The Buckets by Greg Cravens for March 31, 2014

I like local Jury duty were I live. Murder cases take 2 to 3 hours and other stuff is fast. However I was called to Federal Jury once, and did not enjoy it at all. Plus I was just recovering from an illness. Neither will let a 3’rd shift worker off the hook anymore either. Pity it got me out of Federal Jury about 10 years ago once.

The best way to avoid being picked for jury duty is to become an attorney. The attorneys for both sides, but especially for the defense, don’t want someone on the jury who actually knows something about the law.

I think so Larry.

Over the next several cartoons, you’ll get to see how I got booted off one jury, and what happened when I got smack in the forefront of another.Enjoy.

Who knows?

xxx

I was in the Magistrate local jury pool. Did not get selected until, quite literally, my last week of eligibility. and it was a very ugly case with lots of crying and lying on the stand but very little hard evidence. Yuck!

The one and only time I got called, I was already over 65, and they listed that as a valid excuse if I wanted out. I took it.

I think that happens a LOT more than most people hear about on TV. I’ve done jury duty a few times now, and sat on a jury where fault was found equal- drunk driver, drunk pedestrian… ugly mess all around.

You really don’t want to be tried by 12 people too stupid to get out of jury duty.

In BC – the rotation is five years. But if you’re 65 or older you may decline the offer. (but you don’t have to if you want to be a juror)..Got picked once. We all turned up to sit in court and listen – and the guy was a no show. So guess that one was guilty.

Being any type of professional is pretty likely to get you off jury duty – I’m a teacher, that was enough for me to be dismissed. Defence lawyers, and sometimes the crown prosecutor, tend to want to exclude people who are likely to be confident, intelligent, and likely to have a take-charge attitude – because such a one might see through flimsy arguments and evidence, and sway the rest of the jury with critical thinking.