Doing My Civic Jury Duty

[Wee67]

Today I fully expected to spend the entire day waiting to see if I'd be chosen as a juror. I was half hoping I'd be picked for some cool muder case or something. Instead, I ended up getting into a conversation with the Chief Clerk who happens to be a HUGE fan of the station for which I work. (one of the anchors I work with had appeared at a juror appreciation event he set up)

Instead of waiting with the other potential jurors, he took me back to his office where we hung out and BS'ed for while. It was kind of interesting to see the "behind the scenes" perspective. The most interesting part was going through the forms people send in to say why they cannot perform jury duty. Some of my favorites-

-One woman said her mother had died and rather than providing a copy of a death certificate, she attached a small pack with what she claimed where some of the ashes of her cremated mother.

-another guy wrote he couldn't come because he came home to find his wife f-ing (he used the whole word) some guy so he beat them both up. He would be happy to serve juror time as soon as he was done serving jail time.

-several people simple attached part of empty containers of Anusol (yech)

-I wasn't surprised that some people wrote "f*#% you" or other pleasantries, but I was surprised that they bothered to sign the forms and then send them back in.

-a kindergarten teacher took the time to use crayons to color each section of the form a lovely bright color. She then used smiley faces to anser questions yes and frownies to anwer no. She did nothing wrong, but her's was quite creative.

-to prove he had just had a full frontal lobotomoy, one guy enclosed a picture of the fresh scar and stitches across his freshly shaved head. He did not mention how he managed to fill out the form.

-I did get to see several celebrities' forms, including a New York Ranger who, for some reason, attached his W-2 form. Wow!

[theantiquetiger]

When I had jury duty last year, I let the Clerk know I wanted to be selected, and I was. I get paid full pay from my work when serving on jury duty. I sat on a boring case of some guy suing the schoolboard for 100's of 1000's of dollars for a fender bender. He didn't get a dime. It took three days. The case didn't start until 2:00 in the afternoon, so I pretty much had three days off with pay.

[Bizarro Amy]

I hope I never get selected for that. My dad was on a jury for a child abuse case and some of the testimonies gave him nightmares for weeks.

[toys2cool]

I've never been asked to do this,I wonder why?

[txteach]

Iv'e gone at least 15 times and have never been picked. I was in college in Wyoming when that gay kid, Matt Shepherd was killed and was sent a notice for jury duty. I knew the prosecutor well so I was let go. Luckily those kids that killed him were put away for life.

[megoscott]

I've been called several times but never got chosen. It usually involves calling the hotline everyday to be told to call back tomorrow.

Bill---your description of you day and the excuse letters was really entertaining, thank you for the laugh. The lobotomy scar kills me. I should get one of those.

[trekfan]

I was picked for a jury once, I hated it. 3 people REFUSED to convict, regardless of the evidence - "He has a family" was one of the idiotic comments one of them made. Most people, including criminals, have families. I hope I never get picked again...

David

[Marvelmania]

Hey Bill if you want some real fun sit in on night court sometime!

[HardyGirl]

I've never had to really serve. I've called and gotten told not to come, I've shown up and the case has settled out of court, or just told "Merry Christmas, you can all go home."

That labotomy bit is a riot.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

Interesting post...pretty funny. I have never been called either...gee, wonder why...