If called and eligable, would you be happy to serve on a jury?
Why/Why not?
Is your reasoning Political ? Or Financial? Or Moral? Or what?
If you were wrongly accused of a crime, what sort of people whould you want on your jury? People like you? If so, and you answered "no" in the poll....well, ... please do explain....
I'd be happy to serve, but that's not likely to happen since I'm one of those "resident alien" things and not likely to become a citizen just yet anyway.
Most certainly not for financial reasons - do they pay over here?
Since I have little interest in politics it could hardly be that either.
Probably because I like to think I could be objective and relatively fair, which is really what I'd like to think a jury would be if I were ever on trial.
Previous posts on here and a recent post on another forum seem to imply that people would use almost any excuse not to serve and I wondered why and if this this was the case for Brits.
I'd love to if I had the time and we could still live without earnings I might be earning. It would be interesting but if selected, I'd apply for a deferment or something because I'm studying for the next year and a half.
I did get called last year to a jury pool but wasnt selected .
the judge did ask if anybody would like to be excused for any reason about 7 out of 250 took up the offer mostly work or family related . many more where excused cus they had a case of assualt and battery in their family /friends or had been a victim ,
no reason was given for excusing you they just called up 12 folks and thanked the rest of us told us we couild go home pay for a long tedious day of sitting around and standing in hallways with no talking ,eating , smoking and lining up to pee time from 9 am to about 3 pm with i hour for lunch ( unpaid ) was $6 and to top it all they asked us indivudually if we wanted to donate that to charity .
More than happy to serve. Part of being a good citizen and all that.
/incidentally a jury of 12 VRBs would not be a good idea
I might try a 'my family members are in law enforcement' thing to get out of mine in July.
I have been called for jury duty twice. Served on one jury, a youth accused of convenience store hold up. Didn't really have to do much as the guy decided to plead guilty, so we had to officially vote him guilty.
Not to sure if it's the best way to decide the fate of individuals accused of crimes.
I've been called a couple of times so I told them I was ineligible. If it was some long drawn out thing and they weren't paying very well then no. If it was short and succinct and paid a bit I wouldn't mind.
So maybe.
I voted no but as it would be a civic duty, I'd do my best to comply if called and eligible.
Bit of a waste of time though - if you get picked, you either didn't make much of an impression on the attorneys or they think you're stupid enough to swallow their lines during a trial.
Still, apparently this is the best system or they wouldn't have used it for hundreds of years......
I said yes even though I could not being an alien.
The system of jury picking has gone to extremes as other aspects of the judicial system has.
Lawyers etc. hire specialists to sort through possible jurors.
I think they should randomly pick 12+ alternates from a group of possibles without being to ask them anything more than if they have any connection to anyone involved in the trial.