Apparently I am one of the few people that feel that jury duty provides a sense of accomplishment. There is something about going to the courthouse, sitting around with your fellow jury duty servers, making sure you are doing your part in helping our system run properly. However, it seems many people often like to tell me about how they got out of a jury summons. How they just kept thinking of excuse, after excuse to delay the inevitable. In California, on the FAQ page for people that receive a jury summons, (http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/jury/faq.htm) one of the questions is: I’m busy. Why should I serve? The response is as follows:

As a juror you participate in an important public process and fulfill a civic obligation. All persons accused of a crime or involved in a civil dispute have a constitutional right to have a jury decide their cases. When you serve on a jury, you make important decisions affecting other people’s lives as well as your own community.

I suppose not getting paid, having to sit somewhere all day where something may or may not happen, missing an important meeting or lunch because you are stuck in jury duty are a few of the issues people have with jury duty. I have never been on a jury so I suppose my cheerful attitude rests on the fact that I feel as if I am participating in some larger system of good and I have not had the experience of being stuck on a trial for three weeks.

A friend of mine was saying she was selected for a drunk driving case. Despite hearing all of the facts, there was still a part of her that felt that maybe she still didn’t know all of the facts and she didn’t want to be put in a position of making a decision that would significantly affect the defendant’s life. At that moment, I realized that being a juror might be more difficult than I thought. Probably because I have never spent much time thinking about it because I have never been chosen as a juror. But, if I WAS picked, I think those same thoughts would likely go through my mind as well. Forget about the time it takes up, the endless waiting. What about when you actually have to make a decision? Can we trust the facts that are presented to us?  Let’s all hope so.

I wonder how many other people feel that way? That even if you are selected as a juror and you are presented with both sides of the facts, you still don’t feel that comfortable with putting someone in jail or making a decision that would affect someone’s life forever? Would love to hear some feedback.