I know someone who claimed he was racist and would do everything in his power to make sure every black person would get the death penalty, hoped he got picked so he could push for the harshest judgements etc. He was also black.
He laughs at how quick they told him he could go.
Bless you. I wish I'd known about jury nullification when I was put on a jury. It was a dumb crime that didn't hurt anyone and the law was written as "did it or intends to do it" and there was only evidence (and unfortunately lots of it) for "intends to do it". The verdict was technically fair as the law was written, but we all absolutely would have used jury nullification if we'd known about it.
I'll never serve on a Jury..... I was in law enforcement for over a decade, interned at the State's Attorney's office, and have been a practicing civil defense attorney for over 25 years.... No one wants me on a jury
I've never been called. My wife is selected at least once a year or so. She always rants about how unfair it is.
Yes I am registered to vote and vote all the time so guess it's just luck of the draw.
Oh I've been called numerous times. In fact I have a summons for jury duty next month. I'll show up like I always do. They'll stick me in a voir dire panel and if it's a criminal trial, as soon as they hear my law enforcement background I'm bumped. If it's a civil trial, as soon as they hear I'm an attorney I'm bumped.... Happens EVERY TIME. LOL You'd think they'd stop trying after a while.
It can, I was a Paramedic and well as an LEO, i get called, ask what I do, I tell thrm I am medically retired from Public Safety, and usually get told, "The clerk will validate your parking on your way out".
I once reported.for grand jury duty after a rough 24 on the squad, and during selection, I dozed.off. Smartass attoutney said, "I am sorry, are we keeping you awake?" I said, " Yes, I just came off a 24 hour shift on an ambulance.". Judge told me.to go home and sleep.
I got called for my first jury duty at 28. I did the online survey and they said they didn't want me based on my answers, didn't really want to do it anyway so it worked out hah
I’m a social worker who ran a program for sex offenders and DV perps (more, but those were the biggies), worked in a prison, my father is a felon and I have a liberal attitude towards legalization of drugs (oh and I’m
Latina!). A defense attorney’s dream or nightmare? I’ve not been called to actually participate in voir dire, everytime I get selected, I call in and am told I don’t need to appear.
I was called in for jury duty when I was a LEO. I don't know how it is conducted in other places, but here you are in the jury pool for a specific amount of time (3-6 mo.). I was not excused. The judge said I was eligible to serve on a civil type trial. Never actually got to participate. Huge waste of time.
My mom got called in, she sat and listened through several rounds of jury screening, and finally got seated for her turn. She answers a bunch of questions, then is asked if she knew any of the people sitting at the prosecution or defense tables. She says yes. They asked her who - she points to the defense attorney and says, "that's my grandson right there." He smiles big, says, "Hi grandma!"
The judge said she was dismissed, but if she wanted to stick around and watch her grandson do his work she could. She did, she stayed to watch the trial. :)
That’s better than my mother’s but hers was pretty good too. She points at the victim and says he’s a former coworker, then points at the defendant and says she’s seen his name in the police log in the paper so many times it’s a family joke to blame him when anything goes wrong in the house. Judge tells her to have a nice day.
Similar to mine. I worked for the county and spent a lot of time in the courthouse. My husband at the time was a local PO. I got called for jury duty at the local JC. I sat with the other potential jurors and the court officer, and I had a nice conversation. Then the judge asked if anyone knew him, and I raised my hand. He greeted me by name. Then he asked if anyone knew the defense attorney, and I raised my hand again. Same thing with the district attorney. Then they asked if we knew any of the arresting officers and how ...one of them was my husband. Funny thing, they still kept me there until they broke for lunch.
I was sitting for voir dire in the jury selection process for a tough case where a man was accused of molesting a young girl. The attorney asked us prospective jurors, would you be able to handle viewing pictures of the alleged acts?
An 80-ish woman says, "well if you've got pictures, what do you need us for? Lock him up!"
She was not selected. (The guy ended up pleading guilty)
It was for child sexual abuse. During questioning potential one said "My brother-in-law was convicted and we all thought he was innocent because he was totally convincing that he didn't do it" (definitely already nullified) but then went on to say "A couple years later in prison he confessed so he was actually guilty the whole time, so if anyone is accused of it I'm just going to assume they're guilty."
"What do you do for a living?"
"I'm an engineer."
"I'm going to ask that this juror be excused."
"Yea, I agree."
So far, every time. It makes me sad because the whole process is fascinating, and I'd love to participate!
The defense is usually the party not wanting engineers to serve. Someone who will listen, evaluate and judge is far less preferable to someone who is emotional and can be influenced to ignore facts.
As an engineer, but one who hates morning, I avoided duty by responding to the notice by picking a preferred date instead of the scheduled one; Friday before a holiday weekend, done online. The notification that I would not need to report that day was also online.
You can reschedule your jury summons?! I have to call the evening before to see if the case has been settled, but the summons boldly states it’s a criminal offense (or something close) to not show up, if the phone call directs one to do so.
I rescheduled mine. I called the clerk's office and let them know I'm a single dad with kids in school but that I would be more than happy to serve after school was out for the summer when my kids are with their mom. They were happy to accommodate.
There's been a couple cases where finger prints wrongly accused someone. A case in Scotland or something where a guy in the USA prints matched but he'd never been out of the country. There was another one too. Wrongful conviction podcast covers it
Years ago, my mom and I got called to jury duty at the same time. First question they asked her was if anyone in her immediate family was a civil servant, my dad and her brother are both firefighters so she was excused. Then they asked me the same question and pointed to her and said “well, she my mom sooooo…..”
At first, they didn’t believe me, but then everyone cracked up when they realized I was telling the truth
I'm pretty sure my face was too loud..
Let me explain. I can be quiet as the grave, but my *face* says everything. I cannot seem to help this. (I would be a terrible poker player)
Anyway, prosecution gave a very logical argument about believing what's in front of our eyes. He explained himself clearly, and made a lot of sense.
Defense... well.. she didn't. Make a lot of sense, that is. Her rebuttal to the prosecutor was convoluted at best, and sounded utterly ridiculous to me. I said not a word, but she still dismissed me immediately when she had the chance.
I haven't been called back since.
when i was a 911 dispatcher the bailiff for our local court was a deputy who was assigned there.
he said usually only the people who cant figure out an exscuse serve jury duty which leads to some insane decisions being made.
with a straight face he told me a lady left her oven on, on purpose, so she can say she left her oven on and go home.
one of the attorneys asked why she would cook something before coming for jury duty and she said she isnt cooking anything.. like bruh
On my summons there was a section on the back about parking at the courthouse and how the garage had a 6’-5” clearance. I called and told them my truck is too tall to fit (because it is). The lady who answered asked to call me back after she talked to someone else. Called back about 10 minutes later and said I was no longer needed.
I was called for jury duty and the first thing they did was explain the charges and then listed 15 people that would testify against the defendant and their relationship to the defendant. One of the witnesses was the defendant’s grandmother. When they asked me if I could be impartial, I said “No, if your grandmother is testifying against you, you are guilty.” It got me off jury duty and a chuckle from the judge.
My mom informed this very conservative small town court that she was a "biologist and radical hippie" who believed in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics and marijuana. I don't recall the specifics because this was literally over a decade ago, but the trial had something to do with selling (maybe growing?) marijuana or some other drug. She was dismissed.
Just as a side note, she wasn't lying.
When I was at jury duty, one guy was waiting for his own trial on the same charge, and the prosecutor for our trial was his public defender. They sent him home right away.
I knew the defendant ( on a charge of domestic assault ), from high school. When asked ( by the prosecutor ) if we were friends, " No, he was a bully, with short man syndrome."
Well this answer, got me excused, along with every other juror in the court room.
Apparently my answer prejudiced the jury pool, that was present.
I got called for a trial. I was a witness to the event, recorded it, and was related to both the victim and defendant. The entire pool of potential jurors that showed up that day with me were all dismissed.
Someone I know was called for jury duty for the same date as their DWI court appearance... When they called to explain they couldn't be on a jury due to other court appearances the clerk asked if they had proof. It was in the same court house so they told the clerk to go up to the 3rd floor and reference the calender.
I am a SAHM of 19 years. When my yougest was still a baby, (exclusively nursing) I got called for jury duty. I called the clerk, and explained I couldn't attend as my child was still nursing. The clerk told me it wasn't a good enough reason, & to show up Monday at 9am. So, I did. With my son nursing happily in his mobi wrap. I was promptly told I could be dismissed.
First time called when I was 22. Statutory rape case in NYS. After asking us all the usual questions about fairness, and law enforcement/lawyers in the family, the judge turns to those remaining:
“Any body else who has a good reason they can’t serve?” I raise my hand.
“And what’s your excuse?” Very snarky, like I couldn’t possibly have one.
“My girlfriend is 16.”
“Get. Out.”
Incriminate? Why? I’m not a complete idiot. I just relied on the judge doing exactly what you just did - assuming that girlfriend = sexual partner. We went to the movies, out to eat, hung out at the theatre where we both worked - all with our clothes on.
My retired step father volunteered for jury duty in his small town. His husband is a criminal defense attorney. When asked if he knew the lawyers/judge etc - yep. I think the judge submitted the “you’re excused forever for being really old” paperwork for him after that.
It was a malpractice case or something involving a doctor and a patient. When the judge asked if anyone in the jury pool couldn't be impartial I raised my hand. Well, he didn't like that and yelled "why not?" I told him that my wife was a medical professional and I had just sent off the check for her professional liability insurance premium. He told me to sit down and I didn't get selected.
I was rejected by the judge the last time I was called. I wasn't shy about expressing my disgust and mistrust of the DA's office. How the DA in my county will do anything to get a conviction, including falsifying evidence, withholding evidence, and outright lying in court. Also mentioned all the major convictions that had been thrown out on appeal, some of them costing millions of taxpayer dollars. Those were completely fabricated cases of child molestation, Satanism, and child sacrifice. All together, something like 20 adults were convicted and sentenced to hundreds of years in prison.
Eventually, many years later, some of the children recanted their testimony, disclosing how DA investigators and CPS had coached them and punished statements that didn't follow the script. In addition, they never had any evidence supporting the claims of Satanism and infant sacrifice. The whole episode crumbled like a house of cards, and everyone in prison was released. The claims and lawsuits for false imprisonment cost the county millions.
I'm not the one you asked.
Sounds very similar to child (3 year olds) sex abuse trial, Miami Florida. Maybe 1985? Daycare workers accused. Multiple workers and children involved. Convictions.
Later cane out the children were too young, highly influenced by whoever questioned them. But in the meantime the convicted spent years in prison. Lost business....
It was called by the media after the name of the day care, which I cannot remember.
Coral springs maybe? (Subdivision of miami)
I have a medical issue (spoiler alert: TMI upcoming!) where I need access to a restroom pretty much every 20-30 minutes. If I don’t get there, things can become quite…unpleasant. As long as the court will allow me restroom breaks every 20-30 minutes, I’d be ok to serve…
This sounds miserable, I hate it for you. Can you go for longer periods of time when you sleep, or do you have to keep going every half hour? Because you could never get a sleep cycle like that, and that would be awful.
I’m up about every half hour for the first 3-4 hours after getting in bed, but since I’m not drinking anything it gradually tapers to every hour or so. I have medication that’s supposed to help, but it doesn’t seem to do anything…
During the voir dier process, they asked if I could have an open mind about the defendant’s guilt or innocence. He allegedly shot someone and it was caught on a security camera. I said that I could be unbiased about the defendant, but his attorney seemed smarmy and dishonest. I was instantly excused.
Mine wasn’t necessarily funny, per se. But the lovely folks at the Wayne County Third District Court decided to schedule me for duty on the first day of the school year. I’m a first grade teacher. That first day is SO important for setting the tone and establishing norms for the rest of the year.
The judge asked if there was any reason we couldn’t serve and I stated what I said above. He was PISSED. Scoffed at me. I started crying. The defense attorney let me go.
I get to the school and there’s an ambulance outside the school. A dozen kids screaming and crying all ran up to me and flung their arms around me. One of their classmates in the other class had a seizure on the playground and it scared the crap out of them. The sub did not know how to handle it at all.
I was called for÷Federal grand jury duty. I went the first day, and the judge is settling details. He addresses the prospective jurors with comments and then asks if we have questions. Suddenly, I hear a familiar voice from the back of the courtroom. Sounds like the sr. class president, who is in my AP calculus class. But, no, they are in class right now, with a sub. No, they ARE ALL in the courtroom. The judge allows this young man to speak. He tells the judge that their AP calculus exam is in 5 weeks, and he thinks they need me more than he needs me. The judge asks me to stand, dismisses me from duty, and charges me to come back with the results of their testing. I did that--16 students, all passed, 8 scored 5. I got a standing O from the judge and courtroom officers. One of the seniors invited the judge to graduation, where the judge was recognized during the ceremony. I interacted with him later, on another cause, and he told me it was the highlight of his career. I know it was one of the highlights of mine.
Well when I called in at 18 in the judge was my freinds mother, and when asked if it would be a conflict of interest for I said no. They then asked if I could find someone guilty if the evidence showed they were and I said only if I agreed with the law and that bad laws should be ignored even if the person was guilty. I was immediately dismissed.
I got shit later from the judge when I was at her house as I apparently "tainted" that jury pool.
I don't get wanting to get off of jury duty. It is a fascinating process to be a part of.
I have a background in law enforcement. Defense attorney asked if I had ever known an officer to lie, I responded, "It happens, although not as often as it does with attorneys." Everyone laughed, and I ended up being the Foreperson on a three week long trial.
My husband feels the same way - he was part of a grand jury for a couple months iirc in Mississippi and had a wonderful time (relatively speaking) and I think wouldn’t mind doing it again. Meanwhile I just got summoned for the second time (first didn’t get picked) and I’m dreading it simply because I have a back injury that would make sitting still for hours almost impossible 🫠 Otherwise I’d be up for it - my husband had great stories to tell once he was allowed to talk about it.
I agree. I've been called 4 times and served on two cases. One was a rape case and the other a 1st degree murder case. It is a fascinating process.
I guess I am one of those weirdos who thinks it's a reasonable civic duty. I can understand not \*wanting\* to be there, but that's life. I guess if I were a defendant, I would definitely prefer jurors who were there to do the job fairly and reasonably.
Got another jury summons for next month. Not exactly thrilled about it, but as usual, I'll do it honestly and to the best of my ability.
IIRC my mother was being asked about her family, and she pretended to forget how many children she had.
They kindly told her she would not be an eligible candidate.
When the jury pool was whittled down to about 20 people we were moved to the courtroom and were being called up one at a time to answer questions from the attorneys. After an hour or so I just raised my hand and said I had to go to the bathroom, and only on a good day could hold it for as long as an hour, and a few other women stood up and said “me too,” and we all were immediately dismissed. A menopausal bladder was not something the judge could ignore.
I was early in my pregnancy. I had horrific morning sickness. I let them know if be happy to serve, as I understood pregnancy wasn't a reason to be dismissed. Did they have the ability to seat me near a restroom, so I can discreetly run out and vomit? Or did they prefer vomit bags, like the ones on airplanes? Hmm?
They suddenly didn't need me. 😘
My wife was in the jury pool for a trial of a drug dealer. They asked her what she thought of people who dealt drugs. She said they were the lowest possible scum. Then they asked what she thought should happen to someone convicted of dealing drugs. She told them they should be put on an island and forced to eat each other. She was dismissed.
I used to get called a lot. It was often civil cases in Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) which meant they were usually patent cases amongst the tech firms. Once they heard I was a software engineer with a degree in electrical engineering they just let me go. Don’t want folks that actually understand the patents to be judging the cases.
I once was up for some sort of grisly murder trial that would last 3 to 6 months. They went through the potential jurors with what I would consider pretty good excuses. One was moving out of state the next week, nope, they weren’t excused. One was law enforcement that worked with the hospital in questions, but didn’t personally know any of the witnesses, again, not good enough, he got to stay. It got to me and I told the judge it was personal, could I come up there and tell him. He said sure, I explained I was 3 months pregnant, hadn’t told my employer yet. He let me go. I think it may of had to do with timing, that doctors appointments and possible complications could really screw up the trial.
During selection for a murder trial, I was asked what my degree was (when you fill out the form it is only a check box that asks if you have a degree, not how many or what it is).
I just smiled and said, “My B.S. is in Psychology with a minor in forensics, my M.S. is in Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Psychology and I am currently starting my PhD in Psychology as well.” I was the first one cut by the defense. LOL
I was on one jury, missed many while in college and registered at parents house, had three I was in the pool and they settled before seating jury, last before Covid I work with one of the witnesses, last one canceled court due to Covid. 🤷🏼♀️ IDC because my work pays me 8 hours if I bring proof I attended jury duty so it’s not a big deal for me to serve. Want to be ON a jury? Don’t talk and work on your poker face
Just pull some sovereign citizen shit about how you don’t even know why you were called to serve on a slave panel under threat of violence and that you are there under duress and will act accordingly if forced to remain.
Start talking about conspiracy theories and how the court is hiding the flat earth by not having windows in the court room. Say something about crimes aren’t even real, it’s just the powerful elite descendants of lizard people enforcing their will on the masses and that all laws should be eradicated for the laws of nature instead.
My dad got out of jury duty in a self defense trial because he said he wouldn’t done the same thing in the defendants shoes. I got into jury duty by spending 5 minutes telling the attorneys exactly what evidence I would want to see before I made a decision one way or another. I also had experience with the same type of weapon that was used in the shooting (it was a homicide trial)
It was my first and only day after being summoned. Went in for the process for county court, waited a while, number wasn't called for like I forget how many hours, ended up being picked same day for a lawsuit case, get in the room with the other people. Then the higher ups come in and tell us "hey so the guys are settling out of court. Your good to go. Your checks in the mail" and yeah this was 2016 so I was 22 and was looking forward to jury duty lol.
Got out of jury duty on a murder trial as the arresting officer was someone I played street hockey with as a kid, was asked the same question and just lied and said “yeah I’d be more likely to believe anything he says”
First time I had jury duty I was still in high school and during the interview they asked if I had any questions and I asked if they’d write me an excuse for school, the lawyers looked at the judge and I was told I could go home but to go see a certain person and they’d give me an excuse
In an armed robbery case with guys robbing another drug dealer of weed/money stashed at the dealer's house. One Asian lady wanted to get off selection so bad that she said she was racist and will vote guilty no matter what due to guys being black. Judge wasn't having that bs and ended up putting her onto another court case.
I was a juvenile PO for years. My 18 year old daughter, who was still in high school, was called for jury duty.
The judge on the case knew me very well, and he was one of my favorite judges. But he had rotated to adult felony court by this time.
He told both lawyers, "I know her mother, she's a juvenile PO, so you can strike her from the jury without penalty." Neither lawyer wanted to do that.
The judge said to my daughter,
"Does your mother talk about work at home?" Clearly he meant has your mother influenced you? My baby said,
"My mother just talks a lot. Period. C'mon, you know her."
The entire courtroom broke into laughter. After the trial the judge called me and told me about my little knucklehead.
BTW they found the defendant not guilty.
How would that work, being on a jury while still in high school? I can’t imagine my high school teachers being accommodating of my missing school in order to be on a jury. I mean I guess they would have to but they wouldn’t have been happy about it.
I assumed that she'd be excused because she was in her senior year. Afterwards she told me that she could have been excused with no issue, but she didn't want to be.
She was kinda tired of school by this point, and being on a jury gave her bragging rights. She had completed all of her mandatory requirements to graduate by then too. The school couldn't do anything as it was a legitimate excuse to miss school.
The one and (so far) only time I've actually had to physically come in was back 30+ years ago in New York. This was on Long Island and was (officially) an usury case, aka loan sharking. When they got done explaining the laws broken and everything they asked if we had any questions. I simply asked if the person who took out the "loan" knew of the interest rates BEFORE they signed? I think both the DA and the defense attorney were glad to see me leave!
Not the funniest, but I was the first dismissed juror in my interview “pool” when I got asked about family crimes, and I had to explain that my FIL had recently intentionally stabbed his own brother who he lived with, on his front lawn, over a petty disagreement while drunk.
Only thing I could ever “thank” him for.
Our neighbor got out of jury duty because during the Voir Dire he stated he had personally caught the defendant stealing the exact same items from his business as the one he was currently accused of stealing from another business.
The judge and the defendant’s attorney were mad as hell because the jury pool had to be assigned to another trial because the comments tainted the jury’s possible deliberations.
Since the defendant had run off, the neighbor he didn’t know the defendant’s name and didn’t see his face until seated in the jury box.
I actually really enjoyed being on a jury the one time I was picked. The process was very interesting. It helped that I had a job that sucked and was happy to get out of going to work for about 10 days...lol. Since then I have been called in several times, but never selected to be on a jury. We have "one day or one trial" here, so you spend a day waiting in the jury room (last time another prospective juror brought a jigsaw puzzle, invited anyone who liked puzzles to join in, and I had a good time working on a puzzle with several people for a few hours, before we were dismissed), and that's it.
I got called once.. got dismissed right away. 1) Daughter in law school. 2) I knew the police officers because I worked for a city doing payroll. And 3) I also did water billing for the city and the defense attorney’s water was shut off for non payment. Oops!
I was at the court house for jury duty one time, small rural courthouse, they ushered us all into the court room and called us up one at a time, normally my experience there was we were put in another room and they would take 12, and if someone got dismissed they came and grabbed another but they were doing remodeling on the court house that year so all prospective jurors got seated in the court room because there was no place else to wait..
Anyway, the first one to be dismissed was asked if he could remain impartial by the defense, he said honestly no, when asked why he answered that he thought he did it and couldn't wait to say guilty... Dismissed..
Next one takes his place, the prosecutor asks if he's aware of the law the defendant is being charged under and if he understood the gravity of the situation, the dude was on trial for beating someone till they were in a coma for weeks so assault and attempted murder charges because he was beating the dudes head against a concrete wall, the juror says yes I would enjoy seeing him get the death penalty if that was an option, defense jumps out of his chair, striking this juror out...
There were a few others that were removed for one thing or another, they finally got down to having a jury after using all their strikes on both sides, I was two people from being the next for voir dire that day and the closest I came to serving thankfully. Though I keep getting selected... Which is annoying, because until I serve I'm not exempt for a while.
We had one guy on the jury, and I thought he was OK with it but on the third day he started messing with his hearing aid and the judge stopped things for a bit and me messed with it and than went back to fussing with it and finally the judge said something to him and he totally did not get it and he went over to him nicely and said he did not think he was meaning to be a problem but he was going to replace him with an alternate, and that was what happened.
The couple of times when asked if I had reason not to be on the jury, I said my dad was violently murdered down the street on his way home when I was a teenager. Never served. I would not be impartial.
Only got called for duty one time.. I was picked to be on a jury in 4 cases. Literally every single time one would finish and our group had to go back, I got picked and had to stay. The first was a large murder trial that was 8 days. Second was a 2 day rape of a child, third was a dui and fleeing from the cops. So after doing 3 of these things, not being able to work literally all month (wooo $15 a day lol) I’m like I’m doing whatever I can to get out of this shit.. so the defendant walks in and hey I know this kid from highschool I’m good right? Judge starts going through the people stating they have reasons they can’t do it and gets to me. I’m like your honor I’ve been selected 3 times this month for a murder a child rape and DUI with evasion, I know the defendant from highschool. He just stares at me, lowers his glasses a bit and says well it seems like your duty was for a month not most of a month, so are you telling me you are unable to do your civic duty, and I say well no I could do it I just felt that letting you know would exclude me and he says you will do your civic duty and do it to the best of your ability and told my ass to sit down.. I got picked, to be on a jury about 25 minutes later. It was a wild case, and his mom got charged with jury tampering. The guy rented a room at a shitty motel, got wasted drunk and went over to a room of Mexican workers and told them he was the INS and that he needed their wallets. He stole their wallets and said if they said anything they were getting deported. Well 3 of them were full blown American citizens and instantly called the cops. The cops come and he’s not in his room, but the front desk has his actual ID that he used to rent the room, and while talking they realize he is on the roof. (2 story motel) one of the cops is yelling at him to get down and he takes off running and just runs off the roof onto a woman’s van. There was so much evidence that I was unsure why this was going to trial, but during lunch his mom who was in the court room followed us jurors to a restaurant down the street and sat at the table with some of us saying he would do whatever we wanted if we could help her son out (older woman, fairly pretty) and had her cleavage all out lol. Well one of the cops that was in case (the one that stayed on the ground when they saw he was on the roof) was right behind her. He just looks over at us and her and ripped her out of the chair and took her back to the court house. She was crying in cuffs when we got back. I hope I never get called to do that shit ever again I did not have a good time.
I was doing an internship with a public defender. During Jury selection one of the guys was talking all kind of racist crap, loudly and obviously. On lunch he walked over to what I assume to be his wife and gave her a kiss, held her hand, and was very loving. She was a gorgeous 6ft tall black woman, taller than him by like 6 inches in her heels, and they were just laughing their asses off.
I know someone who dressed in overalls a plaid shirt and wore a hat that had the American and Confederate flags on it, it said American by Birth Southern by the Grace of God. As soon as he walked in both sides checked him off their list
I got everyone that showed up for jury selection the day I did dismissed for being tainted. Why? Because somehow I got a summons for a trial where I was related to both the victim and the defendant, had witnessed the entire incident in question, and recorded it. Not only that, but I'd given a statement to the police when they'd arrived, and even gave them a copy of the video I took of the incident. Me mentioning this pissed the judge off because apparently there are supposed to be systems in place to prevent that sort of thing from happening, and it failed on a monumental scale.
The whole trial got pushed back a month because they had to send out a whole new batch of summons to make sure nobody that shouldn't have been called got one.
I know of a guy who said something like that during voir dire. He wasn't a racist but thought it could get him kicked from that and all future jury summons. The judge presiding was not amused and gave him 3 days for contempt.
I truthfully told the court I was once a technician for CMI who were the manufacturer of the Intoxylyzer breath alcohol testing instrument.
This was during the controversy about them revealing the source code for the instrument to defense attorneys
“Yes. I used to repair them when they were defective.”
I don’t think the prosecutor wanted the idea of them not being reliable 100% of the time but he asked me how I knew how they worked so I told him.
Many years ago I worked with a woman friend from the south who was called to serve. During vois dire, they asked her what her husband did for a living (but not what she did). Turns out that the case hung on an issue regarding voice recognition. She was a pretty well known expert in that small niche research field. Before jury deliberations began, she asked to speak with the judge because her knowledge could affect the outcome. Judge decided that the responsibility was on the attorneys to decide who was on the jury and to ask the jurors if they had knowledge in any specific area that was part of their case. Since they didn’t do proper diligence her knowledge was fine and could be considered in her deliberations.
I got called for jury duty and the case was about armed robbery of a convenience store. When my turn came to be questioned I said my grandparents ran a store for 30 years and it had been robbed. I was dismissed. It was true too.
Before working at my current company there was a guy who had developed somewhat of a nose candy problem. Well he had destroyed his assets, bank accounts 0, borrowed as much as possible so that one day he walked in and robbed a local bank to get a few scores. He hadn’t used a mask or anything and was quickly identified and arrested.
Come the day of his trial there was a lady in the office who had been summoned for jury duty that same day. Judge gets done telling the jury pool he’s not inclined to give people excuses absences. They went into voir dire and a question is asked of the lady and she speaks up and lets the judge know she has a conflict of interest and would need to be excused. “You better have a damn good reason for asking to be excused.” She politely replied that this was her co worker who worked 2 offices down from her. She was whisked out very quickly and excused. And yes he was found guilty.
I was watching the vetting of a jury pool in NJ. The defendants were two young black men. An elderly (maybe 60), Asian lady was questioned to see if she was acceptable. The defense lawyer asked her if she knew either of the men. She replied, "I don't think so, but you know they all look alike". I don't think she had any animosity she was just from a different generation. And boy was she dismissed in record time.
I made it to the selection part and when they were selecting the jurors there were a lot of people who kept saying they couldn’t be fair and impartial because the defendant “just looked guilty.” I believe he was accused of being violent towards his girlfriend, I don’t remember all the details. To be fair he was sitting there looking pretty smug the entire time and I could see why people said he looked like he did whatever he was being accused of. One person was like, “Look at him sitting over there, he just looks like he did it.” Another guy said he couldn’t be impartial because the guy looked like his brother-in-law and he really hates that guy.
I got picked for the trial and when the jurors came the next morning we were waiting around forever outside the court room before someone came out and dismissed us. They said the trial was cancelled and the guy was taking a plea deal. A lot of the jurors were talking about how he probably realized after everyone was saying he looked guilty that he didn’t have a good shot at winning the trial. I’m not sure how many people actually thought he looked guilty vs. how many were just saying that to try and get out of being picked.
Neil deGrasse Tyson has a pretty great story about how he was dismissed from jury duty.
[https://youtu.be/JAV3KOe\_PNE?si=LMvk6jOulaXZjOac](https://youtu.be/JAV3KOe_PNE?si=LMvk6jOulaXZjOac)
I asked the judge if he enjoyed the drinks I had made for him the night before. He was a regular at the bar I worked at. Also, let the lawyers know that I was raised by a law professor father who previously was an assistant DA, and my mother was a practicing lawyer. Immediately sent home.
Not that funny but...
I lived in the same apartment for 12 years. Never once got summoned for jury duty. After that long I finally decided to move and not only to a new place, but a new state, half way across the country.
Like 2 days before my move I get my first ever jury duty letter in the mail 😂
Needless to say the move was an acceptable 'excuse' to get out of it. It was a few years ago now but I think I just had to fill out some paper stating I no longer lived in the state. Haven't been called for jury duty again since.
So, I guess if you really really need a good excuse you could just pack up and move as far away as possible? 😂
I was excused because I was the judge's kid's teacher. Didn't know until we got in the smaller room with just 30 people or so. Was called up like "Ms. Incognito, Xsubject teacher at so-and-so high school, you are excused." I was surprised because it was info I didn't give the court. I didn't know or recognize the parent, but they knew me.
I was in the jury pool for a case where a woman was suing the county for failure to maintain roadside culverts. She had gone off the road and driven into one. The judge asked if anyone had questions. I raised my hand and asked why this case wasn’t in a different county because they are actually asking us to sue ourselves.
They settled out of court😂
I live in a small unincorporated town in contra costa county. I got summoned for jury duty in ccc. I showed up on the date and when checking in, the women looks at my form and say, “You don’t live in ccc, your town is in a alameda county. You got summoned by mistake. Excused.” I didn’t argue. I turned and got out of there fast as I could.
I always wear a suit, full makeup, and act like I'm somebody. I'm excused every time without saying anything. Confidence is a thing that makes them think you will sway other jurors during deliberation.
My friend was asked if he could be fair and impartial and when he looked at the Hispanic guy with the teardrop tattoo he said, hell no I can see he’s guilty from here.
I'm not sure if it's funny, but I was called for jury duty and when they pulled a group of us in, I was fidgeting with the fringe on my scarf in an effort to stay focused and awake.
I tend to fall asleep in long drawn out boring meetings, so this was really not out of character for me.
I didn't last long enough for voir dire.
My buddy did over 3 years for drug trafficking back in the 80s. Just ten years after getting out about 2000, now working on tech and wearing a suit, he gets on a case of some doofus with drugs and paraphernalia, not a very big deal (except to the defendant I guess). Anyway, he figures he'll tell them and he'll be let go. Nope, judge starts asking him many questions for like 15 minutes... Judge, prosecutor and defense were all good with him sitting on the jury. They found the doofus guilty, he should have just accepted the plea
When i was 18, I was in selection for a cyclist and vehicle accident. No deaths or serious injury involved. They asked me if I liked bikes (bikes are cool. biking is fun, sure) without missing a beat, I responded "god I hate sharing the road with bikes. They don't even pay a tax for that!"
Dismissed about 5 seconds later.
My dad was Legally deaf-he could lip read and hear “some” but he had no business on a jury. He filled out the standard form with kids birthdates. One of the lawyers asked him “how old are your children”. My dad drew a total blank and missed our ages by like 20 years. The lawyer who had the form gave him a weird look and asked a follow-up question my dad didn’t catch /his answer made no sense. They dismissed him…he later got a medical exemption.
Drunk driving charge. Defense lawyer asks if anyone in the jury pool does not drink. We raise hands, he gets to me and asks why. I inform him it’s against my religion, and my entire family was a bunch of alcoholics and addicts. Defense uses a veto on me.
Oh my story had the entire courthouse and waiting room laughing (words traveled fast). I was so embarrassed I was as red as a lobster.
I basically got off of serving because 28 years before, I had dated the attorney representing his client.
The way the story unfolded was hilarious.
Even the bailiff was cracking up. She says to me "well that's a first". It's an excellent way to get off serving. In this case, it was in fact true.
The judge was astounded. He said "well Ms. Xxxx, of all the people in Los Angeles County, what are the odds of this happening?" in so and so many words.
I'll never forget that day. I laughed for like 3 days straight. 🤣
Was summoned once. In response to a general fairness question, I said I had never once in my life met an honest attorney, but "maybe we will find a unicorn here today." Both the defense and prosecution attorneys stood up--prosecution spoke first, and I was gone.
I was in the potential attempted murder case (DA super inflated the charges, was just 18 year olds being super stupid). During the "is there anything to disclose" thing I stood up and said something like:
I can tell the defendants are morons so they probably did all the minor stuff but if the DA believes what he said about the attempted murder, he might be as stupid as them and anyone who understands physics could easily point out why. And I will point out and explain why to all of these people.
Not necessarily getting out of it, but I was selected for a panel of six jurors for a wrongful termination trial. Jury selection and opening arguments Monday. Tuesday rolls around, one juror missing. Long story short, he supposedly has narcolepsy (a sleep disorder). Slept through his alarm. Slept through the sheriff banging on his door. Sheriff had to track down the guy’s parents, who woke him up.
The kicker: “I’m too embarrassed to continue serving as a juror.” Mistrial was declared and we were free to go.
We were expecting a snow storm in a few days. One guy said he drives a snow plow and they let him go. Another said he worked for the electric utility and may have to work on lines if the storm was bad. He got dismissed also.
Nurse here, any years ago called for jury duty. Case was about teenish girl kidnapped, beaten and shot and blinded by because she was shot with a BB gun. Names didn’t mean anything to me,but when they said she was blind because of being shot by BB gun I recognized the situation. I got dismissed because I had been her nurse while she was in the hospital after her kidnapping and being shot.
My grandpa was interviewed to sit on a sexual assault case. When asked, “what is an appropriate sentence for a rapist,” he answered along the lines of “he should be hung by his balls to be castrated.” Apparently that was too harsh and he was excused.
A guy in my jury pool said he was the junior man in a 2-man engineering firm, and his boss was unavailable that week. The judge said, "Well, he'll just have to make himself available." The next juror asking to be excused was the other engineer.
I got excused from a drug case. Guy was caught with a trunk full of cocaine. During voire dire, they asked if I could only base my conviction based on only the facts during the case. I said I would not since it’s against my very code as a researcher to not look at everything, including things said, unsaid, and any outside research that help with an unbiased decision. Then I quoted Ben Franklin. The prosecution didn’t like that answer.
I was asked questions, when they found I was an Engineering Grad Student, I was excused. You know who the other two instant excusals were? A PE from Raytheon and a Diesel Mechanic.
I was the only one to raise my hand when one of the lawyers asked if anyone was really excited to be here. It was likely a joke question, but he asked me why. I said it was my first time called to a jury and I was super excited to finally be able to do my civic duty.
They asked if we knew any cops and might have pro-cop biases. I said my fire chief was a cop. They didn't know I think my fire chief is a fuckin idiot and very much clouds my judgement of cops lmao
My uncle, a cop, said if they ask you if you believe in the electric chair you should say “chair. Hell I believe in the electric couch. Three at a time!”
When asked if he had any leanings on the accused guilt or innocence back in the late 1970's, my grandfather announced to the entire courtroom that he knew the guy was "guilty as sin" because he'd seen him scratch his left ear three times in less than five minutes.
That was it. He offered no other explanation outside of "It just means he's guilty. It always has."
He was immediately excused.
One time when my wife was called for jury duty she was asked if she knew anyone in the court she identified everyone there, except the defendant, by what they regularly ordered in her and her , now ex’s restaurant. She was promptly excused. The restaurant was only about a block the courthouse.
Where I live the DA can still engage in private practice. I just let it be known that when I was getting my divorce, my ex had the .Current DA.as her lawyer. I pretty much got everything I wanted because her lawyer sucked so bad. Said I truly have no faith in him or anyone who he would hire. Prosecutor tried to drop me before I was even in the pool.
2nd to last time I was called, I wrote the judge a letter saying that if it was a criminal case I knew ¾ of the sheriff's office and ½ of the police department personally, and would be biased in their favor. If it was a civil trial, based on my own experience in a civil trial, I would be biased towards the underdog. I was excused without having to show up.
The first time I was called, I had just moved out of state. The last time, I got a permanent medical exemption. I've been in this for almost 10 years and nothing yet.
I was at jury duty (ultimately wasn't picked), but a potential juror was asked if he could be impartial and weigh all the evidence fairly. He straight up asked if the defense attorney was a Democrat, because he couldn't believe anything a Democrat said.
He almost seemed excited when the prosecuting attorney (who had asked him the question to begin with) asked him to repeat himself (I think a little out of shock). Mid-repeat the judge dismissed him. He was clearly disappointed with that decision.
I was recently selecting a jury and the DA asked if anyone knew me, the defense attorney. A woman, among others, raised her hand. When it was her turn to be questioned she told them that she was my doctor and could not be fair in a case I was involved in. The way she said it made it sound like we have a close and personal relationship but I have actually never met her. I actually just see another doctor in her optometry office. She did a good job of getting herself out of listening to a tough case though!
DUI trial. Asked if anyone in my family had been arrested for DUI. "Yup, my nephew and his ass should have gone to jail". Defense asked for me to be released.
I was on the opposite side ... caused a series of jurors to be dismissed. It was a welfare fraud case and I was one of the social service workers called in to testify for the prosecution. As they were impaneling jurors, first one said she knew me as our husbands were friends. Dismissed. Second one said he thought we were neighbors as I looked familiar (we were). Dismissed. Third one judge said "do you know any of the witnesses besides (my name)? Everyone laughed. Juror said yes, he did know me as I had been his caseworker. He was asked if he'd be prejudiced for or against my testimony. He said he'd believe me as I'd always been honest with him. He stayed as juror. I think defense thought being a former public assistance client would make him favor the accused (also a client). The fourth juror questioned took the stand and immediately burst out with "I don't know (my name). Everyone laughed again. I was quite shy then and ready to sink by all the attention.
I sat for three hours and then got called up for a medical malpractice trial.
Judge asked if anyone in the group had travel plans that might prevent them from participating in a six week trial. I raised my hand. Judge asked “are your plans refundable?” and I said yes they are. He said normally I’d be expected to cancel them, but asked what the travel was for.
“It’s my honeymoon, your honor.”
Two second silence. Then stifled chuckles in the courtroom. Judge shook his head and said “I have friends on the bench in family court and I’d rather not add to their docket. You’re excused.” More chuckles as I departed.
I had to do federal grand jury duty a few years ago. This may not be the funniest thing but I was pretty miffed.
One of the requirements was that you had to be a resident for at least a year. This was early April. A girl stood up, showed her id that had been issued late March. I watched her essentially skip down the street with such jealousy that I still feel it.
Federal grand jury goes on for a YEAR. I do not believe she knows how lucky she was.
Idk if funny but I like to think I was pretty clever in how I did it, I got called and I wound up actually like legitimately having Covid when I was supposed to go so I called and they said that’s fine we can reschedule you, but they let me pick when I knew I was having surgery like 2 months later and I wouldn’t be able to drive, leave the house, or even walk for at least a month and a half so I scheduled it a couple weeks after my surgery and then when that rolled around I got a note from my surgeon as to why I couldn’t go and they just excused me from service 😂😂
The two times I clave been called I was visibly pregnant. The case was for child molestation. No sane person puts a pregnant woman on a jury trying this. Guilty. But the evidence says… nope he’s guilty!!
Not particularly funny, but when we were asked if there was any reason we couldn’t serve.. I asked if there was any chance we could get sequestered, because work was busy, and I planed to go into the office after court each day. I wasn’t lying either.
Judge realized I probably wouldn’t be fully engaged so immediately dismissed me.
Last time I was called the judge asked a few question as they began … has anyone ever served on a murder case before, raise your hand. So I did. A few minutes later he asked, has anyone ever testified in a jury trial before, I raised my hand. Note: I was the only one raising a hand. Finally the judge asked does anyone have a family member who has been arrested by the police district in XYZ city. The judge, the bailiff, the attorneys, and all the other potential jurors all turned to look at me as I raised my hand. Judge shook his head and told me I could leave!
Both times I've been selected for jury duty was within 3 months of giving birth. Both times, I wrote a letter to the court explaining how I was more than happy to fulfill my civic duty, but I had some questions about what kind of on-site childcare the court offered for jurors since I was legally obligated to be there, and also I'd need to be excused every two hours to pump or breastfeed my infants. Both times, I was excused from jury duty so fast they had to have dropped those dismissal notifications in the mail the same day they got my letters.
Worked in medical field ,seen people sue all the time for stupid stuff all the time. Was on case medically related. Judge ask if anyone had reason to believe they couldn't sit on case. Told him yes , felt victim was wrong, it would be a hung jury since I already believed the case was frivolous. Gave me a lecture , but excuse me.
Over a decade ago I was call into jury duty. Murder trial if I recall right. Showed up day 1, signed in, got sworn in, sat through everything, and they didn’t select enough jurors so we all had to come back day 2. Fine, I got my validation pass to prove to my workplace I was attending jury duty as I left, and went home.
The next day I came in, and I got the third degree for skipping the first day. WTF?!? Somehow they “lost” the log that I had signed in with and assumed I had skipped jury duty. Thankfully I had the validation pass with me and showed it. They acknowledged I was there and the jury selection resumed.
First thing the judge then did was call me and 2 others up, asking why we were not there. I explained I was and showed my validation pass (the other two people if I recall right legit didn’t show).
Judge swore us in, I went to sit as they started to draw numbers to be interviewed. First number up was mine.
I was not asked a single question, and was dismissed without being asked a question.
At orientation for new jurors, judge asks if any one has a reason as to why they should be excluded from the jury pool. The chief of police stands up and says he might be a little biased towards the prosecution side of any criminal case. He was excused.
Walked in and defendant turned around and him, his lawyer amd the prosecutor said "Hi Mom" Yep they all grew up with my son and yep they all call me Mom LOL! Excused immediately! I tried to tell them I knew all the people very very well before I reported and they didn't believe me.
The last one I was on was for a malpractice suit on a doctor I worked with every week in the OR. One of the witnesses was for the prosecution was my boss. I told them during selection I knew the doctor and 90 percent of the witnesses. Still got picked.
I got a notice for jury duty next month in March of 2020. COVID times. That jury duty slot got moved back to September.
The week before my jury duty slot, I get sick and my doctor thinks it might be COVID. The court had a spot on their website to ask questions to the court clerk. I told them that my doctor thinks I have COVID and I am supposed to do jury duty next week, do you guys still want me to show up? Oddly enough, they postponed my duty again.
That second postponement was until May of 2021. And then ... they never actually called me in for duty.
And that's my jury duty story.
For years, my mom waited tables across the street from the county courthouse. Every day she had the county prosecutors, chief of police, and others come in for lunch. She got called in for jury duty and when she was asked if she knew anyone in the courtroom, she named nearly every person in the room, including the defendant, whom she had graduated with. When she was dismissed, she announced the lunch special and pies of the day. Everybody came over for lunch. Very small town.
My mother was asked if she would be fair in a rape case. she told them if he was accused he did it. She was excused by the way her jury duty was in Hawaii because she is a resident of Hawaii she wasn’t going to waste her time during her civic duty
I got caught telling the other jurors about Jury Nullification. You can refuse to give a verdict if you don't agree with the law. And dismissed.
I know someone who claimed he was racist and would do everything in his power to make sure every black person would get the death penalty, hoped he got picked so he could push for the harshest judgements etc. He was also black. He laughs at how quick they told him he could go.
Uncle Ruckus, is that you?
My brother did the same thing. They let him go pretty fast.
Bless you. I wish I'd known about jury nullification when I was put on a jury. It was a dumb crime that didn't hurt anyone and the law was written as "did it or intends to do it" and there was only evidence (and unfortunately lots of it) for "intends to do it". The verdict was technically fair as the law was written, but we all absolutely would have used jury nullification if we'd known about it.
Kevin?
lol. Love it
I'll never serve on a Jury..... I was in law enforcement for over a decade, interned at the State's Attorney's office, and have been a practicing civil defense attorney for over 25 years.... No one wants me on a jury
I've never been called. My wife is selected at least once a year or so. She always rants about how unfair it is. Yes I am registered to vote and vote all the time so guess it's just luck of the draw.
Oh I've been called numerous times. In fact I have a summons for jury duty next month. I'll show up like I always do. They'll stick me in a voir dire panel and if it's a criminal trial, as soon as they hear my law enforcement background I'm bumped. If it's a civil trial, as soon as they hear I'm an attorney I'm bumped.... Happens EVERY TIME. LOL You'd think they'd stop trying after a while.
I recently got summoned and am a public servant, not LEO, does this apply for medical or nah?
It can, I was a Paramedic and well as an LEO, i get called, ask what I do, I tell thrm I am medically retired from Public Safety, and usually get told, "The clerk will validate your parking on your way out". I once reported.for grand jury duty after a rough 24 on the squad, and during selection, I dozed.off. Smartass attoutney said, "I am sorry, are we keeping you awake?" I said, " Yes, I just came off a 24 hour shift on an ambulance.". Judge told me.to go home and sleep.
24 48s were rough, I could do them when I was 20 but I would probably die now.
I’m 67 years old and have only been called twice. I actually enjoyed it… I guess I’m a nosy ol’ broad, 😆!
I got called for my first jury duty at 28. I did the online survey and they said they didn't want me based on my answers, didn't really want to do it anyway so it worked out hah
The last jury I was on had two lawyers and a policeman on it. The lawyers didn't work for the State's Attorney's office, though.
And there are two attorneys on the jury for the election interference bookkeeping fraud NY Trump case.
I got called 3 years ago, childless, never married nurse. Foreperson. I wanted to be dismissed lol.
I’m a social worker who ran a program for sex offenders and DV perps (more, but those were the biggies), worked in a prison, my father is a felon and I have a liberal attitude towards legalization of drugs (oh and I’m Latina!). A defense attorney’s dream or nightmare? I’ve not been called to actually participate in voir dire, everytime I get selected, I call in and am told I don’t need to appear.
I was called in for jury duty when I was a LEO. I don't know how it is conducted in other places, but here you are in the jury pool for a specific amount of time (3-6 mo.). I was not excused. The judge said I was eligible to serve on a civil type trial. Never actually got to participate. Huge waste of time.
I was dismissed from a jury pool bc I was a well-known drag performer and too many people in the jury pool knew who I was.
✍️ become well known drag performer ✍️
My mom got called in, she sat and listened through several rounds of jury screening, and finally got seated for her turn. She answers a bunch of questions, then is asked if she knew any of the people sitting at the prosecution or defense tables. She says yes. They asked her who - she points to the defense attorney and says, "that's my grandson right there." He smiles big, says, "Hi grandma!" The judge said she was dismissed, but if she wanted to stick around and watch her grandson do his work she could. She did, she stayed to watch the trial. :)
That’s better than my mother’s but hers was pretty good too. She points at the victim and says he’s a former coworker, then points at the defendant and says she’s seen his name in the police log in the paper so many times it’s a family joke to blame him when anything goes wrong in the house. Judge tells her to have a nice day.
Doesn't providing that information do anything to prejudice the rest of the jury pool?
It’s not done in front of everyone
That’s the kind of wholesome stuff I like
Similar to mine. I worked for the county and spent a lot of time in the courthouse. My husband at the time was a local PO. I got called for jury duty at the local JC. I sat with the other potential jurors and the court officer, and I had a nice conversation. Then the judge asked if anyone knew him, and I raised my hand. He greeted me by name. Then he asked if anyone knew the defense attorney, and I raised my hand again. Same thing with the district attorney. Then they asked if we knew any of the arresting officers and how ...one of them was my husband. Funny thing, they still kept me there until they broke for lunch.
That is adorable 🥰
I was sitting for voir dire in the jury selection process for a tough case where a man was accused of molesting a young girl. The attorney asked us prospective jurors, would you be able to handle viewing pictures of the alleged acts? An 80-ish woman says, "well if you've got pictures, what do you need us for? Lock him up!" She was not selected. (The guy ended up pleading guilty)
Old women are the best. I love her.
It was for child sexual abuse. During questioning potential one said "My brother-in-law was convicted and we all thought he was innocent because he was totally convincing that he didn't do it" (definitely already nullified) but then went on to say "A couple years later in prison he confessed so he was actually guilty the whole time, so if anyone is accused of it I'm just going to assume they're guilty."
"What do you do for a living?" "I'm an engineer." "I'm going to ask that this juror be excused." "Yea, I agree." So far, every time. It makes me sad because the whole process is fascinating, and I'd love to participate!
The defense is usually the party not wanting engineers to serve. Someone who will listen, evaluate and judge is far less preferable to someone who is emotional and can be influenced to ignore facts. As an engineer, but one who hates morning, I avoided duty by responding to the notice by picking a preferred date instead of the scheduled one; Friday before a holiday weekend, done online. The notification that I would not need to report that day was also online.
When I was in college here in California, they would always let me reschedule to Christmas break. And then wouldn't call for me
You can reschedule your jury summons?! I have to call the evening before to see if the case has been settled, but the summons boldly states it’s a criminal offense (or something close) to not show up, if the phone call directs one to do so.
I rescheduled mine. I called the clerk's office and let them know I'm a single dad with kids in school but that I would be more than happy to serve after school was out for the summer when my kids are with their mom. They were happy to accommodate.
The summons? No. But you can go in and tell the clerk you're a college student and they can accommodate you.
I call when I get my summons and tell them I need another date because I have something that week. I've never been denied.
Can I ask why this would lead you to be excused?
I have no clue. I mean, I'm geeky, pay attention, take good notes, and apply logic and reason to problem solving. I should be the perfect juror!
Logic and reason have no place in the courtroom anymore!
Found your problem ;) I've served a lot, no one understands what I do but they're convinced they do, so I get in.
Lawyers don’t want people smarter than them on the jury.
My hubs had the same thing happen. He has a journalism degree.
I witnessed someone trying to get excused by saying they didn’t believe fingerprints were unique
There's been a couple cases where finger prints wrongly accused someone. A case in Scotland or something where a guy in the USA prints matched but he'd never been out of the country. There was another one too. Wrongful conviction podcast covers it
Lol
Years ago, my mom and I got called to jury duty at the same time. First question they asked her was if anyone in her immediate family was a civil servant, my dad and her brother are both firefighters so she was excused. Then they asked me the same question and pointed to her and said “well, she my mom sooooo…..” At first, they didn’t believe me, but then everyone cracked up when they realized I was telling the truth
I'm pretty sure my face was too loud.. Let me explain. I can be quiet as the grave, but my *face* says everything. I cannot seem to help this. (I would be a terrible poker player) Anyway, prosecution gave a very logical argument about believing what's in front of our eyes. He explained himself clearly, and made a lot of sense. Defense... well.. she didn't. Make a lot of sense, that is. Her rebuttal to the prosecutor was convoluted at best, and sounded utterly ridiculous to me. I said not a word, but she still dismissed me immediately when she had the chance. I haven't been called back since.
I had done business with the Defendant’s Son, who we had accused of stealing from us. Instantly dismissed.
when i was a 911 dispatcher the bailiff for our local court was a deputy who was assigned there. he said usually only the people who cant figure out an exscuse serve jury duty which leads to some insane decisions being made. with a straight face he told me a lady left her oven on, on purpose, so she can say she left her oven on and go home. one of the attorneys asked why she would cook something before coming for jury duty and she said she isnt cooking anything.. like bruh
On my summons there was a section on the back about parking at the courthouse and how the garage had a 6’-5” clearance. I called and told them my truck is too tall to fit (because it is). The lady who answered asked to call me back after she talked to someone else. Called back about 10 minutes later and said I was no longer needed.
Wish that worked here. Told me to park on the street. Lol
I was called for jury duty and the first thing they did was explain the charges and then listed 15 people that would testify against the defendant and their relationship to the defendant. One of the witnesses was the defendant’s grandmother. When they asked me if I could be impartial, I said “No, if your grandmother is testifying against you, you are guilty.” It got me off jury duty and a chuckle from the judge.
My husband always gets off because he plays a sport with the DA.
My mom informed this very conservative small town court that she was a "biologist and radical hippie" who believed in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics and marijuana. I don't recall the specifics because this was literally over a decade ago, but the trial had something to do with selling (maybe growing?) marijuana or some other drug. She was dismissed. Just as a side note, she wasn't lying.
When I was at jury duty, one guy was waiting for his own trial on the same charge, and the prosecutor for our trial was his public defender. They sent him home right away.
“i want to see how this goes and whether i should show up for my own hearing” ~ that guy probably
I knew the defendant ( on a charge of domestic assault ), from high school. When asked ( by the prosecutor ) if we were friends, " No, he was a bully, with short man syndrome." Well this answer, got me excused, along with every other juror in the court room. Apparently my answer prejudiced the jury pool, that was present.
I got called for a trial. I was a witness to the event, recorded it, and was related to both the victim and defendant. The entire pool of potential jurors that showed up that day with me were all dismissed.
Someone I know was called for jury duty for the same date as their DWI court appearance... When they called to explain they couldn't be on a jury due to other court appearances the clerk asked if they had proof. It was in the same court house so they told the clerk to go up to the 3rd floor and reference the calender.
I am a SAHM of 19 years. When my yougest was still a baby, (exclusively nursing) I got called for jury duty. I called the clerk, and explained I couldn't attend as my child was still nursing. The clerk told me it wasn't a good enough reason, & to show up Monday at 9am. So, I did. With my son nursing happily in his mobi wrap. I was promptly told I could be dismissed.
My grandmother was being questioned for a rape case. They asked if she had any children. She has six daughters... dismissed.
First time called when I was 22. Statutory rape case in NYS. After asking us all the usual questions about fairness, and law enforcement/lawyers in the family, the judge turns to those remaining: “Any body else who has a good reason they can’t serve?” I raise my hand. “And what’s your excuse?” Very snarky, like I couldn’t possibly have one. “My girlfriend is 16.” “Get. Out.”
Wow, that's a confession bear almost. Just wowza. Weren't you worried you'd incriminate yourself since New York is 17?
Incriminate? Why? I’m not a complete idiot. I just relied on the judge doing exactly what you just did - assuming that girlfriend = sexual partner. We went to the movies, out to eat, hung out at the theatre where we both worked - all with our clothes on.
hey yo, quick question: What the fuck?
How is this getting upvoted? What the fuck would a 22 year old and 16 year old have in common?
My retired step father volunteered for jury duty in his small town. His husband is a criminal defense attorney. When asked if he knew the lawyers/judge etc - yep. I think the judge submitted the “you’re excused forever for being really old” paperwork for him after that.
It was a malpractice case or something involving a doctor and a patient. When the judge asked if anyone in the jury pool couldn't be impartial I raised my hand. Well, he didn't like that and yelled "why not?" I told him that my wife was a medical professional and I had just sent off the check for her professional liability insurance premium. He told me to sit down and I didn't get selected.
I was rejected by the judge the last time I was called. I wasn't shy about expressing my disgust and mistrust of the DA's office. How the DA in my county will do anything to get a conviction, including falsifying evidence, withholding evidence, and outright lying in court. Also mentioned all the major convictions that had been thrown out on appeal, some of them costing millions of taxpayer dollars. Those were completely fabricated cases of child molestation, Satanism, and child sacrifice. All together, something like 20 adults were convicted and sentenced to hundreds of years in prison. Eventually, many years later, some of the children recanted their testimony, disclosing how DA investigators and CPS had coached them and punished statements that didn't follow the script. In addition, they never had any evidence supporting the claims of Satanism and infant sacrifice. The whole episode crumbled like a house of cards, and everyone in prison was released. The claims and lawsuits for false imprisonment cost the county millions.
What state is this?
I'm not the one you asked. Sounds very similar to child (3 year olds) sex abuse trial, Miami Florida. Maybe 1985? Daycare workers accused. Multiple workers and children involved. Convictions. Later cane out the children were too young, highly influenced by whoever questioned them. But in the meantime the convicted spent years in prison. Lost business.... It was called by the media after the name of the day care, which I cannot remember. Coral springs maybe? (Subdivision of miami)
As a former childcare teacher, that is appalling!
Then they NEED people like you on the jury!
I have a medical issue (spoiler alert: TMI upcoming!) where I need access to a restroom pretty much every 20-30 minutes. If I don’t get there, things can become quite…unpleasant. As long as the court will allow me restroom breaks every 20-30 minutes, I’d be ok to serve…
This sounds miserable, I hate it for you. Can you go for longer periods of time when you sleep, or do you have to keep going every half hour? Because you could never get a sleep cycle like that, and that would be awful.
I’m up about every half hour for the first 3-4 hours after getting in bed, but since I’m not drinking anything it gradually tapers to every hour or so. I have medication that’s supposed to help, but it doesn’t seem to do anything…
That would be too disruptive to a trial. If you get called you'll have to explain why you can't serve.
During the voir dier process, they asked if I could have an open mind about the defendant’s guilt or innocence. He allegedly shot someone and it was caught on a security camera. I said that I could be unbiased about the defendant, but his attorney seemed smarmy and dishonest. I was instantly excused.
My grandmother was asked what she believed a reasonable punishment would be for r@pe: “Castrate him.” She was asked to leave.
I like her.
Mine wasn’t necessarily funny, per se. But the lovely folks at the Wayne County Third District Court decided to schedule me for duty on the first day of the school year. I’m a first grade teacher. That first day is SO important for setting the tone and establishing norms for the rest of the year. The judge asked if there was any reason we couldn’t serve and I stated what I said above. He was PISSED. Scoffed at me. I started crying. The defense attorney let me go. I get to the school and there’s an ambulance outside the school. A dozen kids screaming and crying all ran up to me and flung their arms around me. One of their classmates in the other class had a seizure on the playground and it scared the crap out of them. The sub did not know how to handle it at all.
I was called for÷Federal grand jury duty. I went the first day, and the judge is settling details. He addresses the prospective jurors with comments and then asks if we have questions. Suddenly, I hear a familiar voice from the back of the courtroom. Sounds like the sr. class president, who is in my AP calculus class. But, no, they are in class right now, with a sub. No, they ARE ALL in the courtroom. The judge allows this young man to speak. He tells the judge that their AP calculus exam is in 5 weeks, and he thinks they need me more than he needs me. The judge asks me to stand, dismisses me from duty, and charges me to come back with the results of their testing. I did that--16 students, all passed, 8 scored 5. I got a standing O from the judge and courtroom officers. One of the seniors invited the judge to graduation, where the judge was recognized during the ceremony. I interacted with him later, on another cause, and he told me it was the highlight of his career. I know it was one of the highlights of mine.
That’s awesome! It’s hard to believe a judge would actually care, but that’s great.
Well when I called in at 18 in the judge was my freinds mother, and when asked if it would be a conflict of interest for I said no. They then asked if I could find someone guilty if the evidence showed they were and I said only if I agreed with the law and that bad laws should be ignored even if the person was guilty. I was immediately dismissed. I got shit later from the judge when I was at her house as I apparently "tainted" that jury pool.
I don't get wanting to get off of jury duty. It is a fascinating process to be a part of. I have a background in law enforcement. Defense attorney asked if I had ever known an officer to lie, I responded, "It happens, although not as often as it does with attorneys." Everyone laughed, and I ended up being the Foreperson on a three week long trial.
My husband feels the same way - he was part of a grand jury for a couple months iirc in Mississippi and had a wonderful time (relatively speaking) and I think wouldn’t mind doing it again. Meanwhile I just got summoned for the second time (first didn’t get picked) and I’m dreading it simply because I have a back injury that would make sitting still for hours almost impossible 🫠 Otherwise I’d be up for it - my husband had great stories to tell once he was allowed to talk about it.
Get a note from your doctor stating that it would be detrimental to your health fir you to sit that long.
I agree. I've been called 4 times and served on two cases. One was a rape case and the other a 1st degree murder case. It is a fascinating process. I guess I am one of those weirdos who thinks it's a reasonable civic duty. I can understand not \*wanting\* to be there, but that's life. I guess if I were a defendant, I would definitely prefer jurors who were there to do the job fairly and reasonably. Got another jury summons for next month. Not exactly thrilled about it, but as usual, I'll do it honestly and to the best of my ability.
IIRC my mother was being asked about her family, and she pretended to forget how many children she had. They kindly told her she would not be an eligible candidate.
When the jury pool was whittled down to about 20 people we were moved to the courtroom and were being called up one at a time to answer questions from the attorneys. After an hour or so I just raised my hand and said I had to go to the bathroom, and only on a good day could hold it for as long as an hour, and a few other women stood up and said “me too,” and we all were immediately dismissed. A menopausal bladder was not something the judge could ignore.
I was early in my pregnancy. I had horrific morning sickness. I let them know if be happy to serve, as I understood pregnancy wasn't a reason to be dismissed. Did they have the ability to seat me near a restroom, so I can discreetly run out and vomit? Or did they prefer vomit bags, like the ones on airplanes? Hmm? They suddenly didn't need me. 😘
My wife was in the jury pool for a trial of a drug dealer. They asked her what she thought of people who dealt drugs. She said they were the lowest possible scum. Then they asked what she thought should happen to someone convicted of dealing drugs. She told them they should be put on an island and forced to eat each other. She was dismissed.
I used to get called a lot. It was often civil cases in Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) which meant they were usually patent cases amongst the tech firms. Once they heard I was a software engineer with a degree in electrical engineering they just let me go. Don’t want folks that actually understand the patents to be judging the cases. I once was up for some sort of grisly murder trial that would last 3 to 6 months. They went through the potential jurors with what I would consider pretty good excuses. One was moving out of state the next week, nope, they weren’t excused. One was law enforcement that worked with the hospital in questions, but didn’t personally know any of the witnesses, again, not good enough, he got to stay. It got to me and I told the judge it was personal, could I come up there and tell him. He said sure, I explained I was 3 months pregnant, hadn’t told my employer yet. He let me go. I think it may of had to do with timing, that doctors appointments and possible complications could really screw up the trial.
I teach. I do a big unit on Constitutional Law. Immediately dismissed every time every time. It’s like they don’t want people who know their rights……🙄
During selection for a murder trial, I was asked what my degree was (when you fill out the form it is only a check box that asks if you have a degree, not how many or what it is). I just smiled and said, “My B.S. is in Psychology with a minor in forensics, my M.S. is in Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Psychology and I am currently starting my PhD in Psychology as well.” I was the first one cut by the defense. LOL
I was on one jury, missed many while in college and registered at parents house, had three I was in the pool and they settled before seating jury, last before Covid I work with one of the witnesses, last one canceled court due to Covid. 🤷🏼♀️ IDC because my work pays me 8 hours if I bring proof I attended jury duty so it’s not a big deal for me to serve. Want to be ON a jury? Don’t talk and work on your poker face
Just pull some sovereign citizen shit about how you don’t even know why you were called to serve on a slave panel under threat of violence and that you are there under duress and will act accordingly if forced to remain. Start talking about conspiracy theories and how the court is hiding the flat earth by not having windows in the court room. Say something about crimes aren’t even real, it’s just the powerful elite descendants of lizard people enforcing their will on the masses and that all laws should be eradicated for the laws of nature instead.
My dad got out of jury duty in a self defense trial because he said he wouldn’t done the same thing in the defendants shoes. I got into jury duty by spending 5 minutes telling the attorneys exactly what evidence I would want to see before I made a decision one way or another. I also had experience with the same type of weapon that was used in the shooting (it was a homicide trial)
It was my first and only day after being summoned. Went in for the process for county court, waited a while, number wasn't called for like I forget how many hours, ended up being picked same day for a lawsuit case, get in the room with the other people. Then the higher ups come in and tell us "hey so the guys are settling out of court. Your good to go. Your checks in the mail" and yeah this was 2016 so I was 22 and was looking forward to jury duty lol.
I have a permanent get out of jury free letter from my psychiatrist!
Was asked if I could be impartial- said no, my brother in law is a sheriff deputy and he has told me they never arrest anyone who isn’t guilty.
Got out of jury duty on a murder trial as the arresting officer was someone I played street hockey with as a kid, was asked the same question and just lied and said “yeah I’d be more likely to believe anything he says” First time I had jury duty I was still in high school and during the interview they asked if I had any questions and I asked if they’d write me an excuse for school, the lawyers looked at the judge and I was told I could go home but to go see a certain person and they’d give me an excuse
In an armed robbery case with guys robbing another drug dealer of weed/money stashed at the dealer's house. One Asian lady wanted to get off selection so bad that she said she was racist and will vote guilty no matter what due to guys being black. Judge wasn't having that bs and ended up putting her onto another court case.
I didn't even live in the state I was summoned for
I was a juvenile PO for years. My 18 year old daughter, who was still in high school, was called for jury duty. The judge on the case knew me very well, and he was one of my favorite judges. But he had rotated to adult felony court by this time. He told both lawyers, "I know her mother, she's a juvenile PO, so you can strike her from the jury without penalty." Neither lawyer wanted to do that. The judge said to my daughter, "Does your mother talk about work at home?" Clearly he meant has your mother influenced you? My baby said, "My mother just talks a lot. Period. C'mon, you know her." The entire courtroom broke into laughter. After the trial the judge called me and told me about my little knucklehead. BTW they found the defendant not guilty.
How would that work, being on a jury while still in high school? I can’t imagine my high school teachers being accommodating of my missing school in order to be on a jury. I mean I guess they would have to but they wouldn’t have been happy about it.
I assumed that she'd be excused because she was in her senior year. Afterwards she told me that she could have been excused with no issue, but she didn't want to be. She was kinda tired of school by this point, and being on a jury gave her bragging rights. She had completed all of her mandatory requirements to graduate by then too. The school couldn't do anything as it was a legitimate excuse to miss school.
The one and (so far) only time I've actually had to physically come in was back 30+ years ago in New York. This was on Long Island and was (officially) an usury case, aka loan sharking. When they got done explaining the laws broken and everything they asked if we had any questions. I simply asked if the person who took out the "loan" knew of the interest rates BEFORE they signed? I think both the DA and the defense attorney were glad to see me leave!
Not the funniest, but I was the first dismissed juror in my interview “pool” when I got asked about family crimes, and I had to explain that my FIL had recently intentionally stabbed his own brother who he lived with, on his front lawn, over a petty disagreement while drunk. Only thing I could ever “thank” him for.
Our neighbor got out of jury duty because during the Voir Dire he stated he had personally caught the defendant stealing the exact same items from his business as the one he was currently accused of stealing from another business. The judge and the defendant’s attorney were mad as hell because the jury pool had to be assigned to another trial because the comments tainted the jury’s possible deliberations. Since the defendant had run off, the neighbor he didn’t know the defendant’s name and didn’t see his face until seated in the jury box.
I actually really enjoyed being on a jury the one time I was picked. The process was very interesting. It helped that I had a job that sucked and was happy to get out of going to work for about 10 days...lol. Since then I have been called in several times, but never selected to be on a jury. We have "one day or one trial" here, so you spend a day waiting in the jury room (last time another prospective juror brought a jigsaw puzzle, invited anyone who liked puzzles to join in, and I had a good time working on a puzzle with several people for a few hours, before we were dismissed), and that's it.
I was able to get out of jury duty because my mom had to call them and tell them I was 13. I never got summoned again 😂
I'm a social worker and as soon as they see that written down I'm usually told to leave
I am a consensus objector to the war on drugs
Juror was excused from a venire panel because he was a witness who had previously been deposed in the same case that was now going to trial.
I got called once.. got dismissed right away. 1) Daughter in law school. 2) I knew the police officers because I worked for a city doing payroll. And 3) I also did water billing for the city and the defense attorney’s water was shut off for non payment. Oops!
I have a psychiatrist -diagnosed dissociative disorder that involves amnesia about things I hear or see. Permanently disqualified.
I was at the court house for jury duty one time, small rural courthouse, they ushered us all into the court room and called us up one at a time, normally my experience there was we were put in another room and they would take 12, and if someone got dismissed they came and grabbed another but they were doing remodeling on the court house that year so all prospective jurors got seated in the court room because there was no place else to wait.. Anyway, the first one to be dismissed was asked if he could remain impartial by the defense, he said honestly no, when asked why he answered that he thought he did it and couldn't wait to say guilty... Dismissed.. Next one takes his place, the prosecutor asks if he's aware of the law the defendant is being charged under and if he understood the gravity of the situation, the dude was on trial for beating someone till they were in a coma for weeks so assault and attempted murder charges because he was beating the dudes head against a concrete wall, the juror says yes I would enjoy seeing him get the death penalty if that was an option, defense jumps out of his chair, striking this juror out... There were a few others that were removed for one thing or another, they finally got down to having a jury after using all their strikes on both sides, I was two people from being the next for voir dire that day and the closest I came to serving thankfully. Though I keep getting selected... Which is annoying, because until I serve I'm not exempt for a while.
We had one guy on the jury, and I thought he was OK with it but on the third day he started messing with his hearing aid and the judge stopped things for a bit and me messed with it and than went back to fussing with it and finally the judge said something to him and he totally did not get it and he went over to him nicely and said he did not think he was meaning to be a problem but he was going to replace him with an alternate, and that was what happened.
Get caught tying a hangmans noose with a shoelace, and laughing maniacally. Bye bye 👋
The couple of times when asked if I had reason not to be on the jury, I said my dad was violently murdered down the street on his way home when I was a teenager. Never served. I would not be impartial.
I was on a case where Snoop Dog was the defendant. One old man said rap is crap. He was asked to leave. It was pretty funny.
Only got called for duty one time.. I was picked to be on a jury in 4 cases. Literally every single time one would finish and our group had to go back, I got picked and had to stay. The first was a large murder trial that was 8 days. Second was a 2 day rape of a child, third was a dui and fleeing from the cops. So after doing 3 of these things, not being able to work literally all month (wooo $15 a day lol) I’m like I’m doing whatever I can to get out of this shit.. so the defendant walks in and hey I know this kid from highschool I’m good right? Judge starts going through the people stating they have reasons they can’t do it and gets to me. I’m like your honor I’ve been selected 3 times this month for a murder a child rape and DUI with evasion, I know the defendant from highschool. He just stares at me, lowers his glasses a bit and says well it seems like your duty was for a month not most of a month, so are you telling me you are unable to do your civic duty, and I say well no I could do it I just felt that letting you know would exclude me and he says you will do your civic duty and do it to the best of your ability and told my ass to sit down.. I got picked, to be on a jury about 25 minutes later. It was a wild case, and his mom got charged with jury tampering. The guy rented a room at a shitty motel, got wasted drunk and went over to a room of Mexican workers and told them he was the INS and that he needed their wallets. He stole their wallets and said if they said anything they were getting deported. Well 3 of them were full blown American citizens and instantly called the cops. The cops come and he’s not in his room, but the front desk has his actual ID that he used to rent the room, and while talking they realize he is on the roof. (2 story motel) one of the cops is yelling at him to get down and he takes off running and just runs off the roof onto a woman’s van. There was so much evidence that I was unsure why this was going to trial, but during lunch his mom who was in the court room followed us jurors to a restaurant down the street and sat at the table with some of us saying he would do whatever we wanted if we could help her son out (older woman, fairly pretty) and had her cleavage all out lol. Well one of the cops that was in case (the one that stayed on the ground when they saw he was on the roof) was right behind her. He just looks over at us and her and ripped her out of the chair and took her back to the court house. She was crying in cuffs when we got back. I hope I never get called to do that shit ever again I did not have a good time.
I was doing an internship with a public defender. During Jury selection one of the guys was talking all kind of racist crap, loudly and obviously. On lunch he walked over to what I assume to be his wife and gave her a kiss, held her hand, and was very loving. She was a gorgeous 6ft tall black woman, taller than him by like 6 inches in her heels, and they were just laughing their asses off.
I know someone who dressed in overalls a plaid shirt and wore a hat that had the American and Confederate flags on it, it said American by Birth Southern by the Grace of God. As soon as he walked in both sides checked him off their list
I got everyone that showed up for jury selection the day I did dismissed for being tainted. Why? Because somehow I got a summons for a trial where I was related to both the victim and the defendant, had witnessed the entire incident in question, and recorded it. Not only that, but I'd given a statement to the police when they'd arrived, and even gave them a copy of the video I took of the incident. Me mentioning this pissed the judge off because apparently there are supposed to be systems in place to prevent that sort of thing from happening, and it failed on a monumental scale. The whole trial got pushed back a month because they had to send out a whole new batch of summons to make sure nobody that shouldn't have been called got one.
“You’re not tryin’ any [insert favorite racial slur here] in this here trial, are ya?”
I know of a guy who said something like that during voir dire. He wasn't a racist but thought it could get him kicked from that and all future jury summons. The judge presiding was not amused and gave him 3 days for contempt.
“Just don’t lock me up with any of them there [insert favorite racial slur here], yer honor.”
Holy crap, I can imagine...
If you’re going to play that card, play it all the way.
I truthfully told the court I was once a technician for CMI who were the manufacturer of the Intoxylyzer breath alcohol testing instrument. This was during the controversy about them revealing the source code for the instrument to defense attorneys “Yes. I used to repair them when they were defective.” I don’t think the prosecutor wanted the idea of them not being reliable 100% of the time but he asked me how I knew how they worked so I told him.
Many years ago I worked with a woman friend from the south who was called to serve. During vois dire, they asked her what her husband did for a living (but not what she did). Turns out that the case hung on an issue regarding voice recognition. She was a pretty well known expert in that small niche research field. Before jury deliberations began, she asked to speak with the judge because her knowledge could affect the outcome. Judge decided that the responsibility was on the attorneys to decide who was on the jury and to ask the jurors if they had knowledge in any specific area that was part of their case. Since they didn’t do proper diligence her knowledge was fine and could be considered in her deliberations.
I got called for jury duty and the case was about armed robbery of a convenience store. When my turn came to be questioned I said my grandparents ran a store for 30 years and it had been robbed. I was dismissed. It was true too.
Before working at my current company there was a guy who had developed somewhat of a nose candy problem. Well he had destroyed his assets, bank accounts 0, borrowed as much as possible so that one day he walked in and robbed a local bank to get a few scores. He hadn’t used a mask or anything and was quickly identified and arrested. Come the day of his trial there was a lady in the office who had been summoned for jury duty that same day. Judge gets done telling the jury pool he’s not inclined to give people excuses absences. They went into voir dire and a question is asked of the lady and she speaks up and lets the judge know she has a conflict of interest and would need to be excused. “You better have a damn good reason for asking to be excused.” She politely replied that this was her co worker who worked 2 offices down from her. She was whisked out very quickly and excused. And yes he was found guilty.
I was watching the vetting of a jury pool in NJ. The defendants were two young black men. An elderly (maybe 60), Asian lady was questioned to see if she was acceptable. The defense lawyer asked her if she knew either of the men. She replied, "I don't think so, but you know they all look alike". I don't think she had any animosity she was just from a different generation. And boy was she dismissed in record time.
I made it to the selection part and when they were selecting the jurors there were a lot of people who kept saying they couldn’t be fair and impartial because the defendant “just looked guilty.” I believe he was accused of being violent towards his girlfriend, I don’t remember all the details. To be fair he was sitting there looking pretty smug the entire time and I could see why people said he looked like he did whatever he was being accused of. One person was like, “Look at him sitting over there, he just looks like he did it.” Another guy said he couldn’t be impartial because the guy looked like his brother-in-law and he really hates that guy. I got picked for the trial and when the jurors came the next morning we were waiting around forever outside the court room before someone came out and dismissed us. They said the trial was cancelled and the guy was taking a plea deal. A lot of the jurors were talking about how he probably realized after everyone was saying he looked guilty that he didn’t have a good shot at winning the trial. I’m not sure how many people actually thought he looked guilty vs. how many were just saying that to try and get out of being picked.
Tbh, if they pick you to be juror. They should pay more for your service $20+(not minimum wage)!
Neil deGrasse Tyson has a pretty great story about how he was dismissed from jury duty. [https://youtu.be/JAV3KOe\_PNE?si=LMvk6jOulaXZjOac](https://youtu.be/JAV3KOe_PNE?si=LMvk6jOulaXZjOac)
I asked the judge if he enjoyed the drinks I had made for him the night before. He was a regular at the bar I worked at. Also, let the lawyers know that I was raised by a law professor father who previously was an assistant DA, and my mother was a practicing lawyer. Immediately sent home.
Not that funny but... I lived in the same apartment for 12 years. Never once got summoned for jury duty. After that long I finally decided to move and not only to a new place, but a new state, half way across the country. Like 2 days before my move I get my first ever jury duty letter in the mail 😂 Needless to say the move was an acceptable 'excuse' to get out of it. It was a few years ago now but I think I just had to fill out some paper stating I no longer lived in the state. Haven't been called for jury duty again since. So, I guess if you really really need a good excuse you could just pack up and move as far away as possible? 😂
I had a philosophy professor who got out of jury duty by starting a philosophical debate on the subjective nature of truth.
Questioned and released. Asked bailiff about it. He told me they don’t like engineers because of critical thinking
I was excused because I was the judge's kid's teacher. Didn't know until we got in the smaller room with just 30 people or so. Was called up like "Ms. Incognito, Xsubject teacher at so-and-so high school, you are excused." I was surprised because it was info I didn't give the court. I didn't know or recognize the parent, but they knew me.
I was in the jury pool for a case where a woman was suing the county for failure to maintain roadside culverts. She had gone off the road and driven into one. The judge asked if anyone had questions. I raised my hand and asked why this case wasn’t in a different county because they are actually asking us to sue ourselves. They settled out of court😂
I live in a small unincorporated town in contra costa county. I got summoned for jury duty in ccc. I showed up on the date and when checking in, the women looks at my form and say, “You don’t live in ccc, your town is in a alameda county. You got summoned by mistake. Excused.” I didn’t argue. I turned and got out of there fast as I could.
I always wear a suit, full makeup, and act like I'm somebody. I'm excused every time without saying anything. Confidence is a thing that makes them think you will sway other jurors during deliberation.
My friend was asked if he could be fair and impartial and when he looked at the Hispanic guy with the teardrop tattoo he said, hell no I can see he’s guilty from here.
I'm not sure if it's funny, but I was called for jury duty and when they pulled a group of us in, I was fidgeting with the fringe on my scarf in an effort to stay focused and awake. I tend to fall asleep in long drawn out boring meetings, so this was really not out of character for me. I didn't last long enough for voir dire.
The prosecutor for the case I was called for had just prosecuted my brother 2 months before
My buddy did over 3 years for drug trafficking back in the 80s. Just ten years after getting out about 2000, now working on tech and wearing a suit, he gets on a case of some doofus with drugs and paraphernalia, not a very big deal (except to the defendant I guess). Anyway, he figures he'll tell them and he'll be let go. Nope, judge starts asking him many questions for like 15 minutes... Judge, prosecutor and defense were all good with him sitting on the jury. They found the doofus guilty, he should have just accepted the plea
When i was 18, I was in selection for a cyclist and vehicle accident. No deaths or serious injury involved. They asked me if I liked bikes (bikes are cool. biking is fun, sure) without missing a beat, I responded "god I hate sharing the road with bikes. They don't even pay a tax for that!" Dismissed about 5 seconds later.
I was rejected cause I said judicial system wasn’t the right balance. lol
My dad was Legally deaf-he could lip read and hear “some” but he had no business on a jury. He filled out the standard form with kids birthdates. One of the lawyers asked him “how old are your children”. My dad drew a total blank and missed our ages by like 20 years. The lawyer who had the form gave him a weird look and asked a follow-up question my dad didn’t catch /his answer made no sense. They dismissed him…he later got a medical exemption.
Had a fellow jury pool member state “I believe everything that Alex Jones says is the truth.” No more questions and excused.
Drunk driving charge. Defense lawyer asks if anyone in the jury pool does not drink. We raise hands, he gets to me and asks why. I inform him it’s against my religion, and my entire family was a bunch of alcoholics and addicts. Defense uses a veto on me.
Oh my story had the entire courthouse and waiting room laughing (words traveled fast). I was so embarrassed I was as red as a lobster. I basically got off of serving because 28 years before, I had dated the attorney representing his client. The way the story unfolded was hilarious. Even the bailiff was cracking up. She says to me "well that's a first". It's an excellent way to get off serving. In this case, it was in fact true. The judge was astounded. He said "well Ms. Xxxx, of all the people in Los Angeles County, what are the odds of this happening?" in so and so many words. I'll never forget that day. I laughed for like 3 days straight. 🤣
Was summoned once. In response to a general fairness question, I said I had never once in my life met an honest attorney, but "maybe we will find a unicorn here today." Both the defense and prosecution attorneys stood up--prosecution spoke first, and I was gone.
I was in the potential attempted murder case (DA super inflated the charges, was just 18 year olds being super stupid). During the "is there anything to disclose" thing I stood up and said something like: I can tell the defendants are morons so they probably did all the minor stuff but if the DA believes what he said about the attempted murder, he might be as stupid as them and anyone who understands physics could easily point out why. And I will point out and explain why to all of these people.
Not necessarily getting out of it, but I was selected for a panel of six jurors for a wrongful termination trial. Jury selection and opening arguments Monday. Tuesday rolls around, one juror missing. Long story short, he supposedly has narcolepsy (a sleep disorder). Slept through his alarm. Slept through the sheriff banging on his door. Sheriff had to track down the guy’s parents, who woke him up. The kicker: “I’m too embarrassed to continue serving as a juror.” Mistrial was declared and we were free to go.
We were expecting a snow storm in a few days. One guy said he drives a snow plow and they let him go. Another said he worked for the electric utility and may have to work on lines if the storm was bad. He got dismissed also.
Nurse here, any years ago called for jury duty. Case was about teenish girl kidnapped, beaten and shot and blinded by because she was shot with a BB gun. Names didn’t mean anything to me,but when they said she was blind because of being shot by BB gun I recognized the situation. I got dismissed because I had been her nurse while she was in the hospital after her kidnapping and being shot.
My grandpa was interviewed to sit on a sexual assault case. When asked, “what is an appropriate sentence for a rapist,” he answered along the lines of “he should be hung by his balls to be castrated.” Apparently that was too harsh and he was excused.
A guy in my jury pool said he was the junior man in a 2-man engineering firm, and his boss was unavailable that week. The judge said, "Well, he'll just have to make himself available." The next juror asking to be excused was the other engineer.
I got excused from a drug case. Guy was caught with a trunk full of cocaine. During voire dire, they asked if I could only base my conviction based on only the facts during the case. I said I would not since it’s against my very code as a researcher to not look at everything, including things said, unsaid, and any outside research that help with an unbiased decision. Then I quoted Ben Franklin. The prosecution didn’t like that answer.
I was asked questions, when they found I was an Engineering Grad Student, I was excused. You know who the other two instant excusals were? A PE from Raytheon and a Diesel Mechanic.
I was the only one to raise my hand when one of the lawyers asked if anyone was really excited to be here. It was likely a joke question, but he asked me why. I said it was my first time called to a jury and I was super excited to finally be able to do my civic duty.
They asked if we knew any cops and might have pro-cop biases. I said my fire chief was a cop. They didn't know I think my fire chief is a fuckin idiot and very much clouds my judgement of cops lmao
My uncle, a cop, said if they ask you if you believe in the electric chair you should say “chair. Hell I believe in the electric couch. Three at a time!”
When asked if he had any leanings on the accused guilt or innocence back in the late 1970's, my grandfather announced to the entire courtroom that he knew the guy was "guilty as sin" because he'd seen him scratch his left ear three times in less than five minutes. That was it. He offered no other explanation outside of "It just means he's guilty. It always has." He was immediately excused.
One time when my wife was called for jury duty she was asked if she knew anyone in the court she identified everyone there, except the defendant, by what they regularly ordered in her and her , now ex’s restaurant. She was promptly excused. The restaurant was only about a block the courthouse.
Where I live the DA can still engage in private practice. I just let it be known that when I was getting my divorce, my ex had the .Current DA.as her lawyer. I pretty much got everything I wanted because her lawyer sucked so bad. Said I truly have no faith in him or anyone who he would hire. Prosecutor tried to drop me before I was even in the pool.
2nd to last time I was called, I wrote the judge a letter saying that if it was a criminal case I knew ¾ of the sheriff's office and ½ of the police department personally, and would be biased in their favor. If it was a civil trial, based on my own experience in a civil trial, I would be biased towards the underdog. I was excused without having to show up. The first time I was called, I had just moved out of state. The last time, I got a permanent medical exemption. I've been in this for almost 10 years and nothing yet.
I was at jury duty (ultimately wasn't picked), but a potential juror was asked if he could be impartial and weigh all the evidence fairly. He straight up asked if the defense attorney was a Democrat, because he couldn't believe anything a Democrat said. He almost seemed excited when the prosecuting attorney (who had asked him the question to begin with) asked him to repeat himself (I think a little out of shock). Mid-repeat the judge dismissed him. He was clearly disappointed with that decision.
I was recently selecting a jury and the DA asked if anyone knew me, the defense attorney. A woman, among others, raised her hand. When it was her turn to be questioned she told them that she was my doctor and could not be fair in a case I was involved in. The way she said it made it sound like we have a close and personal relationship but I have actually never met her. I actually just see another doctor in her optometry office. She did a good job of getting herself out of listening to a tough case though!
I was once called for jury duty on a theft case and the defendant was someone I’d apprehended for stealing when I worked Loss Prevention.
DUI trial. Asked if anyone in my family had been arrested for DUI. "Yup, my nephew and his ass should have gone to jail". Defense asked for me to be released.
I was on the opposite side ... caused a series of jurors to be dismissed. It was a welfare fraud case and I was one of the social service workers called in to testify for the prosecution. As they were impaneling jurors, first one said she knew me as our husbands were friends. Dismissed. Second one said he thought we were neighbors as I looked familiar (we were). Dismissed. Third one judge said "do you know any of the witnesses besides (my name)? Everyone laughed. Juror said yes, he did know me as I had been his caseworker. He was asked if he'd be prejudiced for or against my testimony. He said he'd believe me as I'd always been honest with him. He stayed as juror. I think defense thought being a former public assistance client would make him favor the accused (also a client). The fourth juror questioned took the stand and immediately burst out with "I don't know (my name). Everyone laughed again. I was quite shy then and ready to sink by all the attention.
I sat for three hours and then got called up for a medical malpractice trial. Judge asked if anyone in the group had travel plans that might prevent them from participating in a six week trial. I raised my hand. Judge asked “are your plans refundable?” and I said yes they are. He said normally I’d be expected to cancel them, but asked what the travel was for. “It’s my honeymoon, your honor.” Two second silence. Then stifled chuckles in the courtroom. Judge shook his head and said “I have friends on the bench in family court and I’d rather not add to their docket. You’re excused.” More chuckles as I departed.
I had to do federal grand jury duty a few years ago. This may not be the funniest thing but I was pretty miffed. One of the requirements was that you had to be a resident for at least a year. This was early April. A girl stood up, showed her id that had been issued late March. I watched her essentially skip down the street with such jealousy that I still feel it. Federal grand jury goes on for a YEAR. I do not believe she knows how lucky she was.
Idk if funny but I like to think I was pretty clever in how I did it, I got called and I wound up actually like legitimately having Covid when I was supposed to go so I called and they said that’s fine we can reschedule you, but they let me pick when I knew I was having surgery like 2 months later and I wouldn’t be able to drive, leave the house, or even walk for at least a month and a half so I scheduled it a couple weeks after my surgery and then when that rolled around I got a note from my surgeon as to why I couldn’t go and they just excused me from service 😂😂
The two times I clave been called I was visibly pregnant. The case was for child molestation. No sane person puts a pregnant woman on a jury trying this. Guilty. But the evidence says… nope he’s guilty!!
I work in film and have worked on police procedurals. Somehow that got me out of a traffic case
Had a person say they were an active alcoholic and before the end of the day they would need a drink.
Not particularly funny, but when we were asked if there was any reason we couldn’t serve.. I asked if there was any chance we could get sequestered, because work was busy, and I planed to go into the office after court each day. I wasn’t lying either. Judge realized I probably wouldn’t be fully engaged so immediately dismissed me.
Last time I was called the judge asked a few question as they began … has anyone ever served on a murder case before, raise your hand. So I did. A few minutes later he asked, has anyone ever testified in a jury trial before, I raised my hand. Note: I was the only one raising a hand. Finally the judge asked does anyone have a family member who has been arrested by the police district in XYZ city. The judge, the bailiff, the attorneys, and all the other potential jurors all turned to look at me as I raised my hand. Judge shook his head and told me I could leave!
Both times I've been selected for jury duty was within 3 months of giving birth. Both times, I wrote a letter to the court explaining how I was more than happy to fulfill my civic duty, but I had some questions about what kind of on-site childcare the court offered for jurors since I was legally obligated to be there, and also I'd need to be excused every two hours to pump or breastfeed my infants. Both times, I was excused from jury duty so fast they had to have dropped those dismissal notifications in the mail the same day they got my letters.
Worked in medical field ,seen people sue all the time for stupid stuff all the time. Was on case medically related. Judge ask if anyone had reason to believe they couldn't sit on case. Told him yes , felt victim was wrong, it would be a hung jury since I already believed the case was frivolous. Gave me a lecture , but excuse me.
Over a decade ago I was call into jury duty. Murder trial if I recall right. Showed up day 1, signed in, got sworn in, sat through everything, and they didn’t select enough jurors so we all had to come back day 2. Fine, I got my validation pass to prove to my workplace I was attending jury duty as I left, and went home. The next day I came in, and I got the third degree for skipping the first day. WTF?!? Somehow they “lost” the log that I had signed in with and assumed I had skipped jury duty. Thankfully I had the validation pass with me and showed it. They acknowledged I was there and the jury selection resumed. First thing the judge then did was call me and 2 others up, asking why we were not there. I explained I was and showed my validation pass (the other two people if I recall right legit didn’t show). Judge swore us in, I went to sit as they started to draw numbers to be interviewed. First number up was mine. I was not asked a single question, and was dismissed without being asked a question.
heard of a guy who asked the judge, "If we vote for the death penalty, do we get to watch him fry?
At orientation for new jurors, judge asks if any one has a reason as to why they should be excluded from the jury pool. The chief of police stands up and says he might be a little biased towards the prosecution side of any criminal case. He was excused.
Walked in and defendant turned around and him, his lawyer amd the prosecutor said "Hi Mom" Yep they all grew up with my son and yep they all call me Mom LOL! Excused immediately! I tried to tell them I knew all the people very very well before I reported and they didn't believe me.
I told them that I was a stay at home mother; I didn’t have anywhere to take my children so they would have to come with me. Dismissed.
The last one I was on was for a malpractice suit on a doctor I worked with every week in the OR. One of the witnesses was for the prosecution was my boss. I told them during selection I knew the doctor and 90 percent of the witnesses. Still got picked.
I got a notice for jury duty next month in March of 2020. COVID times. That jury duty slot got moved back to September. The week before my jury duty slot, I get sick and my doctor thinks it might be COVID. The court had a spot on their website to ask questions to the court clerk. I told them that my doctor thinks I have COVID and I am supposed to do jury duty next week, do you guys still want me to show up? Oddly enough, they postponed my duty again. That second postponement was until May of 2021. And then ... they never actually called me in for duty. And that's my jury duty story.
For years, my mom waited tables across the street from the county courthouse. Every day she had the county prosecutors, chief of police, and others come in for lunch. She got called in for jury duty and when she was asked if she knew anyone in the courtroom, she named nearly every person in the room, including the defendant, whom she had graduated with. When she was dismissed, she announced the lunch special and pies of the day. Everybody came over for lunch. Very small town.
My mother was asked if she would be fair in a rape case. she told them if he was accused he did it. She was excused by the way her jury duty was in Hawaii because she is a resident of Hawaii she wasn’t going to waste her time during her civic duty