OT - getting out of Jury Duty

Admittedly having not read all 449 of these responses...

Someone said voting and serving on a jury are your responsibilities as an
American.

No one forces you to vote. No one should force you to serve on a jury, either.

Some people actually LIKE jury duty. Fine and well -- let cities establish a
resource pool of VOLUNTEERS (you know, volunteer -- like our armed services
are) that are WILLING to serve on a jury (and be compensated for it much as we
are now). Leave the rest alone. Including me.

The courthouse in this town is in a ROTTEN neighborhood, and jury duty is about
the only thing that'll drag me downtown, and even then, I wonder if I'll escape
with my life. I do NOT leave the courthouse when I'm down there. And of course
you can't go into a courthouse armed, so basically I'm helpless and
defenseless going to and from the courthouse to the barely-lit parking garage
TWO BLOCKS AWAY.

Please give me a better alternative to get fair trials from a jury of your
peers. Should I go to trial, that is my right. And the right of all
Americans. How do you expect to get a fair trial if you don't do your
service?

PAID JURORS! We hire attorneys, pay judges, pay the police, what the hell is
wrong with hiring people who would WANT to serve on juries?

"GI Trekker" wrote in message
...
Please give me a better alternative to get fair trials from a jury of
your
peers. Should I go to trial, that is my right. And the right of all
Americans. How do you expect to get a fair trial if you don't do your
service?

PAID JURORS! We hire attorneys, pay judges, pay the police, what the hell
is
wrong with hiring people who would WANT to serve on juries?

1) It is supposed to be a jury of your peers. Professional jurers are not
your peers.

2) If you have professional jurers, who decides whether to keep them or not?
I mean, would it be judges who want to have a record of being tough judges?
DAs? I think there is an inherent conflict of interest with professional
jurers.

For civil cases, you can get paid jurers. They are arbritration people who
do this for a living.

Jeff

"GI Trekker" wrote in message
...
Please give me a better alternative to get fair trials from a jury of
your
peers. Should I go to trial, that is my right. And the right of all
Americans. How do you expect to get a fair trial if you don't do your
service?

PAID JURORS! We hire attorneys, pay judges, pay the police, what the hell
is
wrong with hiring people who would WANT to serve on juries?

There you go. Incentive. Exactly what Im talking about. If I could afford to
put my kids in child care to serve, then why *couldn't* I? Or other parents?
Or the self employed?

"GI Trekker" wrote in message
...
Admittedly having not read all 449 of these responses...

Someone said voting and serving on a jury are your responsibilities as an
American.

No one forces you to vote. No one should force you to serve on a jury,
either.

Some people actually LIKE jury duty. Fine and well -- let cities establish
a
resource pool of VOLUNTEERS (you know, volunteer -- like our armed
services
are) that are WILLING to serve on a jury (and be compensated for it much
as we
are now). Leave the rest alone. Including me.

The courthouse in this town is in a ROTTEN neighborhood, and jury duty is
about
the only thing that'll drag me downtown, and even then, I wonder if I'll
escape
with my life. I do NOT leave the courthouse when I'm down there. And of
course
you can't go into a courthouse armed, so basically I'm helpless and
defenseless going to and from the courthouse to the barely-lit parking
garage
TWO BLOCKS AWAY.

Oh, you must live where my courthouse is then. One of the biggest drug
cities in the state, constatnly ridden with crime.. lovely.

In article uIsdd.4684$WN5.561@trndny08, firedancer623 says...


"GI Trekker" wrote in message
...
Please give me a better alternative to get fair trials from a jury of
your
peers. Should I go to trial, that is my right. And the right of all
Americans. How do you expect to get a fair trial if you don't do your
service?

PAID JURORS! We hire attorneys, pay judges, pay the police, what the hell
is
wrong with hiring people who would WANT to serve on juries?

There you go. Incentive. Exactly what Im talking about. If I could afford to
put my kids in child care to serve, then why *couldn't* I? Or other parents?
Or the self employed?


Do you mean, if they can *pay* jurors, they can pay for childcare to help you
out?

Banty

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 07:49:25 -0700, "Circe" wrote:
People who turn out to be completely innocent of the crime for which they
were tried are occasionally convicted, too. The system doesn't make mistakes
*only* in the direction of acquitting the guilty. I'm not sure why OJ's
walking upsets people more than the long-term imprisonments of the clearly
innocent.

The whole system is screwed...sell drugs and get two decades, try to
kill a whole family repeatedly and not get sentanced at all. This is
in my town. (actually this is a problem with the police but it's all
the "legal system", right)
Not to mention the state of the prison system...no education past GED,
what are those men going to do when they come home years from now?
Marie

"Banty" wrote in message
...
In article uIsdd.4684$WN5.561@trndny08, firedancer623 says...


"GI Trekker" wrote in message
...
Please give me a better alternative to get fair trials from a jury of
your
peers. Should I go to trial, that is my right. And the right of all
Americans. How do you expect to get a fair trial if you don't do your
service?

PAID JURORS! We hire attorneys, pay judges, pay the police, what the
hell
is
wrong with hiring people who would WANT to serve on juries?

There you go. Incentive. Exactly what Im talking about. If I could afford
to
put my kids in child care to serve, then why *couldn't* I? Or other
parents?
Or the self employed?


Do you mean, if they can *pay* jurors, they can pay for childcare to help
you
out?

Banty

Im saying that if they want the services of a stay at home mom, they should
cover the child care expenses that would be needed.

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 15:01:20 GMT, "firedancer623"
scribbled:

Im saying that if they want the services of a stay at home mom, they should
cover the child care expenses that would be needed.

Note I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think that would open a huge
can o' worms. Then jurors who need transportation would want coverage
for that. Then jurors that work and make more than jury duty pays,
will want coverage for the gap they'll feel.

I certainly wouldn't want the court to provide childcare with a person
I don't know, but I think a stipend would be nice. Not very
practical, though.

Nan

Nan wrote:

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 15:01:20 GMT, "firedancer623"
scribbled:

Im saying that if they want the services of a stay at home mom, they
should
cover the child care expenses that would be needed.

Note I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think that would open a huge
can o' worms. Then jurors who need transportation would want
coverage
for that. Then jurors that work and make more than jury duty pays,
will want coverage for the gap they'll feel.

I certainly wouldn't want the court to provide childcare with a
person
I don't know, but I think a stipend would be nice. Not very
practical, though.

Not at all practical, nor, IMO, advisable. Only adults can be jurors
so it would be nice to make the assumption that a juror actually can
get their act together for a few days to take part in the process. The
citizens should not be penalized for another's decision to have a
child.
One chooses to have a child, this person is responsible for this child
not the rest of the population. This constant demand that the people
be forced to underwrite the cost of other's choices weakens society.
-Tom Enright

http://husseinandterror.com/

Nan