Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Federal court jury duty.

My old ass didn't want the bother, but believing myself as a true blue American I felt the call to do my civil duty. I didn't try to weasel out before the fact.

I showed up, sit through the civics lesson & most of the questions. Wanting to raise my hand, but wanting to see this out & refrained a few times. But they kept asking till they found a strong opinion in me & I gave it. That got me a private interview with the judge & 3 attorneys at a later screening. Pretty heavy for this old redneck. But I managed to maintain, & answer questions in an honest & informed way, not throwing around FJB's or things like that.

I can discuss this a bit,,,,, as I, along with 9 or 10 others were sent home. 38+ left. Kinda curious how it plays out, but I wasn't gonna beg to stay. My cards were already on the table anyway.

One thing, the U.S. Marshall told us that this was a serious proceeding, unlike some the local stuff that some might be familiar with. He wasn't kidding.

Shame you don't get to sit on it.

What did you say to get yourself dismissed.

Loosely based on my opinion of the current government some of the various Bureaus.

You played it wrong. Answer NOTHING the Law doesn"t require. Which is what's public. In the phone book. Any other attempts to voi' dire, invoke your 5th
. THEY are the one's breaking the law, not you.
It's a jury of one's peers, not one the Lawyers think they can manipulate.
If they dismiss you, go home with a clean conscious.

At this point in my life, I'd consider it an honor to turn a fruitless federal case upside down.

Im.not saying every federal case is BS, but many are.

Good points guys. A part of me wanting to be there for that.

But my patience & tenacity just not strong enough I guess. Old, tired & impatient to practice my beliefs I guess. What can I say.

Not surprising, neither side wants a jurist with half a brain.

After some of the things I heard today I'll accept having half a brain.

Wasn't federal, just local, I got a jury duty questionnaire last fall.

Told my wife "I'll get out of this, I answered every question honestly".


Basically that I don't trust the system to level honest justice.



I got a summons. For last month.
The courtroom was packed when I showed up for jury duty, they called a select list and seated them in order in the center. About half of us packed the sides.

The center section was questioned, fitted with hearing devices...
Then we were told it would be a couple minutes, after a half hour...couple minutes.
Another half hour, the judge came out, told us there had been a half dozen cases scheduled when they summoned us. Three had settled previously, the other 3 settled while we waited. He thanked us for coming and explained that we hadn't wasted our time. That our setting there had been the factor that pushed prosecutors and defendants to settle. Without us in those seats, the cases would still be pending.


Got a damn debit card with $9 on it for jury pay.
They jury coordinator have us an instruction sheet with several ways to get the money,
highly recommended calling and asking for a check.
Of course, I tried to activate the card. Quickly decided to follow her instructions.
And damn near gave up. Would have, except it was my tax money on there, and my money if got it. Wasn't gonna lose it twice!

That's gotta be some damn scam of a system set up for jury pay nationwide.
Can't imagine what it cost the county to pay me 9fùckingdollars.

I'd bet $100 they could have handed us $10 bills on leaving and saved money.


They wonder why folks try to get out of it!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I drove 5 miles, got paid $30/hr to screw around.
And it aggravated me.
I knew several folks there, they drove 30 miles. Some don't have employers willing to pay them jury pay.

They got $9 and pennies per mile, lost a day's wages and just flat got jacked around.
They didn't do their civic duty, they didn't make any decisions that affected our community. The system made asses of them, wasted their time, and tortured them
sitting on those "$%(>&%$@!!! hard benches for a couple hours.

Then insulted them by saying their day was worth $9.

Every ass on the other side of the rail was making three times that, the lawyers were probably making that every couple minutes. The judge about every 8 minutes.



Last time, 1990, I was selected. Was 19

If it can be avoided for 34 more years, I probably won't be there.

I've been called locally 3 times. Never even got called out of the jury room, dismissed by lunch on first day every time.

They tied to give me lunch credit. Whatever. I gotta go work.

tried to get out of it, because of my hearing, didnt work, it did when court started i couldnt hear a dam thing they were saying, maybe they will leave me the fnuck alone now

I spent a year (1-3 days per month) on a federal grand jury. It was just after I retired so, while it was inconvenient at times, I basically had time and learned a lot. It was a good experience.

The feds have a very high conviction rate. Meaning they only prosecute cases that are a slam dunk. I believe it is over 95%. Very high. Like all prosecuters they count PBJ's and Plea deals as convictions. They almost always offer a deal first, if the deal not taken then, trial. If or when a your are convicted there is no good time federal jail, you will do every day of your sentence. Time spent awaiting trail does not count in any way toward your sentence.

I was working as a security officer at our local federal court house several years ago. I was doing an outside patrol when the newly selected jury pool went from the main court house to the annex next door. 37 good people followed the clerk around the corner to the left and number 38 went right and apparently drove home. When they called looking for #38 I told them what I saw.

A couple of days later #38 was standing in front of a judge on the 2nd floor. It seems he didn't want to participate and simply peeled off and went home. The judge didn't like that. What I heard was the Marshalls went to his work place in a town about 40 miles from Des Moines and had him doing the perp walk out the door in front of the other employees and brought him in front of said federal judge.

Since you cannot take a telephone into a federal court house #38 was given a fine and was allowed to go free. With no car and no telephone 40 miles from home. When he walked out the front door he was looking a bit lost and confused with an "0h $hit" look on his face.

Yea, I did laugh.

kwg

Like other have said, I too was dismissed from Jury Duty because I told them that I simply don't trust the system. I basically told the judge and lawyers that they all performed their duties based on their perception of gain (money, power, position, social activism, etc.). I was amused by how shocked they all looked when I made my statement. One lawyer even tried to debate me and started by implying that I was just too stupid to understand what I was saying. That didn't go over well. I told him that his statement was exactly why people like me don't trust the system. The elitists that believe that they are smarter than the unwashed masses really piss me off.

If you’ve got a grain of common sense, they don’t want you on a jury. They want the dumbest of the dumb to manipulate. Then they insult you with the mileage, meal, and jury pay while lawyers play act for huge sums of money. Us peons are just a cog in the wheel. Hell, I don’t want a jury trial as I have no peers except here on the Fire. A company commander in my guard unit was a lawyer. Got drunk one night and told us it was all play acting. The good old boy lawyers would take turns buying dinner and the accused’s fate would usually be decided there. It’s all theater for the most part. Win, lose or or draw, the lawyers always get paid while your fate hangs in the balance. As Will Rogers once said, America’s only known criminal class is politicians and lawyers. They are usually one and the same. I have no use for them. Shakespeare was right: First let us kill all the lawyers! My ex wife’s lawyer told me in 82 that justice is something you will never find in a court of law; only in Webster’s dictionary! True words especially today. My LEO son said we lock em up, they turn em loose.

Like I always say, I don't trust a jury of my peers.

I got a summons for Federal Jury duty in Paducah a few years ago. It's about an hour and half drive for me, and I decided I didn't want to do that, so my hearing specialist typed me up a letter saying that I wear hearing aids and am hearing impaired, and that got me a lifetime exemption. Same for local courts jury duty. I felt kind of bad, because I can hear pretty good, even without hearing aids. But, I figured if those overweight azzholes can get a handicapped sticker for their "disability," then I could skip a long drive for mine.

I have no peer

much less multiples of them.