One reason why people in the US complain is because jurors get paid $50 per day ($6.25 per hour for an 8 hour day), which is below minimum wage for every state. Plus, not all states require employers to pay employees their normal salary for days off due to jury duty. Some jurors lose a lot of money to fulfill their obligation to support justice. Still, I know plenty of people who blow off their jobs to judge strangers all day and still get paid their full check for it. It’s called being on FunSubstance at work.
Additionally, some cases can go on for MONTHS at a time. There's more to jury duty than just show up, judge someone, and go back to your life until the next day
Plus, the jury system is so ridiculous. The jury decides the guilt of the victim by their own opinion. It's the exact opposite of what a legal system should be. Random civilians don't have the training to properly dictate the future of someone.
Maybe we should open schools with the purpose of teaching law. Then, we could find the best of those graduates and put them into a position of authority to judge whether or not someone is guilty or not guilty... Oh wait
Spiderwoman, hi, a system of all government employees could/probably would become corrupt. The system isn't perfect, but in a "free society" ,civilians need to be part of it. No offense, but your idea sounds like Communism.
People always refer to communism like it's a bad thing, but as far as I know it's never actually existed. There have been variations that claimed to be communist-- and that we so often refer to as communism-- but they are more often just dictatorships or the like in disguise. If it were workable and society were incorruptible communism would probably be the best option for all, but humans aren't able to function that manner, so it will never work out that way.
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That said, it seems like justice training would be a good thing to incorporate to some degree. Perhaps a course or schooling given to perspective jury before a trial starts. Then again, this opens up another can of problems, but this is all conjecture anyway
No. There shouldn't be any form of a jury system. Civilians can be part of the government if they want. It's called "Elections"! We, the civilians, can train to be capable of handling that status and then go for it. It's actually the epitome of democracy rather than communism.
Would you want a group of people off the street to perform your heart surgery? I'd rather have a qualified person be doing the task.
My experience with jury duty: Report at 8am downtown. Pay to park for the day. Have to leave all electronic devices in car. Get put in room with 150 other people and a monster stack of magazines and a 32” television as entertainment. Food is only available from vending machine that doesn’t take credit cards or bills. Coffee pot empties as soon as it finishes brewing due to demand.
Sit for 4 hours. Get dismissed for lunch. Only enough time to reach about 3 restaurants who know they are serving jurors and have marked up prices.
Go back after eating shitty sandwich wrap. Sit another 2 hours. Get called to courtroom. Watch the lawyers pick a jury and alternatives. Don’t get picked. Get sent back to big room. Sit some more. Go home.
Parking and lunch were more than $40 and I had to use a day of vacation that was probably around $400.
Lesson learned: bring a book, snacks and a water bottle next time.
I had a similar experience in Detroit, but I was picked and had to sit in a hallway for two hours . The lawyers hashed out a last plea bargain and I got to go home a couple of hours before the folks waiting to be called up.
That really sucks. I got summoned before, but it was literally (after the initial "mail this back to us" form was dealt with): show up at 0'dark-thirty downtown (I got dropped off so I avoided paying for parking). Stand in a line to go through security and verify that I was, in fact, supposed to be there. I got there early so the line wasn't super long yet. Go to the elevators and the directed floor/room. The room itself was a courtroom, and we were bid to sit in the gallery benches and wait. There was no coffee or food offered.
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After about half an hour or so, around 50 or so other people eventually turned up, and then a judge came out. They brought out the accused man, but did not tell us his name, and gave us a vague concept of the crime (I think it had to do with garden tools).
Judge informed us that they would call numbers (they were assigned on our summons forms), at which point we would approach. If we had reason to be excused, we would be directed to talk to the guy beside the judge, who would tell us whether we could leave or not. If we weren't excused, we would be directed to sit on the jury bench.
After they'd selected all the 12 jurors of 2 back-up jurors, they dismissed the rest of us and we got to leave. Whole process took 2.5 hours or so I think
Texas... DFW... The last time I was called in for jury duty they claimed the donuts and coffee were a special "thank you civilians" day... it was like a fucking Orwellian sham.... and yeah... the parking.
That fucking courthouse/county jail... Frank Crowley or what the fuck ever has literally become my least favorite place I've ever visited... not just because of jury duty but because I've been in that jail.
But really, below minimum wage is reasonable to just sit there for a while
Maybe we should open schools with the purpose of teaching law. Then, we could find the best of those graduates and put them into a position of authority to judge whether or not someone is guilty or not guilty... Oh wait
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That said, it seems like justice training would be a good thing to incorporate to some degree. Perhaps a course or schooling given to perspective jury before a trial starts. Then again, this opens up another can of problems, but this is all conjecture anyway
Would you want a group of people off the street to perform your heart surgery? I'd rather have a qualified person be doing the task.
Sit for 4 hours. Get dismissed for lunch. Only enough time to reach about 3 restaurants who know they are serving jurors and have marked up prices.
Go back after eating shitty sandwich wrap. Sit another 2 hours. Get called to courtroom. Watch the lawyers pick a jury and alternatives. Don’t get picked. Get sent back to big room. Sit some more. Go home.
Parking and lunch were more than $40 and I had to use a day of vacation that was probably around $400.
Lesson learned: bring a book, snacks and a water bottle next time.
'
After about half an hour or so, around 50 or so other people eventually turned up, and then a judge came out. They brought out the accused man, but did not tell us his name, and gave us a vague concept of the crime (I think it had to do with garden tools).
After they'd selected all the 12 jurors of 2 back-up jurors, they dismissed the rest of us and we got to leave. Whole process took 2.5 hours or so I think
That fucking courthouse/county jail... Frank Crowley or what the fuck ever has literally become my least favorite place I've ever visited... not just because of jury duty but because I've been in that jail.