Any of y'all know much about juries? [Passing For Normal]

I have jury duty tomorrow -- unless I call the automated thingy this evening and find out that I don't have to report.

I have never served on a jury, but I would like to. I think it would be interesting. Also, it's a civic responsibility that I take seriously.

However, I am on permanent federal (US) disability for depression that is insufficiently responsive to medication. Or, to put it another way, I have a government-certified mental illness, one serious enough to mean I can't hold down a job (which I profoundly regret, but it's inarguably true.)

My question: Would I ever be allowed to serve? Or would my presence on a jury automatically create grounds for appeal if we turned in a guilty verdict? Or some other scenario I can't envision? Will I always, inevitably, automatically be passed over?

Does anyone out there in DW / LJ land know anyone who might have an answer? The only legal professionals I'm acquainted with in my RL circles are in family law, not criminal or... tort? Is that the right term? Anyway, the legal folks I know do not deal with jury trials.

Anybody have a clue or two for me? Googling has provided only vagueness and maybe, dunno, hard to say.

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I think if you were looking for a way to not serve, showing a lawyer or judge some documentation of your situation would probably lead them to excuse you. I would also think, although I have no idea how accurate this is, that you probably would be better off disclosing this to the court up front just to protect yourself. Whether it makes them automatically excuse you from the pool I don't know.

I'm pretty sure the fact that a juror has some form of disability is not grounds for mistrials or anything like that. You're not sitting alone in judgment, there are 11 other people involved.

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I'm pretty sure the fact that a juror has some form of disability is not grounds for mistrials or anything like that. You're not sitting alone in judgment, there are 11 other people involved.

Hmm, that's a very good point. Thanks. :-)

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Chances are you will not be called to serve on the jury after being questioned by the lawyers, because it will be obvious that you are intelligent and articulate - the lawyers want people on the jury who are easily swayed by emotion. Most lawyers try to rule out people who bring books to occupy themselves while waiting, or seem to be logical and intelligent. I think you may be out of luck.

In my own jury experience, that can depend on geography. I was an alternate on a jury in Washington DC that had lawyers on it; I was a college professor at that time. What I was told, basically, is that since you can't throw a rock in DC without hitting a lawyer, an academic, or someone who works for the government, those folks are much less likely to be excluded from juries than elsewhere.

That is a very good point. I hadn't thought of that.

It's not the case up here, though. Quite the contrary. Unfortunately, there's a large pool of minimally educated, uncredentialed, and not particularly well-informed people in the county. Fertile ground for Tea Party recruiting, sad to say. *wince* Sometimes I feel awfully isolated here.

Edited Date: 2014-09-27 12:55 am (UTC)

That does sound lonely. It makes me realize how lucky I am that I've been able to spend my adult life in cities that have a lot of well-educated, liberal people.

Heh. That has the cynical ring of truth. I believe that. Unfortunately. *wry grin*

Thanks. Much appreciated. <3

I'd be very surprised if a mental illness would be grounds for an appeal.

Yeah, others have said the same thing. I'm glad it's apparently only a Thing in my imagination. *g*

I would actually be concerned in the other direction—if whoever reviews your disability paperwork at whatever interval discovers you were "well enough" to sit on a jury, you may be in for a fight on maintaining your disability. I know a few friends on disability need to be extremely limited in the amount of community organization volunteer work they do.

If you have no worries about that, then disclose your condition and let the court or lawyers decide whether they have concerns about your service.

Oh, that's a very good point. That hadn't occurred to me, but wow, yeah, that is pretty much priority one.

Thanks very much!

I was on a jury a year or two ago! During selection, the judge made it clear that the ADA required him to make every reasonable accommodation to allow everyone to serve. On the other hand, it was going to be a long trial (I think it turned out to be six days), so he was pretty generous with everyone who put their hand up when he asked for whom it would be an undue hardship or extreme inconvenience. I think there were sixty people in the pool, for just six jurors and an alternate. A whole bunch of people plead undue hardship, including one who was legally blind and one who had just had both knees replaced and couldn't sit for long periods of time. One of the seven selected asked to be excused after three days because, she said, she suffered from anxiety and the trial was stressing her out (but one of the other jurors was sure she just didn't want to be there.) Fortunately the six of us left made it to the end; it would have been expensive to retry.

To sum up, your depression would probably excuse you from jury duty if and only if you wanted it to. I'm glad you don't! Jury duty is really interesting.

Oh, wow, that's fascinating. Also really helpful. Thanks very much! <3

Passing For Normal

Any of y'all know much about juries?

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