A little late for that, you bastards

I just received a letter that I have been selected as a prospective juror in federal district court. Normally I would have been excited, for a few reasons.

1) I'm almost 26, and I've never been summoned for jury duty before.
2) I've always wanted to sit on a jury, especially in a criminal case. I had fond imaginings of a 12 Angry Men scenario where I am the one sane voice for justice (despite the fact that I only saw the movie last year).

Yet despite that, I am not exactly leaping for joy. For one, I'll be starting a new job soon, and have two weeks of training, and it would be a huge pain in the ass to be forced to miss any of my first month or so. And secondly, it's not the local state court, but the US District Court for this federal district, which is 2.5 hours away (each way). So now, despite my fond wishes of being on a jury, I will be forced to join the likes of, well, everyone else and try to get out of the damn thing.

Is there anything you wanted that you only received in some form when it was too late to enjoy it? Also, discuss jury duty.

I have never had jury duty. If I were summoned, I imagine I would spend the entire time on my phone and not paying attention and then end up making a judgement on whether to let the accused off based on how good they look five minutes before I'm supposed to go home.

Unless it was a trial for a serial murderer. In that case, I would pay damn close attention.

I've never had jury duty.

Can I be called for jury duty if I'm not a citizen? Can Canada still call me for jury duty?

You can't be on your phone during court. :p In state court here, they take the phones from jurors during court and deliberations, and even people just observing will have their phone taken from them if they're caught playing with it or it rings while court is in session.

EDIT: To Sarah.

shion: I'm honestly not sure about the first question, though my jury questionnaire does ask me if I'm a US citizen, so maybe not.

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Originally Posted by Raistlin

You can't be on your phone during court. :p In state court here, they take the phones from jurors during court and deliberations, and even people just observing will have their phone taken from them if they're caught playing with it or it rings while court is in session.

EDIT: To Sarah.

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Then I will fake my death so I do not have to attend. smurf that noise.

2.5 hours commute is unreasonable. Ask to be reassigned.

I was a juror in a criminal case a few years back. It was an alleged assault, wherein a couple of young guys supposedly beat up a guy, tazed him, stole his wallet, and drove off. One of the guys was a complete jerk and he didn't even put on much of a show for the courtroom. The other one managed to come across as professional and reasonable. I have no idea why he agreed to the combined trial, but since they wouldn't let us as jurors hear any of the discussed law, I think I got a very narrow view of the trial.

Ultimately, we had a hung jury, because one lady couldn't bring herself to convict, and I was kind of wishy washy about it all. Way too much time had passed since the event, and the witnesses were giving testimony that contradicted things listed in the CAD report (from the police), and both sides put together incredibly useless cases.

It didn't help the defense that their reason for being in the vicinity (they were followed by a good Samaritan back to one of their homes) was that they were driving around loops. That's great, except they still had time (based on all the available evidence) to do the driving loop, stop by, rob a guy, and head home. I think they eventually pled guilty after the mistrial. Personally, I think they were probably guilty.

The easiest way to get out of jury duty is to start talking about jury nullification, of course. Well, I guess if it's a civil case, no one's going to care. And it still requires you to go to the initial selection.

I will never have to sit as a juror because stating that you are a journalist usually gets you automatically annulled, apparently.

Jury duty? This must only happen in America, because I have never met a single person who's ever "done time". :( I used to fantasize about doing time, but that was for entirely different reasons.

Court is -so- boring. zomgz.

One of my sister's friends got called in for jury duty in our hometown... Turned out the case involved my sister's best friend's dad (who was once the mayor of our hometown. Something about someone broke into his house and he whipped out his gun. I can't remember.). And well. If you're in the jury, you're not supposed to know anyone involved in the case.. My sister's dumbass friend sees the guy from the jury stand and immediately goes "HEY MIKE!" and waved... She got kicked off the jury.

I was summoned for jury service in the 90s, got out of it easily as I had to list any convictions.

Heh, easy out for my. The mentally ill are not able to sit on juries. :smug:

Actually I do regard it as a duty and one which I would be interested in doing anyway, but hey, I'm not one to look a gift judge in the mouth.

So I looked some stuff up and I'm pretty sure the answer is no, I cannot serve jury duty as a permanent resident I would need to be a citizen. They said check box "no" under question of are you a U.S. Citizen and send it back.

I am still a citizen of Canada though, but I hope they would never call me for jury duty if I live in another country.

I got something before I wanted it. When I was about 14-15 a girl had a massive crush on me for months and I just never clicked over it (and for a long time didn't share the feelings), and then when I finally developed a crush for her later on, she had gotten over me and moved on to another guy. So it was just terrible timing by both of us, I guess. xD

I got a letter one time saying that I had jury duty but then it got canceled apparently? So I didn't have to go. Ah well. I was looking forward to getting out of work that day.

I had jury duty for 10 days, I think. I had to check online every evening to see if they needed me the next day. They never did. I think it helped that there was a snowstorm at the time. So I did my public service without having to do anything.

Nope, never had jury duty. I hope I never do.

My mom was a juror a couple few years ago, though. It was a murder case.

I've been called once, got out of it because I had to go back to college which was 200 miles away.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

I got something before I wanted it. When I was about 14-15 a girl had a massive crush on me for months and I just never clicked over it (and for a long time didn't share the feelings), and then when I finally developed a crush for her later on, she had gotten over me and moved on to another guy. So it was just terrible timing by both of us, I guess. xD

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You are the only person who has responded to the secondary topic and it really confused me.

Also, Raist you just now saw 12 Angry Men? Shame on you.

I actually want to be on a jury someday, but in 10 years have still never been summoned.

I was Juror #2 in 12 Angry Men. Does that count?

I had jury duty before...but it got cancelled :)

I've never had jury duty. Seeing as I no longer live in the States, I will never have the opportunity to either. This is disappointing.

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Originally Posted by fire_of_avalon

You are the only person who has responded to the secondary topic and it really confused me.

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Actually, I'm the only person who didn't discuss the secondary topic. :D

Regardless of how poorly Wesley phrased his thesis sentence it's obvious the main topic, the one which received the most attention in the OP, is jury duty. So suck it.

I've still never been summoned for jury duty, and I dread ever having to do it. Ick.

Never been called for jury duty.

I was once told that getting out of it is extremely easy, especially if the notice is mailed to you. All you have to say is that you never received the letter and nobody will argue with you. I'm not sure if it was true but the source was a lawyer so who knows.