Literally pulling people off the street for jury duty

arbilad · Head Chef

Literally pulling people off the street for jury duty

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

That's cool with me. I've never even received a notice for jury duty. I feel like I'm being opressed.

--Ray

Cocobeem · Keeper of the Holy Grail

I have no desire for jury duty. Unless it's some high-profile case where I could be sequestered and everything... and make a gazillion dollar book deal about threats to my life, etc...

Cat Herder · Understander of unimportant things

I got called up for jury duty when I was a freshman at BYU... or on my mission... can't remember. Obviously, I couldn't fulfill the duty as I was not in state (or perhaps not even in country), so my Dad was able to convince the court to waive the requirement for me.

My Dad got called to jury duty one time, and while selecting the jury, the defense attorney exercised the option to have him dismissed instead of seated on the jury. My Dad was a Bishop, and as such he was honest when asked about the viewpoint he took towards certain moral issues... Seems the defendant was a prositute...

Anyway, about the article... It is sad that this is what the court has had to resort to doing, but if the pool of potential jurors that actually shows up from the summons is so low, they have to do something in order to at least give the semblence of providing due process and a swift and speedy trial for a defendant. The court needs to be fining those who are not doing their civic duty when they don't show up and they have not received an official waivor (or what ever they are called).

arbilad · Head Chef

Ah, Coco, you may have no desire to serve, but legally you are bound to, unless you fit into one of the categories of exceptions. For instance, in Colorado stay at home mothers can get out of jury duty if they can prove that it would be a hardship for them to arrange another caregiver.
The people who didn't show up to jury duty in Greeley will probably be hit with a misdemeanor if they don't show up after the second notice.
Legally, they were perfectly within their rights to grab people off the street. Whether they were acting in a prudent manner is another question.

dianoia · Senior Member

I got a jury summons once, and was disappointed I had to turn it down. (Son3 was home from the hospital, but we were waiting for his open heart surgery.)

I'm the opposite of coco, I wouldn't want to be part of a high-profile case, especially as they're often over grisly murders. I've read that jurors who have to listen to the testimony and see the evidence often struggle later, suffering from nightmares and anxiety.

Which is why I'm also impressed and thankful for the work that mirk and other police officers do - not to cross threads or anything.

Valhalla · Profuse Pontificator

I personally find it despicable. I don't care whether they had enough potential jurors or not, but to coerce people on the streets to come in with a threat of contempt, meaning fines, jail, or both, is wrong. It is one thing to send a notice, to allow for preparation, and make arrangements, but this is clearly unreasonable and nothing but duress. It may be legal, but it is unethical and immoral.

Cat Herder · Understander of unimportant things

Valhalla wrote:
It is one thing to send a notice, to allow for preparation, and make arrangements, but this is clearly unreasonable and nothing but duress. It may be legal, but it is unethical and immoral.

Agreed.

rayb · Hot Air Balloon

Well, also if it ever became a regular practice, it would be a system that's very easy to exploit. So I suppose I'll have to agree with Val on this particular practice.

--Ray

arbilad · Head Chef

BTW, I'm a bit surprised that so few people showed up for jury duty (assuming, for the moment, that it was their choice and not a problem in the county's jury duty system). When you get called for jury duty, there is a specific day that you show up. If they don't need you that day, you are excused. You don't have to keep showing up or keep calling in to see if they need you. Then, once you have served, you don't have to serve again for something like 18 months.

Jen · Senior Bucketkeeper

I'd think it was kind of cool, on a volunteer basis. As in, if you can do it, great; if not, thanks anyway.

Organist · Senior Member

I've never been called for jury duty. My mom was called and had to show up every day all week, but they never wanted her on any of the cases, so it was wasted week. The pittance they gave her didn't even cover the parking garage they told her to park in. My former roommate had a similar experience, and he was in law school at the time. Up until that point he had not yet turned completely cynical with regards to law, but that pushed him over the edge. At least give the jurors some respect and don't exclude someone because they are educated.

Janey · Senior Member

I got called for jury duty once. They put me on the jury, even though I told them I was a licensed lawyer. So Organist, they don't exclude educated people just because they're educated.

When they were selecting the jury, the excused everyone who said anything in answer to a question. The six of us that stayed had been completely silent during voir dire because we had no issues.

I really liked the experience. It was a simple, one-day trial without any gory situations, which I was grateful for. I would not have liked being on an abuse or murder jury. I can't stand awful details and would freak out, like those people diaonioa mentioned.

The other jurors mentioned how pleasantly surprised they were at how the trial was nothing like tv. The judge was professional and kept things moving along. The attorneys were polite to each other. When a witness got snotty, they asked her to cut it out and she did. I was proud of our legal system!

arbilad · Head Chef

Movies really portray things in a skewed light. For instance, I read once that it's actually rare for a lawyer to raise an objection in court. For one thing, the judges don't like it.
I've been told that there are even sitting judges who have served on juries. Although, personally speaking, if I were a lawyer I would have used one of my no-questions-asked juror dismissals to get rid of a judge.
BTW, this may sound strange coming from a person who is usually against government forcing people to do things, but I'm all for mandatory jury duty (although it's a bad idea to pull people off the street for it). Honestly, I didn't want to serve when they called me up a year and a half ago, but I did it. I even liked it. If it were voluntary, I wouldn't have shown up.
If I'm ever on trial for something, I will almost definitely choose a jury trial. And I really hope that they would be able to find jurors to serve.
Jury trials are a great right granted to us by the constitution. Not all countries have that.

Mahonri · Senior Bucketkeeper

It's the law in AZ to do jury duty.
I've been able to get out of it three times.

If you don't show, you immediatley have a summons issued and put into the computer.

Say you get pulled over for a minor traffic violation... if you are on the list of jury avoiders, you go directly to jail.

I think what the judge did in Greely was out of line.

Valhalla · Profuse Pontificator

I was called for jury duty once while in law school. During the voir dire I was questioned and gave a response based on the Word of Wisdom, at which point the judge told me to stop. She pulled in the attorneys and the case was dismissed. I spoke with the attorneys later and they said that the judge was worried about me tainting the jury pool.

I have conducted voir dire, and you just have to look for the right people. I found a potential juror who had opening day baseball tickets for that day and wanted to leave, but the judge would not allow it. I was able to actually get the guy on the jury, I was the defense attorney. The was really mad, so either way I figured at the very least I could probably hang the jury. You don't want angry jurors, but you can manipulate them if you are careful against the state.

Remember though, a jury is composed of 12 people who were not smart enough to get out of jury duty!

Cat Herder · Understander of unimportant things

Valhalla wrote:

Remember though, a jury is composed of 12 people who were not smart enough to get out of jury duty!

Oh, that absolutely inpsires confidence in the quality of our judicial process... rolleyes

Although, of course when one considers such obvious examples of things working properly like at the OJ Simpson trial years ago, it is hardly a surprise...

Don't understand why they would need to dismiss the case based on the answer of one potential juror (in your example) tainting the pool of potential jurors... just dismiss the pool and get a new pool...

arbilad · Head Chef

There may not have been a strong case to start with. One thing the judge told us when I served on a jury; the cases that make it to trial frequently are the ones that aren't clear cut. That is, if he's obviously guilty, they'll usually strike a plea deal. If he's obviously innocent and they can't build a case against him, then I really hope it doesn't go to trial. It's usually the ones where it's tough to prove one way or the other.
So the judge may have dismissed the case in Valhalla's situation because it was really borderline as to whether they'd be able to prosecute it at all.

Valhalla · Profuse Pontificator

Cat, having worked in the judicial system, I have absolutely no faith or trust in it. It is corrupt, there are some good, don't get me wrong, it is just that I have seen enough to know that I do not trust it. It really becomes a roll of the dice.

Cocobeem · Keeper of the Holy Grail

Having had a dad, grandpa, ex and uncle who worked in the legal system, my thoughts pretty much align with val's. But the average Joe really doesn't like to hear this. They like to believe that there is justice and good guys get off and bad guys get punished.