Just now getting a chance to really read through the responses;
Uh, clearly.
I guess people seem to feel that if the dude who runs the country doesn’t have to maintain a professional demeanor, ever, then neither do they… not even in a court of law.
Not that I blame them, mind you.
@doctorow means the end of the Harper’s article. Yes, do read through to the end, it is priceless.
I hadn’t realised it was that easy to get out of jury service in the US.
As far as I am aware, you can be as biased as you like in the UK, you still have to serve. We don’t go in for jury selection. It’s just a random draw.
What happens to the excused jurors? Do they go back into the pool for a different case or can they just go home?
Must have been simultaneously incredibly fun for the judge and very difficult. They have to at least try and keep a straight face through it after all.
Next!
So in the USA a big pool of people get called. You tend to sit around a while, waiting for a case. If you get called for jury selection, if you get excused for reasons like those in this article, you tend to get to go home. If they’ve filled a jury before getting to you, they tend to put you back in the waiting room, to see if they can use you for a different one. If by the end of the day you haven’t served, you don’t have to come back until the next time you get called.
Now, this is Baltimore. But my sense is it’s a pretty similar process in other parts of the USA, at least in other cities.
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