I have been on several juries, one of the perks (or burdens, depending on your Point of view) of living in crime central.
Two were civil cases, one was criminal. DH was on two juries, one a murder case, one a civil case. He was also on
grand jury duty for 3 months where he went into court most days.
Okay---I got called up fer jerry dooty, and did my patriotic best to Defend Freedom. Er---Not incarcerate some Dom Ass who had committed armed robbery when he was 18 in Callyfornya, but never shot anybody. But, 40 years later, in Zurra, he got into a Domestic Squabble in his own crappy little rental house, resisted arrest and refused to exit the premises when ordered to and not only that--his Domestic Partner told the po-lice he had a gun in his possession! That's Greaaaat. But yeah---I'm the very last person they'd want on a jury, so I got to leave early. The typical selectees were chunky, middle-aged gals in sweat pants who brought along big, thick novels to read during voir dire. So anyway, I followed up on the outcome, and the guy (of 100% pure hillbilly ancestry) is locked up, serving 30 years in Licking, Mo., same place as my former neighbor.. Yup.
In 18 months I will have the excuse of age for not being on a jury if I get called.
In Nevada it’s 70. My friend in Texas turned me onto this as it’s 70 there too.
In Florida, it's also 70. The state seems to have a slant toward older population age anyway, so I wonder if the option to opt out is affecting juror pools. My county median age is 57.3
My mom opted out many years ago due to not driving and being legally blind. She'll be 98 on Wednesday. I think she was around 90 at the time? As an immigrant, she considers jury duty a right and obligation of the citizens and was sad to have to let it go.
I wonder what the future of jury duty pools will look like! I know some time back the persons called for jury duty changed from registered voters to those with a driver license/state is as they were having difficulty fulfilling the need for jurors.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)