And remember to offer to measure the judge.

While you're at it, check the lawyers, too.

Bill, this will test how smart you are: how fast are you able to get yourself out of jury duty. Heh. I just throw up the "I'm a lawyer" excuse and usually get bumped off before voir dire even begins.

Personally all I have to do is say I am a conservative and they let me go. It has worked 3 times so far. Much better than my first try where I told the judge the defendant just looked guilty and we where wasting time here. She was not happy.

I got called in 4-5 years ago. We were allowed to bring our own reading material, and a friend suggested taking some stuff like “Guns and Ammo” along to read. So I picked up a copy, along with a “Soldier of Fortune” and something else along those lines. It didn’t work though. I got picked on the second day.

But it turned out to be a generally positive and memorable experience. I ended up as the foreman on a drug case. It was basically two guys arguing over who was the big time supplier and who was the buyer. Both had admitted they were dealing. One copped a plea and turned on the other guy. He was going to get 7 years. If we convicted, the other guy was going to get 20+. The case lasted 4 days. The only great moral dilemma occurred when one of the jurors told the rest that she knew the arresting cop, and that he was well known as being crooked. I had to decide whether to tell the judge about that. I didn’t.

Overall, the process was educational and eye opening. I’ll never forget when they passed around $30k in 20’s for us to look at as evidence. And when they passed around a 1 lb bag of coke, especially when it started leaking over us jurors. The concept of evidence contamination, as in the OJ trial, kept coming to mind. In the end, we sent the guy away for 20+. But I went home with a much better understanding and appreciation of our system, warts and all.

I hope you get picked. It is the second best way to learn about our Criminal Justice system, and the only way to learn for most without being charged personally!

Bill,
This is so simple I'm surprised you've missed it. If you want to get passed over for a jury, during the jury questioning process, you need only to use two words: "Jury Nullification". No lawyer or judge in his right mind would put such a loose cannon onto a panel with which he hopes to work.

But to echo the points made by jmaster and ja, my experience on a jury was positive. Beyond the aspects of doing one's civic duty and the unhappiness of the whole experience for the defendant, I was pleasantly surprized that a "jury of one's peers", isn't such a collection of dummies as I had once thought. However, Your Mileage May Vary.

I just throw up and mumble about moonbats and fornicating llamas.

Oddly enough a co-worker of mine was called for jury duty yesterday. When asked for more information about his line of work, he wrote railroad consultant. That word consultant made somebody nervous, he was told he could go at noon.

I've been called twice. I make it clear that I'm a lawyer, that I oppose the war on drugs, believe cops rampantly engage in "testilying," and would feel duty bound to lecture my fellow jury members on the virtues of jury nullification. This is all the truth.

Haven't served yet.