I have jury duty in two weeks.

I have been to local duty twice. The first time the guy pleaded no contest the day of the trial and the second time I didn't get picked.

In between I had the joy of federal grand jury duty. For that I got to drive two hours away for two to three days at a time every month. That lasted for around eight months.

I have a friend in the DA's office. I'm hoping that he can give me some great advice on how to get out of it. (Single dad, sole support of my children, only manager at my job, etc.) Plus, with me having a brother who's a 20-year veteran of the Atlanta police department, I can't imagine any defense attorney wanting me on a jury anyway!

If your job doesn't pay you the difference for your time away in jury duty, that is especially a pain. It's probably not a good time with the kids being off for summer break, too.

They haven't found me yet, Kevin! Don't tell 'em....

Dan,
That may be the ploy Kevin uses to get out of jury duty. "Hey, I can give you the names of other people who haven't served."

I'd be happy to do it for you, Kevin, if they allowed it. I've never been selected for any kind of jury duty, and it's taken on a strange fascination for me. Like "Michael Palin wants to be a Lumberjack" strange. Believe it or not...

I....{choke}....I WANT to be a juror!

{I wonder how many secret shames I've divulged here on IMWAN. Let's see... I dig disco? Check. I want to be a juror? Check. I have webbed toes? Well, I guess that's a check now, innit?}

Oddly enough, some of the other military people I work with have been getting selected lately and the ones that want to do it don't get picked.

One went in uniform hoping that the defense attorney wouldn't want him and he wound up getting selected. Another went in regular civilian attire wanting to serve and when they found out she was in the military they dismissed her.

Go figure.

I have been selected three times now. Got out of the first time as I was a full time student and they let us stay in class. Second time they had a last minute guilty plea and we were all set free. Third time I was in an incompatable occupation (like Kevin's brother) which means I will never have to go.

Bill

I’d like to have jury duty. I think that’d cool. But not sequestered.

The one time I was called, I had a conference to attend the same week as the trial. The judge was pretty cool about it. I even told I’d do a different week if that were possible. My work is really generous when it comes to jury duty. Doesn’t even count against vacation days.

But I was never called back.

A few handy tips for getting through jury duty: 1) If he looks guilty, he's probably guilty. 2) Ignorant crackers are always wrong about everything. Always. 3) With a little effort, you can count all your top teeth with your tongue. It's much harder to count all your bottom teeth with your tongue, but if you concentrate to the exclusion of everything else, you can do it.

Okay, now the third one I learned watching Elektra, not on jury duty. But I think it's still sound advice.

Heh. I've been called 5 times. I've never served, though I came close once. When I was stationed in Sicily, I was called to duty in Brighton, CO. Now, most people know, if you are in the military, stationed 8000 miles away, you will be dismissed as soon as you call to tell them the situation. But I had a cool division chief. He suggested I apply for no cost TAD orders (TDY to some of you other military types). I did, I got them, flew back to the US, called the night before, and my number was on the list of ones to report.

So I did. I showed up, and was dismissed before they got to me. They had filled the jury in the first 15 people.

That was in 1983.

I got to visit my folks for 5 days at no cost to my leave.

Good deal for me.

Brilliant!!

How did you manage that? I'm twenty-two and I've been called three times!

I was called simultaneously at Oberlin, Ohio and back home in Baltimore Country, Maryland. I was graduating, so I wouldn't be around Oberlin, so that wasn't a problem. And my number wasn't called for the Baltimore one, but I wasn't let go, just delayed. I had my jury duty a month and a half or so ago, but it was very simple. I was called into one jury selection process and didn't come close to getting picked. When we got back to the main room, we learned all other trials had been delayed, and we were free to go.

-Comp

Never been called for jury duty, but I was on the Conduct Board for a year at WSU. Only heard one case.

A year later, for Dad's Weekend, me and the folks went to see Bob Newhart for the weekend entertainment, and my reserved seat was next to the guy from that one case. Before we sat down, I quietly talked my dad into trading seats with me, and had to explain why after the show.

I've moved a lot. Had a couple of close ones; being called for the county or state I just moved out of three months earlier, that sort of thing.

Around 10 or so years ago our county system had a flaw in the program to "randomly" select candidates for jury duty. It only selected from a portion of the available candidates, so some people were being called multiple times within a few years and others not at all.

That reminds me - I did actually get called for jury duty in Michigan while I was stationed in Germany. Dad called the courthouse and let them know I wasn't exactly available.

UPDATE:

"Single parent of small children hardship clause."

No jury duty for me. Whew!! I'm sure they'll find me again in a few years, but at least for now, that's one less source of worry in my life!

I have wanted to be on a jury for the longest time, however, for my first several years my being a member of the media at the time got me excused in a hurry. Since I got out of radio I haven't been called. Same thing with being polled. Got rejected all while I was in the media and haven't gotten a polling call since.