Tuesday, December 8, 2009

You belong to US! Jury Duty in Smith County.

I usually just toss my jury duty notice. Sounds like it's going to get interesting.

Jurors can be held in contempt for failure to appear when summoned for jury duty. The fine for not appearing for a jury summons is up to $500. Each jury summons provides an advisory explaining the penalty for not appearing.

"The reason we are taking this step is to make sure the system is fair to those that did show up for jury duty," added McCabe. "Jury duty is an important part of our legislative system and due process. It is illegal to ignore the summons."

Starting in January, jurors who receive a notice to appear because they have failed to respond to a jury summons may choose to complete an enclosed form and submit a $100 fine in lieu of appearing at the hearing.


When I do go, I'm 2-0 on hanging juries in municipal court. I don't care about guilt or innocence, I care about government power vs citizens rights, mercy, justice, hard-headedness.....that kind of stuff. I'm always a shoo-in for foreman and you would have to shoot the pope in front of Jesus to be found guilty of a traffic violation in front of a jury of mine. Sure I'm a nut. You don't think nuts have peers?
Sounds like we are going to the championship round. Wonder if you can volunteer for jury duty?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps like the democrats do their rent-a-mob folks, you could hire out to take other peoples places at jury duty for $90.00 plus you get to keep the $35.00 or whatever it is that they pay jurors for their time. Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

I think everybody should do jury duty, no exceptions. I think that would help raise the bar in what shows up in court. Work pays your normal salary. Goverment pays your normal salary after one week.

As for keeping check on government I'm with you. I caught a jury where a young man was on trial for resisting arrest. That was his only charge.

I said when we started talking about it that I thought it was a bs charge. How could you charge somebody for resisting when it appeared they didn't have enough to charge him with anything other crime.

We found him not guilty. He was a dirt ball but they did not prove this charge.

Gerry