Discussion: jury duty

I used to teach a critical reasoning course geared towards providing the skills a juror would need for evaluating the evidence and arguments form trial. We did mock cases, and I would listen to my UMass students deliberate the fate of the defendant. It was pretty scary - and I suppose they had better reasoning skills than the average juror. So, yes,in my opinion it is your civic, even your moral, duty to make an effort to sit on a jury.

I only sat on a jury once, and I was appalled at the attitudes and behavior of some of the jurors. Scary, indeed.

I agree with Phil. I've only been on a jury once, volunteered to be the foreperson, and loved it! I was called up another time but the case was dismissed.

I'm afraid I don't deal well with totally unreasonable jerks, and the experience I had soured me quite a bit on jury duty. If I were called again, I would try to go, though, and hope to catch a more responsible jury pool.

I've been on a jury once, a child abuse case with evidence leaning toward conviction in my mind, tho I don't know about the others. The others in my pool seemed pretty bright and thoughtful, a good group.

But then the defense lawyer said something stupid and had to be replaced...new trial (since convicted). Our county court is a good 1/2 hour drive each way; fortunately there are some good restaurants and a coffee shop with wifi in Hudson.

Not that that helps your decision, Peter. :-)

My one experience was a good one, other than the fact that the case even going to trial was a colossal waste of everyone's time, since the drunk driver was guilty as hell and got the book thrown at him. His lawyer should have told him to plead guilty, but maybe he got paid more this way. My fellow jurors were all very reasonable.

My one jury experience was a military court martial and it was a very positive one for me (the jury part, not the subject matter of the case). I have a feeling that civilian juries are a very different thing, probably less enjoyable and almost certainly less democratic feeling.

I was on a grand jury (4 weeks) once, and it was a great experience. There were 23 on the grand jury; I wound up being foreman. Got to see lots of cases, very large variety. No one on the grand jury struck me as unreasonable or even more than very slightly annoying. Of course, it helps in that there is no need for getting to a unanimous ruling in a grand jury -- it was a simple vote, 12 or more to indict. I think I can honestly say that we never had anything approaching a heated argument in the 4 weeks -- lots of discussions, but done respectfully.