Need advice: Jury Duty category

Thank you George Carlin.

I've gotten out of jury duty twice by the simple phrase.

Juror No. 7, do you believe a person is innocent until proven guily?

I believe most people are guilty.

 

Do your service.

 

You could be like this guy and go all KKK on their ass.

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/88466457.html

 

I served on a jury a couple years ago. Most boring experience of my freaking life.

First, when they say there's a lot of waiting, they're not being truthful. A lot of waiting would imply that's not the primary reason you're there. In actuality, it's about 80% waiting, 10% lunch, 10% court.

The case I sat for was an assault case where some dude got pissed at another dude so he and his friends beat the piss out of him/his car with a baseball bat.

You would think that would be pretty exciting, right? Wrong.

Between the waiting and the inabilities of the defense attorney to do just about anything right, the case was like an episode of Law & Order: Special Boredom Unit.

My advice for you in terms of getting out of it would be to just be honest with the judge. Say "Your honor, I'll serve if asked to, but I've got to be honest when I tell you this is going to be the most boring two-three weeks of my life and I'll likely just vote in a way that gets me out of here fastest."

 

So, with "12 Angry Men" as my inspiration, I stood up in the middle of voire dire, opened a switchblade and jammed it into the table in front of me. The wifi here in jail is awesome!

Actually, today was just orientation and swearing in stuff, took three hours. However, my trepidation wasn't without merit. In the judge's own words, "jury duty in the state of Kentucky isn't the lark it is in some other states."

I'm "on call" for three months. THREE! For 90 days, I'll have to call each night to see if they need me to report the next day. If I get called in as a member of a prospective jury pool and the attorneys strike me off the list for one reason or another, that still counts as a day of service (and $12.50), and I can only be called in for 30 days over the 90-day span. So, I could be done in one month if they call me in each day for the first 30 days, or they could string it out over the entire 90-day period. (Yay!)

Also, I don't think playing the journo card's gonna work. I'll be trumped easily by some of my fellow jury candidates. One is the daughter of a chief of police, another is a cop, yet another pair have decent outs — one worked for the public defender's office before retiring last year and another is a cousin of the county prosecutor.

And one chick I'm predicting will be slapped with a contempt charge. She begged off because she's a stay-at-home mom. The judge softly told her no. When they came to the part when they were telling us when we'd have to call to see if we need to show up, she was asking all sorts of questions about "what happens if we forget to call?" and "what if we're sick?" Trying to figure the angles. Yep, definitely see a contempt charge in her future.

 

Killick ... good on ya, mate. A democracy only works if we all invest.

 

I've served on two juries, though it's been a long time.

Both were civil cases that could have been resolved in about an hour but lasted a couple of days each. In one, the woman said on the stand that she was only suing her ex to get back at him. And no, she didn't win.

 

I have never understood why people want to get out of jury duty. I get so pissed when I go in and every time get turned away because I work for a newspaper.

 

Killick,

I'm in Kentucky too. And in my almost 10 years with the paper, not one single person in my 25-person newsroom has ever had jury duty.

One of the judges actually keeps the boys' varsity basketball scorebook for North Hardin HS from time to time.

Another judge, now the county prosecutor, is the father of a tennis player I cover (judge-prosecutor's son is also friends with my younger brother).

Way back when, I served in the county's teen court as a juror, prosecutor and defense attorney, where I got to know most of the county's judges, lawyers, attorneys, etc.

That could be why I never get called.

 

Um, CK? I had jury duty two years ago.

 

In Ontario serious crimes get handled at the county court level and there is one of those in my little part of the Toronto 'burbs.

I was summoned back in 1999 and the old courthouse had no provision for prospective jurors so I spent three days sitting on hard benches among defendants, plaintiffs, lawyers, cops etc. I had brought plenty to read (amazing how many people never thought of that) and eventually was told the case we were being considered for had been settled and we were exempt for five years.

I was summoned again last year. A new courthouse had been built since my first time and it had a huge room for prospective jurors with WiFi, coffee etc. A mother of one of my son's baseball teammates worked at the courthouse with the jurors and she told me they had some big trials coming up and if I was picked I'd be there a while.

Spent severals hours there the first day and made a huge dent in the recent bio of Willie Nelson while listening to my iPod. Eventually we were told to leave and we would be on call for three days. Never heard any more from them.

It never crossed my mind ot try and get out of it.

 

Not in Hardin County you didn't. LaRue County doesn't have standards.