History Main / JuryDuty

One part of jury duty that rarely makes it into fiction is that quite often more jury pools are summoned to court on a given day than there are actual jury trials that will be held. It's entirely possible for a person summoned to jury duty to just sit around in a waiting room for several hours, at which point a bailiff tells them that they aren't needed and can go home now. Of course, being summoned for jury duty without even getting considered for being on an actual jury makes for a [[ShaggyDogStory very dull and pointless story]].

* The jury duty is never actually shown, but in ''Film/DrSeuss'sHowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' the eponymous character is shown stuffing the PO boxes of various residents of Whoville with traditionally unwanted bits of mail. Along with jury duty notices, he throws in blackmail letters, pink slips, junk mail, chain letters, and eviction notices.

* The jury duty is never actually shown, but in ''Film/DrSeusssHowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' the eponymous character is shown stuffing the PO boxes of various residents of Whoville with traditionally unwanted bits of mail. Along with jury duty notices, he throws in blackmail letters, pink slips, junk mail, chain letters, and eviction notices.

* The jury duty is never actually shown, but in ''Film/TheGrinch'' the eponymous character is shown stuffing the PO boxes of various residents of Whoville with traditionally unwanted bits of mail. Along with jury duty notices, he throws in blackmail letters, pink slips, junk mail, chain letters, and eviction notices.

* One time Bruce Wayne tried to get out of jury duty by claiming he was Franchise/{{Batman}}. The judge didn't buy it for a second.

** Also, some of the juries are aware of who he is and don't like the idea of a psychic using visions to determine guilt rather than the facts of the case.

* On ''Series/TheOffice'', Toby mentions having served on the jury for the Scranton Strangler (later admitting that they may have convicted the wrong guy), and in a later episode Jim returns from a two-week jury duty break (which he later admits to milking for a break from work after being sent home on the first day).

* Mac gets called up for jury duty on a murder case in the ''Series/MacGyver'' episode "Rush to Judgement" and, naturally, can't resist investigating the case on his own - which is illegal.

* The jury duty is never actually shown, but in ''Film/TheGrinch'' the eponymous character is shown stuffing the PO boxes of various residents of Whoville with traditionally unwanted bits of mail, including junk mail, jury duty notices, chain letters, and eviction notices.

One part of jury duty that rarely makes it into fiction is that quite often more jury pools are summoned to court on a given day than there are actual jury trials that will be held. It's entirely possibly for a person summoned to jury duty to just sit around in a waiting room for several hours, at which point a bailiff tells them that they aren't needed and can go home now. Of course, being summoned for jury duty without even getting considered for being on an actual jury makes for a [[ShaggyDogStory very dull and pointless story]].

One part of jury duty that rarely makes it into fiction is that quite often more jury pools are summoned to court on a given day than there are actual jury trials that will be held. It's entirely possibly for a person summoned to jury duty to just sit around in a waiting room for several hours, at which point a bailiff tells them that they aren't needed and can go home now. Of course, being summoned for jury duty without even getting considered for being on an actual jury makes for a very dull and pointless story.

* The ElleryQueen radio show had an episode where Ellery and his secretary Nikki both ended up on the same jury, and Ellery ended up solving the case and revealing the true killer who was also in the courtroom (similar to the ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' example but predating it by decades).

* One episode of ''Series/BlueBloods'' sees Danny Reagan catching a case due to jury duty. His detective's eye makes it impossible for him to convict the accused during deliberation, causing a mistrial due to a hung jury. When he gets back to the precinct, his CO hands him the case files for the murder case he was deliberating for because the investigating detective was annoyed that he questioned the validity of the investigation as a jury member and tells him to investigate it himself if he's so sure that the case was handled improperly.

* One episode of ''Series/BlueBloods'' sees Danny Reagan catching a case for serving on a jury. His detective's eye makes it impossible for him to convict the accused during deliberation, causing a mistrial due to a hung jury. When he gets back to the precinct, his CO hands him the case files for the murder case he was deliberating for because the investigating detective was annoyed that he questioned the validity of the investigation as a jury member and tells him to investigate it himself if he's so sure that the case was handled improperly.

* The most obvious example, ''Film/TwelveAngryMen'', about the deliberations of a jury given a murder case. Later examples have a suspicious tendency to become a WholePlotReference, especially if one person decides to be a RogueJuror. (On the other hand, there's not very much you can do with a Jury Duty plot that wasn't already done extremely well here.)

* The most obvious example, ''Film/TwelveAngryMen'', about the deliberations of a jury given a murder case.

* This [[http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/index.php?date=2009-06-24 story arc]] of ''FullFrontalNerdity''.

* An episode of ''HarveyBirdman'' has him get selected for the jury of a trial he is also the defense lawyer for. Judge Mentok solves this dilemma by using Elliott the Deadly Duplicator's ray to make a copy of Birdman, so one can sit on the jury. He learns that the other jurors don't think very much of his defense style.

* The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin backdrop]] of Jury Duty, by mystery writer Laura van Wormer. It gets complicated when a fellow juror begins stalking one of the main characters.