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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Jun 16, 2008 - 08:34pm PT
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Your ability to schedule around vacation plans depends on the county (I assume you were summoned to state court. If summoned to federal court, alter your wall plans![I'm a convicted federal felon, so I don't worry about jury duty, but I'd never want to be on the wrong side of the feds again!]).
When I had to consider jury summonses, my county (Fresno) allowed me to reschedule by automation, and I always picked the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. Somehow, no trials seemed to go out then.
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Nate Ricklin
climber
San Diego
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Jun 16, 2008 - 08:44pm PT
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The Jury nullification thing works. Read up on it and you won't even be lying or BSing your way out of it. At one point the judge asked if anybody had any problems following explicit instructions he would make pertaining to how to apply the law, what it means, etc, and I raised my hand and said I believed in jury nullification. The prosecutor got all up in my face about what I meant by that and I was the first person dismissed.
Actually, if you're in any way educated, you will be dismissed. They want zombie retards in there.
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Karen
Trad climber
So Cal Hell
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Jun 16, 2008 - 08:53pm PT
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How do they know you ever even receive the jury summons? Things do get lost in the mail....
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Chaz
Trad climber
So. Cal.
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Jun 16, 2008 - 08:56pm PT
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The problem with the "just tell them you're [whatever]" way of getting off serving is that by the time you get to say anything to anybody, half your day will be shot.
Last time I decided to do my duty when called, I was instructed to call the courthouse the day before to see if I was really supposed to serve (seems to me that's something they should have considered before sending ME the notice, I mean if you don't want me, don't send me anything).
They're real clever about this call-the-day-before scam; you're only allowed to call AFTER 5pm, after the courthouse has conveniently closed so there's no way you'll be able to talk to a real person the night before your Big Day.
Because every other fool who got nailed with a summons also has to call the same number, it's perpetually busy. I tried for five hours to get through, and never got more than a busy signal.
So I just show up at the courthouse at the appointed time; 7:30 am. Think there's a parking spot within a mile of the courthouse? There is is you're a judge. There were a dozen empty spots right up front, all marked "JUDGE". Every other spot was full.
After waiting in a line a couple-hundred deep to be shaken down like a criminal, I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with 50 other idiots in a room the size of my living room for a few hours watching sh*t like Jerry Springer at top volume. Very few chairs, which was fine because if I had found a place to sit I would have given it to one of the old people there.
At about 11:00, we break for lunch.
At 2:00 my group was dismissed.
I found a parking ticket on my truck.
If the county needs me to SIT ON A JURY, they can give me a call.
If all they want is a bunch of ass-holes to stand around inside the courthouse for a few hours for no good reason, then they shouldn't miss me when I don't show.
If this *civic duty* is so goddamn critical, then the county should be treating perspective jurrors a whole lot better.
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chez
Social climber
chicago ill
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Jun 16, 2008 - 09:31pm PT
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show up wearing a noose necktie
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Jun 16, 2008 - 11:01pm PT
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"They want zombie retards in there."
so true
Btw, just do it, it's yer fricking duty, even if they really want zomboids. freedom in exchange for civil service occasionally? gosh, that's tough one, eh bobby boy. I wish I could serve on a jury.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Jun 16, 2008 - 11:12pm PT
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Be honest if you get to the jury selection portion.
Tell them that you think cops lie, that they have an agenda,
and they don't care if the defendant is innocent. They just want the brownie points for a conviction.
Not only is that true, it works. I got out of one that way.
I served once, thinking it was a privilege. The law is only for those with money. They can afford a good attorney who will get them off--look at OJ.
On the case I was selected for a guy was jailed for a hostage situation. He got drunk on a holiday, shot a gun off in the house, fell asleep, and the cops considered it hostage taking.
The only reason he refused to exit the house was because he was dead drunk. I don't know how he got convicted, I was a holdout, but it went their way anyhow.
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WBraun
climber
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Jun 17, 2008 - 12:25am PT
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I told them I can't hear.
The lady at the court house told me I'm permanently barred from jury duty.
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aida.wedo
Mountain climber
bishop
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Jun 17, 2008 - 03:08am PT
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They had a show some years back on Forum (NPR) about jury duty in CA. The rate of summons responses was so low (~12%) that they lacked the resources to go after the noncompliant. I'm not sure if things have changed, but this didn't give me a lot of concern about recycling my summons.
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Nohea
Trad climber
Aiea,Hi
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Jun 17, 2008 - 03:54am PT
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I thought a few ppl were correct. I have served twice. One went to a 2 week trial.
When you get into the courtroom, they first will say all the witnesses, lawyers, and accused and ask if you know any of them. Raising your hand gets you excused. True if you have a cop friend, or will say cops never speak the truth and you'll be excused. Sometimes the 60 ppl there gets down to 20 and they start getting worried. Each lawyer can throw out like 3 for no reason.
It is a full day at least picking the jury. You have better chance of not making it.
Good luck, also just say you are self employed. That reason gets you out at the introduction.
wil
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Sparky
Trad climber
vagabon movin on
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Jun 17, 2008 - 04:33am PT
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If you have a child that is 5 years or younger not enrolled in school and you work out of your home (ie. no childcare preset), you're good as gold.
This scenario recently worked for my wife.
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Doug Buchanan
Mountain climber
Fairbanks Alaska
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Jun 17, 2008 - 05:49am PT
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OPTION 1, the wiser choice. Sacrifice what you would rather do, for the extremely valuable knowledge and opportunity to defend your freedom by serving on a jury. Show up, casually act like a dumb, unthinking, unquestioning person with no opinions, and say you will apply the law as told to you by the judge. If you went to college, say you did not do very well.
Then if the accused person did not identifiably damage a real person (smoked pot, owned a gun, climbed without a permit), find him not guilty, and "hang" the jury rather than kowtow to the demand by the government and mindlessly compliant jurors that you find him guilty. You may be the accused person next time, and want one thinking person on your jury.
Contact the Fully Informed Jury Association fija.org, and learn the extent of why you want informed people on every jury.
Educated people are not eligible for jury duty in our categorically corrupted US court system. The money and power craving empire of lawyers/judges is dependent upon criminally applying inferior laws above superior laws in courts. Dumb people cannot figure out from that sentence what questions to ask. Intelligent people can. Lawyers and judges select only dumb people for jurors. The intelligent people on juries had to act dumb to get there.
Dumb jurors obey a court judge's unlawfully demanded oaths and instructions. Intelligent jurors do not. They recognize that power has inherently corrupted all judges, which is why the writers of the Constitution described the juries of peers as the only peaceful device that can bind the government to the limits of its power.
Court judges routinely decree guilt by denying the accused the right to introduce the evidence of his choice, then instruct prior profiled compliant jurors in a manner that allows only a guilty verdict. If that rubber stamp process among dumb jurors were lawful, there would be no need for independently thinking jurors.
OPTION 2. To flawlessly get out of jury duty, get some FIJA pamphlets (donate some money) and send some to the court with your jury duty paperwork. Attach a note stating that you will be informing other jurors of their authority above the judge.
Then spread those pamphlets among your friends and family.
Over one million Americans, including no few climbers, who violated no prevailing law, and therefore damaged no person, are in prison because corrupted prosecutors and judges unlawfully applied inferior laws above superior laws, creating their power, fooling dumbed-down Americans who did not know what questions to ask to defend themselves or their friends. Prison Industries Incorporated profits lavishly from slave wage US prisoners making products sold to government contracts at top dollar prices.
That of which we accuse the Chinese, is inherently done by our own corrupted government, by design of power.
Government power is dependent upon an ignorant society which is always victimized by government power, by design, every government.
Stop being as ignorant as the dumbed-down Americans. Ask the questions that government flees, especially the questions that anger lawyers. "Does the use of power of office to apply an inferior law above a superior law constitute criminal fraud, evasion of a known legal duty, perjury to oath of office, and malfeasance?"
If a lawyer or a lawyer's minion sees this post, enjoy his or her anger and threats against you mere peasants who cannot be allowed to touch the god of lawyer-owned law, much to the amusement of thinking climbers. Lawyers are too ignorant to figure out the ruse of law schools.
The comedy or joke of the humans, that is, humans laughably contradicting themselves while being too dumb to recognize the contradiction recognized by the observer or person hearing the joke, constitutes their entire phenomenon and reason for existence. They were designed for the entertainment of the designer.
Enjoy the show.
DougBuchanan.com
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knieveltech
Social climber
Raleigh NC
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Jun 17, 2008 - 10:59am PT
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Only been called once. Told the lady at the courthouse that I had an appointment with an Army recruiter later that morning (wasn't lying). Dismissed. In and out in twenty minutes.
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sunshinedaydream
Big Wall climber
yosemite area
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 17, 2008 - 11:47am PT
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None of you guys are spies for the Mariposa County Court System.... are you?
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Jun 17, 2008 - 11:51am PT
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Not me--I live in Denver.
Nor would I be a snich. I'd rather die.
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salad
climber
Escondido
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Jun 17, 2008 - 11:56am PT
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i just got out of jury duty two weeks ago. i am a 1 man corporation and do not get paid when i miss work. i sent that info back with my summons and received notice that i was excused from showing up.
fwiw, before going independent, i always showed up when summoned, never picked for a jury though.
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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Jun 17, 2008 - 12:03pm PT
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"Jury duty is the most important thing citizens do imo. More important than voting. Its a reflection of how selfish and self centered our society is that folks dont realize or care how important jury duty is. "
I see it differently. Anyone who makes it to trial is a total loser. They didn't settle, they shot someone and can't admit to it, they don't want to pay for something - whatever - a trial means every step of enforcement and negotiation prior has failed and you are now guaranteed a bitter, drawn out CF of stupidity and ego.
Keep in mind you are in a stiff competition with others to get off and the judge knows it. Wait for a few questions before you make your move to see what other lame things people will do or say to try to get out - "oh my back hurts I can't sit here", etc. A lot of these people will be told to STFU and quit whining.
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atchafalaya
climber
Babylon
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Jun 17, 2008 - 12:23pm PT
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"Jury duty is the most important thing citizens do imo. More important than voting. Its a reflection of how selfish and self centered our society is that folks dont realize or care how important jury duty is. "
I see it differently. Anyone who makes it to trial is a total loser. They didn't settle, they shot someone and can't admit to it, they don't want to pay for something - whatever - a trial means every step of enforcement and negotiation prior has failed and you are now guaranteed a bitter, drawn out CF of stupidity and ego.
Just a wild guess on my part, but I take it you have never tried a case, or needed a lawyer. I have. Speaking from experience, I have represented people on criminal cases who were not guilty, and would not plead to crimes they did not commit. They were acguitted at trial. It was only because we had intelligent jurors who paid attention and followed the law they they have clean records.
In civil cases, I have seen scumbags and their clients attempt to extort hundreds/millions in taxpayer dollars (I represent cities and counties) on bogus claims. The only thing that stopped them was 12 in the jury box. Or how about the widows who paid insurance premiums for 35 years to have her claim for benefits denied on some BS exclusion buried in a 40 page policy, that does not apply to the facts. I start a trial next week on a case where a guy wants millions for pre-existing injuries. He has filed other lawsuits. Pay? F%$# him. In front of the jury is the only option to expose his fraud.
Yea, we could pay bogus claims, or plead our clients, but we dont have to with the jury system. We let the jurors throw them out of court. Or at least we go down fighting cause our clients tell us to go all the way.
Ego and stupidity is talking sh#t about something you dont understand.
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Phil_B
Social climber
Hercules, CA
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Jun 17, 2008 - 12:34pm PT
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Gotta say I'm pretty disappointed in most of the responses I've seen here. Jury duty is probably one of the few places where you have an impact on the system as a regular person.
I've been on a couple of juries and have found that the people who were on them with me took the responsibility very seriously. One was a murder trial that lasted two weeks. The jury was probably tilted towards the upper end of the education ladder. About half of us had college degrees and there were a few post-grads there too. One woman worked was a physicist. We also had some stay at home wives (no moms of school aged children) and another guy was a counselor at a juvenile hall facility.
While I was there, I got a pamphlet from some folks talking about the jury nullification thing. If I felt that a guy was being railroaded, I would've voted to acquit.
However, just like the TV show Cops, what we saw was a guy who was guilty mainly of being a stupid f*#k. Against the advice of his attorney, he went on the stand to try and explain away why he wasn't responsible for killing the guy who died because he shot him.
When you are called to jury duty, you bring a book and your video iPod. In Contra Costa county, they have plenty of parking and there are halfway decent places to eat at lunch. There's a nice little park in Martinez too, if you want to just take a walk. They give you really long lunches when you're on a jury because of meetings that take place that you don't get to witness as a juror.
Sure, it's a little inconvenient to have to take time out of my life to show up for jury duty. But if it were me on the other side, I'd really like to think that the people chosen would be taking it seriously.
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HalHammer
Trad climber
CA
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Jun 17, 2008 - 12:44pm PT
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There is one thing that will get you out of it. Go and show up wearing shorts and flip flops. Worked for me twice. They kick you out shortly after you show up and tell you to go home and change, by the time you do that it is all over.
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