Jury Duty -- Every Citizens Bane

I haven't had the opportunity to serve on a jury in the past and I'm somewhat neutral as far as where I stand on this issue. Not that it's an issue but sometimes I wonder why it is that so many of us shirk our civic duty when it's not like we are being sequestered for the rest of our lives. Sure there are occasional cases that drag on for months at a time but for the most part, the commitments to serving on a jury are very short term and fairly easy. I have had my batch number pulled a couple of times but luckily for me the day before (when required to check in) I was told that my batch was not required to come in so I was free from being potentially called for at least a year. Part of me was relieved at that but part of me was also disappointed.

I think everyone has strange views of what life on a jury must be like thanks in large part to television and the movies. Maybe that's why we try to get out of it so often. Still, when trying to get out of serving on a jury, it's best to do it honestly rather than illegally. What I mean is if you have some prior commitment or duty which precludes you from serving on a jury, make that fact known rather than trying to commit an act of wonton foolishness which could lead to your arrest. What do I mean by that? Well take the case of 40-year-old New York juror Vladislav Lisetskiy. He was called in for jury duty and he showed up at court walking with a cane. As he was getting ready to pass through the security screening checkpoint he drew the attention of the guards, or rather his cane did. Guards noticed double bands on the cane which indicated that perhaps it was hollow and contained something inside. Deciding to check it out, the guards were surprised to discover that the cane actually concealed a sword.

Now for a number of years in cities like London, canes were all the rage and while walking around deadly parts of the city, it was a good form of protection because unlike the firearms of the time, the sword was still a preferred weapon and could easily be concealed and carried within the cane. Still, unless Mr. Lisetskiy is a person fascinated with the past, there's no need for him to carry that sword into court unless he was looking for a reason not to serve on a jury. Now instead he may end up being tried by a jury of his peers rather than serving on one. I've heard of lots of different excuses for wanting to get out of jury duty and some of them are valid objections but quite often, the excuses are lame. I have gotten jury duty letters around finals weeks during my college days and I would always request a pardon on those days simply because I couldn't serve on a jury on the day I was taking a final.

Others come up with other reasons or methods of getting out of serving. Let's face it, most people are looking for an interesting case if they end up having to serve on a jury. They would rather be involved in a murder trial and any other type of case but those cases aren't as common as people think. Or at least the people I have spoken to have never been on a jury for that type of case. That's not to say that it can't happen but when the odds aren't in your favor, you start looking for ways to get out of it. How though? You're potentially already on tap to be part of a jury, how can you get out of it? Well my dad had a novel solution that didn't require weapons (concealed or otherwise) and that was basically stating that you would support the death penalty even if the case was a traffic violation trial. Most lawyers would either find you too extreme for their case and unless they themselves were of a violent retribution ilk, the likelihood of staying on a jury would be much further reduced.

I'm sure sometime in the future I will have to serve on a jury. The state can only believe for so long that I'm in the midst of final exams. I guess the idea of jury duty is bothersome to some people (myself included) simply because we are so involved in other things in our lives that it seems more like a distraction (and a seemingly unnecessary one at that) than anything else. I mean with the amount of work so many of us have to do, it's no wonder that any of us would happily take part in jury duty. There are a million things I could think of to do in place of jury duty, unfortunately the state won't view those in a very civicly minded light.