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Jacaen
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23 Sep 2008, 6:02 pm

Is AS a valid reason to get out of jury duty? :P If not, how were your experiences?

I have jury duty on November 3, at 8 o'clock in the morning. This, after I told them that I'm a dependent, I have no car, no job, and I'm a few forms of mentally disordered. My therapist specifically said that I have difficulty interpreting social cues in her doctor's note.

All that, and I still have to decide another citizen's fate. What has our justice system come to!?

Actually, I'm just pissed off that I have to sit in a court room for hours without my cell phone or Game Boy :/. Oh, the impending boredom!



donkey
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23 Sep 2008, 6:03 pm

you will learn a lot of the judicial process.
consider it a free lesson in cout room ettiquette and discover why everyone hates lawyers.


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liloleme
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23 Sep 2008, 6:06 pm

I was on Grand Jury once...it was actually quite interesting...but I agree that going there (by myself) and dealing with all the social stuff wasnt really fun. It lasted for two weeks so after the first two days or so it became more routine and was easier on me.



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23 Sep 2008, 6:09 pm

Bring a book. Suggestions are:

Dungeon Master's Guide
The Communist Manifesto
Mein Kampf
Holy Bible
Koran
The Combat Field Leader's Guide
Mao's Little Red Book

Good Luck!


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23 Sep 2008, 6:16 pm

I really don't like it when people use their AS to get off jury duty. If I got it, I would never use my own AS as an excuse to get off of it. I know I zone out but I wouldn't use that as an excuse either to get off of it. I also get bored quickly too and I have such a short attention span but I wouldn't use those to get off it either. I am also bad with note taking but I wouldn't use that either to get off it.


I don't believe in excuses is why. Something my parents taught me in my teens. Disability is no excuse for special treatment. It has to be something serious for me to get off it. Like if I had a kid and I couldn't find a baby sitter to watch my kid, I would ask if I could bring it with me to court and if they say no and said I can't go, that be different why I couldn't go.

But if my doctor said I can't go because of my problems; short attention span, problems with note taking, get bored easily, and even the court said the same thing I can't go to it because of those reasons, that also be a different story.



2ukenkerl
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23 Sep 2008, 7:14 pm

Believe it or not:

Spokane_Girl wrote:
I really don't like it when people use their AS to get off jury duty. If I got it, I would never use my own AS as an excuse to get off of it. I know I zone out but I wouldn't use that as an excuse either to get off of it.


That IS a valid excuse, as you are to have all the facts!

Spokane_Girl wrote:
I also get bored quickly too and I have such a short attention span but I wouldn't use those to get off it either.


ALSO valid! You could cut corners!

Spokane_Girl wrote:
I am also bad with note taking but I wouldn't use that either to get off it.


HEY, look at #1!


Spokane_Girl wrote:
I don't believe in excuses is why. Something my parents taught me in my teens. Disability is no excuse for special treatment. It has to be something serious for me to get off it. Like if I had a kid and I couldn't find a baby sitter to watch my kid, I would ask if I could bring it with me to court and if they say no and said I can't go, that be different why I couldn't go.


Now THAT, they wouldn't consider valid, as they would DEMAND that you get a baby sitter!

Spokane_Girl wrote:
But if my doctor said I can't go because of my problems; short attention span, problems with note taking, get bored easily, and even the court said the same thing I can't go to it because of those reasons, that also be a different story.


I guess the idea of a fair trial was NEVER desired!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078718/

Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arthur Kirkland: Why do we have to use microphones? Why can't we just talk to each other? We're close enough.
Assistant D.A. Keene: Mr. Kirkland, this is a hearing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Zinoff: This is not the McCarthy hearings.
Arthur Kirkland: Oh that's a relief. So you aren't going to ask me 'are you now or have you ever been a lawyer?'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arthur Kirkland: That man is guilty! That man, there, that man is a slime! he is a *slime*! If he's allowed to go free, then something really wrong is goin' on here!
Judge Rayford: Mr. Kirkland you are out of order!
Arthur Kirkland: You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order! That man, that sick, crazy, depraved man, raped and beat that woman there, and he'd like to do it again! He *told* me so! It's just a show! It's a show! It's "Let's Make A Deal"! "Let's Make A Deal"! Hey Frank, you wanna "Make A Deal"? I got an insane judge who likes to beat the s**t out of women! Whaddya wanna gimme Frank, 3 weeks probation?
Frank Bowers: *Dammit!*
Arthur Kirkland: [to Judge Fleming] You, you sonofabitch, you! You're supposed to *stand* for somethin'! You're supposed to protect people! But instead you rape and murder them!
[dragged out of court by bailiffs]
Arthur Kirkland: You killed McCullough! You killed him! Hold it! Hold it! I just completed my opening statement!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Judge Rayford fires a gun in his courtroom, drawing attention]
Judge Rayford: Gentlemen, need I remind you you're in a court of law?



Aguila
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23 Sep 2008, 7:34 pm

My mom did jury duty and it was really terrible because she has to pick up my sister at school and be there when my sister and brother get off from the bus and I dont get home until later. She only had to go the 1st 2 days though. So it was only bad for 2 days. Good Luck!!



demeus
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23 Sep 2008, 8:03 pm

The thing is, it is way too easy to get out of jury duty if you wanted to.

Some of the better ones are:

"I know and understand the principle of Jury Nullification and intend to abide by that principle" - This will get you kicked off by any DA in the USA that has 2 functioning brain cells.

Some variation of "If the police arrested them, then they are guilty"

"I think the death penalty should be applied to all criminals" may work

If you get as far as being a prospective juror, you may want to consider putting down that you have AS on the form. Some lawyers may strike you from the jury simply because that is an unknown factor and one of the mantra of lawyers is to not have unknowns.

As you can see, it is really easy for an intelligent person to get out of jury duty. They we wonder why some juries hand down the verdicts that they do :roll:



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23 Sep 2008, 8:08 pm

1. Of all the people who work in a courtroom, from the judge to the attorney to the bailiff to the clerk to the reporter to the janitor to the jury member, who earns the least amount of money?
2. Out of all of them, who has the most important job?
3. How is this fair?
4. If you were a defendant or a plaintiff in a courtroom, how would you feel if you found out that the judge or the clerk or even your attorney was making fifteen dollars a day?

Most people, when I ask them these questions reply with “If we had to pay the jury a decent wage we would have to raise taxes.”

To this I have a reply. How is this for an idea. Instead of paying me fifteen dollars a day why don’t I pay the court fifteen dollars a year, and if I get to sit as a juror you pay me from all the fifteen dollars a year you collect from all eligible voters in California. That would be 22,948,059 X $15.00 = $344,220,885.00 divided by 267,083 (the approximate number of people, including alternates who are seated in a jury every year in California) = $ 1,289.00 per person per trial which usually lasts about five days. You would get paid $1,289.00 per trial no matter how long it lasts, whether it be a one day trial or a one month trial. If I compare that to a yearly salary it would come to
52 X $ 1,289.00 = $ 67,018.00 (approximately) a year which is a lot more than what the average person earns. I don’t think you would have too many people trying to get out of serving as a juror. Personally I wouldn’t mind having to pay $ 15.00 more in taxes and earn $ 1,289.00 every once in a while. We could put an end to the juror shortage and an end to this slavery.



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23 Sep 2008, 8:13 pm

Fnord wrote:

Quote:
Bring a book. Suggestions are:

Dungeon Master's Guide
The Communist Manifesto
Mein Kampf
Holy Bible
Koran
The Combat Field Leader's Guide
Mao's Little Red Book


Don't forget

Misfortunes of Virtue

Especially if you are a male and have a rape or an assault case.



donkey
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23 Sep 2008, 8:13 pm

it could be successfully argued that the most powerfull man in the world is the american president.
he is far from being the highest paid civil servant in the world.

similar analogy applies to american juries, the power they have exceeds all in the court and is not relefected in their financial gain from exercising this power.

it is important to divorce power, true power from the corrupting influence of a high salary.

the american legal system is founded partly on this principle.


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Magique
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23 Sep 2008, 8:22 pm

I did get off jury duty when I had preschool age kids, no other excuse needed. The one time I was called to the stand, well, they didn't take me. It was a civil case in which a man broke into a local amusement park to steal fish from their pond. There was an altercation with the security card, and the thief was non-fatally shot. The thief then sued the amusement park. The question asked was "Since the plaintiff is guilty of committing theft, could you decide who was at fault for the shooting and award damages?" My answer was that I could decide who was at fault, but I wouldn't award damages because getting shot is an occupational hazard. If he hadn't been committing a crime he wouldn't have been shot. For some reason the plaintiff's lawyer didn't like that answer. Go figure.

I'm glad because I would have zoned out at the very least.



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23 Sep 2008, 8:24 pm

Now that both kids are in school, I'd love to participate on a jury. I was in the jury pool last year for a couple of months but didn't get called.


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23 Sep 2008, 8:48 pm

donkey wrote:

Quote:
corrupting influence


How much of a "corrupting influence" do you think you are going to get when:

Anyone who has any intelligence is going to do everything in their power to avoid serving on a jury and generally succeed? Leaving the jury pool to the bias of mostly half and nitwits?

Anyone who is self-employed or if their company doesn’t compensate for jury duty is going to do everything in their power to avoid serving on a jury and generally succeed. Leaving the jury pool to the bias of mostly the indigent, the retired decrepit and the civil servant type individuals.

Please don’t anyone take what I wrote personally. There will always be successful idealistic civic minded individuals who will gladly sacrifice their time and money to serve on a jury. People like these constitute a very small minority in jury pools however. The point is that I wouldn’t even want to associate with most of the losers that I have seen serving on a jury. God forbid if such people had to decide my fate one day.



donkey
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23 Sep 2008, 8:58 pm

ok tank you for softening the blow with the last part of your post but i really think you have cut and pasted the words corrupting influence and attacked them out of context.

i apologise if i made this appear confusing


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23 Sep 2008, 9:09 pm

People have gotten off of jury duty because of their young kids and the fact they couldn't get a baby sitter. You can't take them to court because of their short attention span and the fact they get disruptive when bored and you would have to take them out in the hall. Then you would miss part of the trial.