it... what I'm trying to establish here is: Am I fulfilling my civic duty by SHOWING UP, but making every effort to get excused WITHOUT lying?

Compare it to seducing a drunk chick. I said all the things that needed to be said in order to achieve a certain outcome, but I didn't have to tell any lies because I was smart enough to not have a need to do so.

[Warik]

[ QUOTE ]
If I ever went to trial for something (civil or criminal), I would be petrified by the simple fact that my fate was going to be decided by 12 people who were too dumb to get out of jury duty.

[/ QUOTE ]

The converse is true as well... if somebody is on trial for murder, would it really be fair for the accused, who is entitled to a jury of his peers, to have me on the jury obviously NOT being one of his peers since I'm not stupid enough to kill somebody and get caught?

I would have to make a HUGE effort not to wipe my ass with "beyond a reasonable doubt."

[pokerdirty]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
this is what you get for exercising your right to vote.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not complaining about it... what I'm trying to establish here is: Am I fulfilling my civic duty by SHOWING UP, but making every effort to get excused WITHOUT lying?

Compare it to seducing a drunk chick. I said all the things that needed to be said in order to achieve a certain outcome, but I didn't have to tell any lies because I was smart enough to not have a need to do so.

[/ QUOTE ]

if this makes you a scumbag, it makes about 200 million other americans scumbags as well.

[private joker]

I had a fascinating experience a couple years ago when selected for jury duty. See, I sort of liked it at first, and the first time I was called I happily said all the right things and got picked. I was in grad school at the time and welcomed the vacation. I was even chosen as the foreman of the jury -- it was a ridiculous civil case and we basically told the plaintiff to go blow himself.

But that was it for me, I didn't want to bother with it again. So I get called down to L.A. Superior Court downtown and I'm told ahead of time by a lawyer that if you act really opinionated, you'll get off. No lawyer wants some mouthy guy on their jury -- they want sheep they can convince.

So I go into the courtroom and it turns out the case is about a gang-banger accused of shooting a cop. Sounds like a big deal and a lengthy criminal trial. Well I'm not going to deal with this nonsense. So when they get to questioning me, I make sure to have some "opinions."

[The prosecutor in this dialgoue was one of those guys with a light brown mustache and a gut, who so obviously used to be a cop and has been promoted; the judge is a middle-aged black-haired man, and the defense attorney is a younger, light-hearted type]

Prosecutor: Is there anything about this case that might bias you?
Me: Well, the fact that the victim in question is a cop might bias me.
Prosecutor: Why is that?
Me: Um, I don't want to say that I *hate* cops, but...
Judge: I believe you just did.
Me: Oh well, I don't, but I don't have a very high opinion of them, and I think I'd probably be sympathetic to a defendant who had an issue with a cop.
Prosecutor: Don't you think police officers are here to protect us from potential criminals who may be running around our streets with guns?
Me: Actually, a police officer is someone who is running around our streets with a gun.
Defense Attorney: But if you were shown all of the evidence, wouldn't you be able to make a fair and unbiased decision in this particular case?
Me: Well, if I believed the evidence favored the cop, yes I would make a fair decision -- but I'm telling you it would take a *lot* of evidence for me to favor a cop.

[At this point, the Prosecutor goes over to the Judge and they sidebar briefly and quietly]

Jude: Juror #4, you may be excused. Thank you for your service.


I don't really believe in what I was saying, but I had to say something to get off that case. It was either that or say I hate gangsters, and I didn't want to get shot outside the courtroom.

[Warik]

[ QUOTE ]
Nobody really believes that police go around arresting innocent people, do they?"

[/ QUOTE ]



Q: "Of course [not], bringing the innocent to trial would be unfair."