I have never been called for jury duty.

Just do it and get it over with.

Here's my jury duty story:

I'm living in Sidney and get the letter. Everyone at Cabela's tells me, "There is no way you will serve. They will settle or something. Even if they don't, you won't be one of the six, because they call in 30 people. You'll be fine." So I put the letter off and wait for the settling letter.

Fast forward. I decide to change jobs and move. So I'm in Sidney on borrowed time. It's the end of Q3 and I'm busting my ass to get all my quarter end stuff done (I was an auditor). I bust my ass get it all hammered out and actually get a Friday off! So I head home and am fixing to stay up all night and get obliterated. Then I see the letter and think, DAMN IT. I never got a settlement letter. Shit on a ****ing shingle. So I get to bed at a decent enough hour to get up the next morning and have to put off the obliteration.

I arrive at the courthouse at the buttcrack of dawn. Of course they are late, so I sit on my ass, hating my life for a damn hour while they play with their peckers or whatever they are doing. Finally they pile us into the courtroom. Remember that I'm expecting to not get called and get on with my day off. The day is still salvageable. So I'm one of the 12 that gets called. That's OK, I'm still 50/50 of getting out of there.

It turns out it was a DUI case and the attourney says, "Does anyone have prior experience with DUIs or have strong feelings about DUI laws?" Turns out I was the only ****er in the county that hadn't gotten one. So I'm on the hook. Mother****ing son of a ****ing cock bitch!!! **** my ****ing life.

That's not all. So kid gets pulled over, cop gives him field test, he "fails". Breathalizer. Doesn't do it right. No reading. All on tape. Easy money, right? WRONG. Apparently there was a "problem" with the hardware and it didn't record any sound. Plus the damn field test, of course wasn't in front the camera. So I spent 2 and half ****ing hours looking at the cop lights flash in the kids window and looking at the police station. And the damn trial took all ****ing day.

So in the end, I bust my ass at work at a job that I am not going to be at but for 3 more weeks, get a day off, and am rewarded by spending all day at jury duty watching douchebag attorneys, punk kids, and inept cops waste my life.

It wouldn't have been as terrible if I had gotten off work, but no, It was my hard earned day off.

:cuss:

Hopefully your experience is better.

theres only 6 people on a jury in KS?

Tell them you're racist.

It was in Nebraska, and I think it was that way for the minor crap.

You only have a 12 person jury for Felonies in most states.

I had a guy try that one when I was on selection and the judge basically told him that he would not be excused for that and his obligation under the law was to judge based on the facts.

Of course 5 minutes later the defense attorney tossed him.

Just hope you never ever get called on for a federal grand jury. I am sitting on one now. 18 ****ing months I am on this jury. One week out of every month I have to go listen to several cases. I have been doing it for 6 months now and I am starting to think this goes way over the top of civic duty.

Holy shit - how can they do that?

I don't know but it f'ing sucks. I got a jury summons and it didn't say anything about it being a federal grand jury. I get to the courthouse and there is a huge room full of people. They then explain that 23 of us lucky bastards and 24 alts will be sitting on a federal grand jury for 18 months and everyone in the room is like WTF? I was the second name called.

I thought at first it might be pretty cool but I quickly changed my tune after the newness was gone. I think after month 3 I was pretty pissed about the entire thing. It wouldn't be so bad but we have not once voted anything down. It seems like a complete waste of time.

How the hell does that work with your job?

Every month they send me a summons which I then give to my employer. I actually switched jobs while in the middle of this. I told them about it ahead of time and they have been very cool about it.

When I was in the Navy the various base COs had lists of jurors they would use for courts-martial, consisting of officers and crusty old chiefs, none of whom were exactly known for their soft views on crime. So for trials we'd have a few groups that would rotate cases, so these people would probably end up serving on five or six juries a year. But our jury trials were generally either for drugs or desertion, and were over in a day or two. I can't even begin to imagine how disruptive that must be.

Me, either. I actually would like to do it.


I often envision myself as an impartial judge that would mete out fair justice. :)