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The first time there were a bunch of questions about relatives that were high ranking police officers. I had a cousin very high up in the major city next to us. I was excused.
Another time we were waiting for the trial to start and he pled guilty right before the start.
I was excused from federal court using the firefighter exemption.
One time they called about 10AM asking me to come in. I was not to report on the call in system. I show up and jury selection is in progress. They asked if anyone had any conflicts. I raised my hand and said since I was late I had no idea what the case was about. The judge excused me.
One of my co-workers always gets off once he tells him that one of his brothers is a police officer. Odd, because if someone announced that a family member had had issues with the law, would they be dismissed from the jury pool also?
Another co-worker was on a jury last summer, even though he's done time in prison. So there's a double standard right there. BTW he was a terrible juror. Even though the defendant was clearly guilty to the other 11 jurors, he felt that as long as it wasn't murder, the defendant wasn't guilty (enough).
A number of people on one side of my family are police officers, police command staff, and prosecutors. If I ever got far enough in the process to where the attorneys were interviewing me, I would give the same reason and state that I have some doubt that I could be objective .
Cancer diagnosis. Asked to be differed a year. Needed medical sign off from my oncologist. At that point I will be grateful to serve. Have been called three times, only put on a jury once.
The first time there were a bunch of questions about relatives that were high ranking police officers. I had a cousin very high up in the major city next to us. I was excused.
Another time we were waiting for the trial to start and he pled guilty right before the start.
I was excused from federal court using the firefighter exemption.
One time they called about 10AM asking me to come in. I was not to report on the call in system. I show up and jury selection is in progress. They asked if anyone had any conflicts. I raised my hand and said since I was late I had no idea what the case was about. The judge excused me.
One time I was rejected immediately after I answered I worked at the IRS. Another time I served in a trial and loved it. It was also a great feeling when we found the defendant not guilty.
They asked me if I trusted law enforcement? If I'd ever had any reason not to trust them? I raised my hand and said when I was 18 y/o the cops busted me for a misdemeanor marijuana possession and lied to make the charges more severe. I told them I hadn't trusted the cops since that day. I was excused.
On another forum, people recommended wearing 'slogan' tee shirts to show they were biased, i.e. Live Free or Die, pro second amendment, big marijuana plant, pro-prostitution, America First, Marxism, etc. A few said to wear a crucifix or Jewish star. Seems to me you would come off being very attractive to either the prosecutor or defense attorney so it would backfire. I don't think potential jurors are allowed to wear politically themed items, but I could be wrong.
I just dress 'business casual'. I think it's disrespectful to the Court to look like a slob but then I always dress nicely when I fly, too, so I'm old school.
My city only requires us to show up, after calling in daily to see if we need to report, for one day and if we are not chosen, we are done for two years so no slogging downtown everyday. Every city should do this and more people wouldn't try to get off serving.
I didn't, 4 out of 5 times I've been called. For me, I wanted to be called. It was a break from work.
I got called in Miami one time, (the 5th time) and they didn't pick me because it was a drunk driving case, and I told them that I had a serious issue with people driving under the influence since I have been dealing with the results of someone doing that to me in 1999. But that was the truth, not something made up to get out of jury duty. I told them that no, I probably couldn't be fair...because I despise anyone who tokes up or drinks and then drives.
I used to get jury duty notices from California long after I moved to Texas (I was still in contact with the people at my old address).
I'd call in, explain that I'd moved to Texas. I'd be put on hold, and then the person would return and tell me the issue had been taken care of.
The last time, the notice was forwarded to me a few days before a trip in California. While I was in California, i called as I had before. This time a woman said "let me check something else". When I got my Texas DL, they took my California DL and told me that part of the process is that they cancel your DL from the previous state. It turned out that that person was wrong. The "let me check something else" lady told me that my DL in California had not been canceled. She told me to go to the DMV and do the paperwork for a voluntary cancelation. I did that the next day. That next day I also saw two LEOs, explained the scenario/what I had done re resolution. I asked them if I needed to worry about having had a DL in two states for a couple of years and, if so, what did I need to do to mitigate the situation. They laughed at me (it sounded as though they thought most people wouldn't be detail oriented enough to care) and told me not to worry about it .
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LOL.
