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Have you ever been summoned for Jury Duty in either the US & Canada? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by LtDan@lemmy.zip to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

43 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I know that Jury Duty is mandatory in both nations (USA all 50 states / Canada all 13 provinces) meaning citizens have to show up in person when they receive the "dreaded letter" via the mail telling them the date / time and court in which they have to attend, excusals exist if you manage to plead your reasoning for excusal with evidence.

I mean, have you received a summons from the court saying you've been chosen as a juror? There are penalities on failing to attend. If you were selected on being part of the jury, what is the experience like and how much are you paid? If you weren't selected on being part of the jury that time, is there a chance you can be summoned again at any given moment?

Neurodivergent people (i.e. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia) who have received the summons can plead their reasoning as to why they aren't eligible to be a juror only if they have medical evidence (diagnosis of their condition, psych report, doctors letter, medical certificate) explaining why their condition makes them unable to serve & etc.

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[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I've been selected three times for jury duty. Two were county and one was federal. As far as pay went, county payed awful, it was less than minimum wage. Federal paid a bit better, and I got mileage to the courthouse, I also had to front the parking cost and be reimbursed later.

The first time I was on a criminal trial for rape of a mentally handicapped woman, I was kicked off that jury during selection. The second time I had to go in one day, but all the cases for the day ended up settling, so they sent us back home. The third time was a civil case for a prisoner who had his stuff destroyed by one of the guards, I was part of the jury and we couldn't reach a verdict because some people couldn't believe a guard would just do bad things.

[–] morgan_423@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

we couldn’t reach a verdict because some people couldn’t believe a guard would just do bad things.

That's wild.

Was the guard human? Yes? Then they are capable. Look at the evidence!

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago

To be fair there wasn't really any evidence. The guard claimed it was a contraband search for a hat the inmate was wearing, but the guard followed the guy back to his cell from a separate building and never actually found the contraband. The guard claimed the inmate destroyed everything after the search. There weren't any witnesses, and any camera footage that could have proved anything was not retained by the prison.

It's clear to anyone that remotely understands how prisoners are treated that this was clearly a guard abusing their power, but privileged white women don't have to face that reality.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

No, no. It is a long established scientific fact that once you take a 6 week criminal justice course at the community college and put on that badge, you're physically incapable of doing wrong.