Seeing that you're expected to take the unbacked word of a police officer to be just as reliable as physical evidence for charges they're notorious for trumping up or bullshitting altogether was certainly interesting, but rather the wrong sort.
I guess I'm a tad jaded to the wonder of the general process from having friends in law
edited 16th Feb '11 10:45:24 AM by Pykrete
Plus there's the fact that the jury vetting process in the USA is long, dull, and tends to coincide with other obligations.
Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.Last time I was called up I didn't even make it out of the jury pool.
I'm fine with watching cases in Law And Order. But since I registered to vote I'll probably get that summons.
It really is tedious. Although a jury is 12 members in size they'll call in 40-50 people as prospective jurors because if you show even the slightest signs of partiality, or if either attorney just doesn't like the way you look, you'll be asked to vacate. And every other person has to wait through this entire sequence, and each time a new prospective is called up, the entire questioning process begins anew.
I want to be called to jury duty, and if I get as far as the interview, I want to say, "I challenge you to take my enthusiasm for justice and civic duty out of me."
But then, depending on the case, my interest in justice might get one side's lawyer antsy to get rid of me.
Fresh-eyed movie blogI almost want to do jury duty just to see what it would be like. I haven't got it because I'm a minor and my mom hasn't gotten it because she's not a U.S. citizen. My grandma got called up one time, but she was like 80 at the time so she didn't have to go (besides, she probably wouldn't have made it out of the jury pool for anything, she'd probably complain about young people too much lol)
It varies from state to state, but here the two attorneys are each allowed to use peremptory challenge (remove a juror without stating a reason) on three jurors apiece — at least for misdemeanor cases. Which basically means the one with the weaker case will target the three jurors who look the most educated and least likely to fall for doublespeak and bullshit (I distinctly remember one of my law buddies telling me engineers in particular are almost always challenged), and the one with the stronger case will mostly be targeting people who seem partial to the other side.
I was going to say something to the effect of IQ being an average and not working that way, but people who are living out of town for college or traveling for higher-class jobs usually get exemptions...so I guess you really are going to get a somewhat disproportionately less educated cross-section.
edited 16th Aug '12 6:29:52 PM by Pykrete

About a year ago I was talking about how interesting it would be to be on a jury, then three months later I'm called to be on a jury!
I have to say I found it all fascinating, a tiny bit disappointing I didn't get to see a murder case (I would have had I been called a week earlier) but still fascinating.
I don't get the wanting to get out of "Jury duty" that I've seen from many Americans.
By the powers invested in me by tabloid-reading imbeciles, I pronounce you guilty of paedophilia!