I've done jury duty once, almost 10 years ago. The case was a man who had taken his teenage niece off into the bush and raped her - practically everyone who gave evidence was in their extended family, both for and against the accused, so it must have torn the family apart...
The main thing I remember is how incredibly dumb half the other people on the jury were - a few of us spent practically the entire time while 'deliberating' explaining to many of the other jurors what had gone on in the courtroom, what the judge had said, and what we were supposed to do. It made me terrified about the competence level in other juries...
I've always thought it should be harder to avoid jury duty - fair enough if you're physically not capeable, but if someone's work can spare them to go on holiday, or get sick, they can spare them for jury duty. Only 24% of people called up now actually turn up for duty, so the majority of people actually on juries would probably be unemployed (and in todays job market, that tends to mean unemployable).
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The main thing I remember is how incredibly dumb half the other people on the jury were - a few of us spent practically the entire time while 'deliberating' explaining to many of the other jurors what had gone on in the courtroom, what the judge had said, and what we were supposed to do. It made me terrified about the competence level in other juries...
I've always thought it should be harder to avoid jury duty - fair enough if you're physically not capeable, but if someone's work can spare them to go on holiday, or get sick, they can spare them for jury duty. Only 24% of people called up now actually turn up for duty, so the majority of people actually on juries would probably be unemployed (and in todays job market, that tends to mean unemployable).