ぼくらの裁判員物語

jury duty is only for taxpayers, i find it necessary for a unbias view on the defendants. people always wants to skip jury duty, i dont see why you should.

Yep they have jury duty here also... I have not been selected for it ^_^ i'm happy about that

"Folks who are against the jury duty system say that they don't want to decide whether people go to prison or get the death sentence."

Whatever happened to the power of the people? Are they saying they refuse to take part in their government's actions? And then they complain when something doesn't go the way they want, right?
Poor argument on their part in my opinion.

In America everybody hates jury duty. Not because of the court judging, etc., but rather due to the process of becoming or being selected as one. I have not personally been summoned to jury duty but I hear they take a lot of your time, and often don't even choose you to be a jury. [They call a lot of people then choose a few] Not only that, you do not get payed while you are serving as jury. Many people have jobs that do not excuse them from work due to jury duty, much less pay them. Some people just cannot afford to miss work. While you can request an excuse, that doesn't always work. >_>

wonder why the guys above didn't vote but

i don't see the big problem with jury duty, its like a big part of the law system in most western countries. Sure decisions made by experienced judges would "seem" fair but how can that person be truly the representative view of the entire population in which the judge is supposedly deciding for?

discrepencies are a different thing.

from what i remember, Sentencing is done by the judge not jury, and the decision of guilty or not guilty is done by the jury no?

so no one would be able to get the chance of deciding death sentences and even prison time.

I got a feeling most Japanese aren't opposed to this, its just the random extremist who protest and what not and getting decent media coverage

lol, in that first video, the school entrance looks like the school entrance in either Air or Kanon... I can't remember exactly... I think in Air the layout was more like that.

Neither of my parents have been called for jury duty, my mother was called as a witness once... but not on the jury. I'm old enough to be on the jury..... but I doubt I ever will be lol.

I have my first jury duty in 2 weeks =[

I can see what they mean; I wouldn't like that much pressure on me even if I just a part of a group. But I do feel it is safer in the hands of the people

I got called but since I'm still at school about 400 miles away from home there was no way I could go so I had it "postponed" until summer. I don't know if they'll still need me then though lol but I didn't really want to go anyways. Maybe once just to see what it's like... I originally tried to use a "no transportation" excuse but they shot it down even though they're the ones who provided that option when filling out the form to cancel/postpone... It's like okay, suit yourself, I can't magically teleport back home. My dad resubmitted a request to just postpone instead though and for some reason they were okay with that. They must really want me to go lol.

There is Judy Duty in Canada.
My aunt was called to one a few years ago, but she gave a valid reason for not being able to attend, and so she was excused.

Other than that, I have never heard of any friends or family members being called to one.

#1 Jury Duty is both a waste of time for me and everyone else involved. I mean once they take a look at me, I'm out the door. Why not take a picture and then you can remember before even bother to call me in.

#2 I wish I could get my Green Card status back... I hate jury duty, but I needed to become citizen in order to get a passport from here.

The hell... they should shove their sins to other people.

I have yet to be selected for jury duty - thankfully. Most people I know who have been selected spend a week sitting around with a lot of other people in a big room waiting and end up doing nothing.

Some unfortunate people end up sitting through a harrowing case or a long, drawn out case.

It is fairly easy to get out of Jury Duty over here, at least that's what I understand. For example, if you cannot get away from work because you are the only breadwinner or are critical to your job, then you have a good chance to avoid it. You can always lie to the Judge and give the Defense or the Prosecution some indication that you are unfavorable to their case. I'm not sure if you only have a few options to turn it down after which you have no choice.

Either way, the question of who should decide the fate of the damned is a tricky one. If it were left to a secret, shadowy government committee, then who know what would happen.

should be in people's hands.

Freedom of choice is what we need, but freedom from choice is what the majority wants.

Ironically, I skipped jury duty once, but I had a valid reason for it *cough *cough

I love how anime is used to promote everything.

Anyway, I'm sure everyone has something against jury duty. I don't know anyone who would actually volunteer or want to go serve as a juror. You have to get there early in the morning, only to sit there with many other disgruntled adults, waiting to see if your group gets picked or not. If you do get picked, you have to show up again the next day, to sit through instructions and a dull trial, only to get paid a measly 15USD at the end of the day.

But the good side of the jury system is that judges don't get to decide the fate of the defendants. I've read some news articles before about corrupt judges handing out harsh or unfair punishments.

I dont really mind jury duty - though i havent been called out yet.
Over here you get paid whatever you usually get paid during your regular working hours w/o overtime - It's not bad

But deciding the fate of another person - Touchy topic

Cases which involve capital punishment could still be presided only by experienced judges. For other cases that isn't too complex in legal or technical nature, as long as the trial is an open and fair one, in which the defendant is given competent counsel to put forth his defense, I don't see why the would-be jurors are afraid of handing out sentences. It's just a weak excuse that they couldn't care less about doing any civic duty.

It's like national service here in Singapore where adult males are enrolled into military service for 2 years, kinda like Taiwan, South Korea or Israel with their mandatory military service. I say males because I wouldn't call a good portion of them men. They'd find all kinds of ways and means to escape this duty, taking pride in how smart they are in bypassing the system. People who duly do their national service would be looked upon as mental cases. I suspect, in this, the Japanese aren't so different from us.

We do have the jury system here in the US and I just had to serve on jury duty for a drunk driving case. Despite my best effort to be excused from the case, since I'm self employed and get no income when I don't work, the judge said that only if it was an extreme financial hardship would he excuse me. It was a bit tedious at times but otherwise very interesting to watch our legal system work. Compared to systems in other countries around the world it seems pretty fair.
At the start there were about 70 people called and we were narrowed down to 12 jurors and 2 alternates. 13 strangers and I listened to 3 days of testimony from the arresting officer, 2 experts,the defendant, the defense and prosecting attorneys and in the end hashed it out in the jury room to decide, beyond a reasonable doubt, whether the defendant was guilty or innocent. It's an amazing process to participate in, but for $15 a day is best if you have free time.
In the end we found the defendant guilty. We were not told what the penatly would be. No that I've served, I can't be called for 2 years.

I have been called in for Jury duty a couple of times (in fact I am in the middle of a term or whatever they call it now). I have never been picked to serve a jury though. Unfortunately they seem to call me in about every 3 years or so.

They pay about $7 an hour around here, even if you just sit around waiting to be picked. All total I have probably made about $60 over few times I had to go in.

I have to drive all the way to the other side of town early in the morning though which is no fun. Last time I could find anywhere to park nearby (they have almost no parking and its down town so its always busy around there) so I had to walk/run from several blocks away.

Fortunately I have to be out of town during the next time they want me to come in. It was scheduled before I got summoned so I am off the hook!

Yeah the main thing is that you get paid sod-all to show up which really screws you over if you're being tight with money and have to miss word because of jury duty. And seeing how lax the Japanese legal system is, I'm sure it won't be hard to get out of jury duty with some sort of excuse.

lol on anime for the jury duty! hahaha... i just cant imagine that over here...

As much as I dislike having to sit eight hours waiting for them to call a panel, I still think that unbiased citizens should decide the fate of the prosecuted...luckily it's only once a year here...

I remember them sending me a notice through the mail saying they'd consider me for jury duty and that I had to call, but I just... never called/bothered. orz ^^;

OBJECTION!!!!

Kinda surprised they don't use Phoenix Wright to advertise this.

Perfect timing Danny, seeing how I have jury duty on the 26th. XP

And this time around, I plan to kill time by watching nothing but anime on my laptop. Last time, it was a portable DVD player and did not bring much to watch. XP

We have jury duty here and I think its a good thing ^^; Sense the people in the jury don't already have opinions of the people.

I'm probably the only guy who wants jury duty as to see different view points of society in one room duke it out and come to a unanimous decision. But that's just me.

If people don't want to be on jury duty they shouldn't have to be. If democracy is an option for people than it isn't democracy anymore.

Jury duty is a very unjapanese thing to do for them, that's why they "Do Not Want".

Argh! I've been selected to be in a jury pool three times in the past 6 years....

On my third time, I was finally selected, but during the jury questioning by the judge,
the question came up that "do you know anyone in law enforcement?" So I truthfully
answered that I have a friend working in a law enforcement agency.

And the judge asked if I still could be fair and unbiased, and I responded yes.
However the defense lawyer probably did not want to take a chance and used one
of his exclusions to "remove" me from the jury.

True story. It's nice to know friends in law enforcement. :)

If only the USA had moe anime to promote jury duty. I'd volunteer all the time then! Maybe instead of payment they could offer the option of a free anime figure too! ^^

Jury duty's been part of my country's law pretty much since the country was founded. The whole idea is so that you can get a judgement from people who are not affiliated with the government. It's part of the checks and balances to help prevent corruption of the judicial branch. So, yeah, jury duty's a good idea.

im sure some people would rather gladly pay the fine LOL ahahha

I personally don't think jury duty would be that bad. I guess it depends on what kind of case you get and some other circumstances.
All the older people I know (50's or so) don't want to do it. My boss pretended to be dumb so they wouldn't pick him and he ended up getting out of it. As bad as that sounds, it was probably a good thing because he's the one that does most of the work in the lab. Without him none of the tests would get done. @_@;

jury duty... my uncle got jury duty once but he was in jail at the time, he had a good excuse for not going lol

Serving on a jury was one of the most rewarding experiences of citizenship - more so than voting. Perhaps many who are against jury duty should at least consider trying it before they knock it? = )

Yomiuri did a poll on this a couple of weeks back...

A majority of Japanese, when asked whether they thought the new jury duty system was a good idea or not, said they liked it.

On the other hand, when asked if they were ready to serve on jury duty, a majority of Japanese did not want to participate in it. ^^;;;

Poll reminds me of Judge Dredd, where one man serves as Judge, Jury, and Executioner. Although it sounds bad ass in comics, in reality, one should be willing to take part in their government's due process for punishing crime.

Haven't served jury duty yet, but I think my work still pays for the time off, so I wouldn't mind, as it would be a vacation of sorts for me.

Registering to vote = signing up for jury duty.

It's funny how they promote participation in elections when there's a counter-incentive to it.

The process of a trial should be left to the court system, or used only for non-felonious trials. Quite frankly I've seen enough instances of someone being wrongfully prosecuted thanks to the jury's bias that I really have no faith in the jury system anymore.

I personally know one person that was wrongfully convicted of his dad's murder because the prosecutor was a slimeball and the jury bought into his slant rather than the evidence, which was pretty much nonexistent. (He was eventually acquitted, but only after spending several years in jail). I'd be just as happy if the jury system were either done away with, or they had professional jurors fully trained in the law like lawyers to preside over cases. As it stands if you ever go on trial for anything even remotely serious and you know you're not guilty you probably don't want a jury.

I was selected a while back, used school and exams as an excuse to worm myself out of it haha. Not that I mind going, and you do get paid to sit there. But depending on the trial, it may get dragged on, and that I didn't want to do.

No Jury duty in my country.

But IF I were selected. I would be extra carefully to make the decision, because this is involving someone future, or even worst, someone life. I don't wanna regret for the rest of my life if I put someone status as guilty and then I found out if he/she was actually not guilty (or vice versa) after in the later years

I had jury duty once. You need to be 18 to be called for jury duty, and I was called literally only 2 weeks after I turned 18 (I'm 28 now).

I was put on a trial where we had to decide whether or not this dead beat dad (who was currently in prison) would have his parental rights terminated. Personally, I was kind of startled by how incompetent most of my fellow jurors were. It kind of makes me a little scared about what would happen if myself or someone I know was falsely accused of a crime. >_>

I only want jury duty so I can get paid....

Haha... you guys said "doody".

Having a jury of my peers > anything else. It's only one day out of a year for many people, so I don't find it much of a hassle. I am also glad the age is 20 and up, so folks are not snagged by school.

Jury Duty should be from a group of qualified good citizen.

Learning all these system from anime is much more easier ehh ^_^

We have jury duty here, but only if you inscribe yourself to the possibility of been called.

Heh, I was selected as a possible juror myself but I haven't been called in yet.

I agree it's a pain taking time out of your schedule for jury duty but I still feel that it's something that is needed in a legal system.

But enough of that. I'm more interested in seeing some "fan works" of this jury anime XD

If they used that here it would be more popular.

There's also jury system in the US, and it's also required. Fortunately, ducking jury duty is rather easy; simply claim that you are biased in your view (for example, you're racist, sexist, discriminatory, have heard about the case, friends with the tried... etc)and you can get out of it.

At first, I thought using anime to promote jury duty was going to be just a short commercial or poster with anime looking characters. It actually turned out to be quite a lengthy episode... That's awesome.

I would say 60-40... with the public hold the majority...

> Folks who are against the jury duty system say that they don't want to decide whether people go to prison or get the death sentence.

sa "hi" to Big Brother.

The animation quality is pretty good to say first off.
Second, jury duty could be seen as a privlege. Well atleast in my mind, the citzens are able to make the choice if they want to make their community safer or not.

don't really understand this. x_x
but they make anime to introduce the system?! whoahh....

Japan is only starting jury duty now?! Well I've never had one yet because I don't have a major job and don't have taxes, and I'm a student. I don't really know anyone who likes doing it.

Now that's a way to advertise jury duty.

They should use Gyakuten Saiban instead:3

They should do that to promote jury duty in the states :P

The only time I ever got called was when the county I used to live in in NJ sent me a notification to my current NC address after I moved. Didn't have to go considering I didn't live in the state anymore. If the jury truly does have no bias or personal feelings on the issue, it's a good system, I think. I think the perfect jury would be hard to find, though -_-;

The idea behind jury duty is good, but personally I wouldn't want to do it. I've already been "randomly chosen to be in a pool of individuals who -might- be called for jury duty". I understand it's important to do some minor checks before selecting the final 12, but it's time I don't want to spare. Luckily, I was a student out of town at the time, so I was excused. I have enough problems making decisions regarding my own life.

You first fill out a questionairre to determine your eligibility. Afterwards, they send you a summons. There are different levels of jury duty, petit and grand. Grand determines probable cause. In the American justice system, this means the jurors determine if the case should move to the next step in the process based on preliminary evidence presented by the DA (usually). Grand jurors serve for a longer term (I served 20 business days). Petit is what most people get. They call you in and either you wait around to find out you're not needed or you actually get assigned a case. If you're not needed, you get to go home. If they assign you a case, you have to go to the courthouse until a verdict is issued for the case. There are also multiple levels, local and federal. As a local juror, you serve the court for your area of residence. As a federal juror, you serve the federal court. I heard that federal grand jury is the worst since you miss the most work and things are more complicated. When we were briefed by the court officer, I believe that an employer can not punish you for jury duty. They are also required to compensate you for some duration of time. Afterwards, they are not required to compensate you (though most places of employment will with proper documentation). The court then takes over paying you. If you are unemployed, then the court just pays you from day one. In America, a valid excuse for deferring jury duty would be starting a new job or if you're a student. I wonder how strict it is in Japan.

Pas mal... But i still believe the selected citizens should enroll for it not forced to participate. And thos who enroll get some tax benefits or something in return for their service.

What do you think?

Of course, in America, we have jury duty. I've done it many times, and I think its an important part of our legal system.

I always try to avoid going to jury duty when possible... -____- I had to go in my first time up but thankfully I wasn't put into a trial which was good since it would've put a real dent on my summer vacation (was still in college at the time). I've received notifications twice but wasn't called in either times. It's especially hard when you receive notifications as a college student and you can't use your student status as an excuse. You have to postponed it usually during vacation time (which is not cool).

It's just hard having to go into a courthouse in the morning and be put into a room filled with strangers and being asked questions about stuff. My mom always uses the 'I don't speak English' excuse to get out even though they have Tagalog translators now.. -__-

Hm I believe we do not have that here... I'm glad we don't.
I don't think you can judge on someones life, it just wouldn't feel right for myself if I wouldn't know all sides of the story.

Such a waste of time. People can so easily be convinced of stuff, so imo a slick lawyer + an ad hoc jury does not by any means mean justice......that's why I'm so glad we don't have jury duty over here.

I think it's important to involve citizens. However, it's even more important then to make sure that these people are varied and not all biased towards something. Only then can it be fair.

I did my first jury duty before I got out of college. I had to go to the courthouse every Monday for a month just to see if I would be sitting on jury for a case. I got picked for a couple of cases that went on for a couple of days a piece. Thankfully, they don't sequester jurors here in NH, so I got to go home every night.

Unfortunately at the same time I was working an hourly job, so no reimbursement for me from the supermarket I was working for. I don't think it would be so bad next time around since I'm on salary.

Jury duty sucks and is a big waste of time if you don't have to do anything for a day but I suppose that's necessary to protect the people since this is something the US fought for in the past. I just got summoned a couple of months ago and damn... I was bored to death. Good thing for my laptop.

I think the idea of having anime promote jury duty is a pretty smart idea. It's an entertaining and informative way to get a point across, and younger people would most likely be more inclined to learn that way than reading some text book or seeing regular people talk about it in a less entertaining fashion.

I believe jury duty is both a good and bad thing. It has it's positives and negative that a lot of the comments above me have pointed out. I believe that a jury can make bad decisions and so can a judge, so having both in place balances out the system. It keeps the justice system from having too many corrupt/biased/etc. judges making decisions from there being only judges to decide court dealings. The amount of good and bad on both sides is just part of human nature and how it affects government. Personally, I would rather have a group of different people having to make a majority decision in my case, than just one judge.

If I ever get the call to serve on a jury, I will gladly accept that call and serve with pride. It's my right as a citizen to do so, and I would feel honored to be a part of my government's judicial process. ^_^ Sure it may be a hassle, but nothing in life is easy, so you just deal with it and press on.

So should Japan have jury duty? I don't know, but I feel the Japanese people should be the ones to decide it.

I think they (Japanese Government) want to follow the American system - I always saw on TV where the big trials for certain big case were decided by some juries...

Nothing bad about that... but I think punishing people for not willing to perform this duty when they're not up to it is not fair.

To be a jury... one must be willing to take the burden and responsibility - not just being the jury for the sake of being forced by the government. We must not forget, some of the jury might worry about their safety specially if they have to be a jury in a trial for a big Yakuza boss.... I think we saw that in the Demi Moore's movie - The Juror... that is one of the possible thing that could happen and make people think properly before they decide to volunteer and be a jury.

Imagine some people who feared to pay the expensive fine - and somehow after the long process they are accepted and then they will just go to the court and be a jury and make decision for the sake of doing it without properly thinking about the significance of the information, data and evidence presented during trials... the trial then wouldn't be fair...

At the end, this should be better off as voluntary basis.. government can invite 10 to 100 and only select those who are really willing to take up the responsibility - provided that they pass the required selection criteria...

we don't have jury duty in my country, that would be a fun experience but as a lot of ppl here said, it would be ok if there was a law that makes the employer pay yoou for the days spent on the jury bench and you get the time off to commit to yr case

otherwise, it's stupid and a waste of yr time

citizens should only be brought in this mess when required not when they are told or dragged of the street.

If the aim is to judge with fair and unbiased people it probably doesn't work, were all biased at something. However creating variety in a jury can create a balanced group where ther individual biases are offset in which case it may work.

I think it works, don't complain about the out come if you don't want to be appart of it. You had your chance to place your view so don't complain.

Ohh, so many people have been called by jury duty. I have never imagined that it could involve so many people.
We don't have jury duty in our country. There is only the judge and he decides everything, I think.

I actually want to become a part of a jury. But I think we don't have that here in the Philippines.

Well, if we don't have it yet and the government does plan to create one, I hope that the Philippines would be in a more "stable" situation (aka not corrupt and poor anymore!) XD

such privileges does not apply to people who are under age^^

SMACK!.. face slapped by some bunny girl passing by.. reminding me that I will be 18 in June..

should do a post about being smack by someone ...>.<

Smack! my face hurts T.T

have no idea what so ever of the justice system here........did go to a trial once some years ago when i was back in school and the court house was like across the road from there...........unfortunatly it wasnt a full blown proceeding,just something about a land dispute which the judge took care of under 5 mins.....i was like "what...thats it? =_=; "........ was hoping to here someone go "objection your honour!!"...but was very unsatisfied

I'd hate to have my fate decided by jury. By definition a jury is comprised of people who are too dumb to get themselves dismissed from jury duty.

Citizens I guess. So all the conspiracy in movies won't work :D

remember a film runaway jury ???

I think this should be optional to the citizens not forcing them to make such desicions :/

I don't know, it sounds rather dangerous to me... like if you owe some dude a few hundred greens... whoops LOL.

But I'm sure that if the citizens get a chance to do jury duty, they should. Many cases are not what they seem and sometimes just reading the news and drawing a judgment is not enough.

well the idea of hearing the peoples words are good but the government has to be at the neutral side giving evidence just the way they are. we need to know too that sometimes the peoples decision is based on vengeance not objectivity

I just got out of jury duty here in Canada - would affect me negatively as a freelancer. But, I'm certainly not opposed to jury duty. Kind of sucks though that you don't even get paid too.

Correct me if I'm wrong Japan still has the death penalty? I recall Amnesty always listing them and Singapore (?) on their yearly "shame on you" list. If so what proportion of the Japanese public support the death penalty?

The layman's judging system is hopelessly obsolete and an incredible affront to those who practice and study law. If there is going to be a jury then let it consist solely of people who have actually studied the law.

Contrary to popular belief, a layman's jury is never unbiased. Instead they are influenced, in some cases to the extreme, by media from outside or other people's opinions in the event a court case has been made public. Furthermore a lay judge has an incredible vague notion of what's lawfully correct and what's not, because they have not studied law.

In countries where the decision of a court is perceived as outrageous or in some way unacceptable among the general public, that public will protest and a higher court will review the case. This type of system is far more professional than the layman's judge system which is led more by emotion rather than reason.

The notion of a layman's jury system having something to do with democracy is also not correct. Democracy is about a population choosing wise people from among them to lead that population. When I choose to have judges with years of experience with law to decide upon the fate of a criminal then I am more at comfort than when that same fate is decided by a bunch of noobs who may inadvertently unchain a vicious killing beast because he was good at acting or put away a young person until his deaths because he was too nervous to answer the questions with confidence.

If for some reason I am ever drafted for jury duty I will either refuse by saying I am not qualified to provide such service, or I will 'decide' the defendant is not guilty whatever the case. The reason for which is, that a person is innocent until proven guilty and as I am -not qualified- to decide what facts are valuable or incriminating (even though certain guidelines try to make one think otherwise) I will not be able to condemn a person based on any decision I make, proving the defendant innocent by default.

The layman's jury is far too close to anarchy for the likes of me.

Hmm...so far...we haven't implemented it yet...i think...

We have Jury Duty in Australia. I personally can't wait and hope to be selected. The court room is facinating. My mother was selected last year, but was able to get out of it.

Because of the Japanese PM, so they use anime to educate citizen? LOL
Also have a new NDS game "The Saibanin" come out to day, it also part of the plan?
What a country to educate their citizen ! Anime, moe girl and game! EXCELLENT!!!

Citizens shpuld decode but would be hell having to put someone to death, really Goverment can't be trusted but i ain't one of those basement people.

I just recently went to jury duty. Its two days in the state of RI. Before when I got the registration I said I was a student and it would interrupt my studies. It did I missed classes for two days. Then was called on a seat for a murder trail of a mother who killed her child. The case would of been an estimation of 6 weeks. I got out of it though because I thought I knew a witness. Turns out it was a person who works at the same place with the same name. That was my experience.

Jury service is theoretically compulsory in the UK, if you are ever called up - I only know one person who was. You normally get expenses from the court. It's only used in criminal cases.

I like the fact that the anime people are all students because obviously jury duty should be explained properly by kids who have no experience with it.

I'm pretty sure only people registered to vote are required to serve in jury duty.
(In other words... since I'm not registered its not my problemxD)

Meh... I think Jury duty is pretty low on the problems with the American Legal system.

I am not well read on Japan's judicial system or constitution. In the United States, trial by jury is a right that is used constantly day in and day out. So when I first heard the news, I thought "That sounds like a good idea, but I've seen that outside factors as well as the 'crowd mentality' of the Japanese could do more harm than good." in the sense of a person accused of a crime to get a fair and balanced view. Still, it is good on the government's part to try to inform the people of what's going on. It'll just take time for them to get accustomed too. Citizens should take responsibility for citizens with the government as a mediator, in my opinion.

The quote, "Folks who are against the jury duty system say that they don't want to decide whether people go to prison or get the death sentence." really irks me in that it seems that those with this opinion do not want the responsibility or duty of this very serious issue. It should not be a question of want or do not want for in the United States, many do not want to serve but they do because that is a core principle of our judicial system. From what I gather, the Japanese seem to have a very complacent view on certain issues and vastly radical views on others. Citizens involvement in trials should be something to rally behind, I would think.

Does the Japanese school system have something akin to Social Studies courses in America like Civics? I would assume so but that's how I learned the ins and outs of the government and legal system. If they start teaching this new addition of jury trials maybe the transition for the next generation won't be so bad.

I actually don't mind going to jury duty because my employer pays me as if I was at work. Everytime I've reported to jury duty I don't end up getting put on an actual case and most of the time I just sit in the waiting room for the entire day and listen to my mp3 player/play DS.

At my age, I've been called twice in IL, once in MI. Served twice.

First time was in Chicago. I Had to report for a full week in the downtown metro area at the Daley Center.Almost served on a medical malpractice trial, but was dismissed due to having a similar surgery that the malpractice was about. (Not the same doctor, fortunately, otherwise I might have claimed class action!) End of that week, I was shuttled to traffic court with the others that hadn't been called. I loved the traffic judge! We sat in the jury box while the judge would pop in every 15 to 20 minutes and say that our presence alone was deciding many cases that evening! Basically the defendants didn't want to take a chance on a jury that had to wait all week long! But in the end we had to sit for a trial, which went rather quickly. And we all found the buggar guilty!

The second time was in a Chicago suburb. The whole group of us were dismissed by noon. The state had instituted a one day, one jury policy. So I dodged the bullet there, so to speak.

The third time was after I moved to Michogan. Served on a child molestation case. That lasted a week. There were three charges against a man living with a woman with two daughters. We found him guilty of one of three counts. It was an uncomfortable trial for me, but at least it wasn't a murder case.

The jury system was set up in the US expressly for checks and balances. It's part of the reason we elect new leaders every four years. Also why we elect judges as well. It's a necessity behind government "Of the People, By the People, and For the People". Most democratic nations are run this way in theory. Of course socialism likes to creep it's way in after a while due to people that can't be bothered with participating in the governmental process of elections and jury duty.

i rad about this a few days ago on the ol' anime news network site. i swear there's an anime/manga about everything, hell even Field Hockey, yeah Field Hockey :o

Some people do skip jury duty here. My dad got a jury duty summons recently, but he wasn't picked. He wasn't disappointed either :P