Voltie
Posted 2 years ago ( 2023/04/18 15:12:25 )
@Totalanimefan: sunburn this early in the year is harsh, but fairly normal after being covered up for several months over the winter. Still... ouch?
@Purpsy: Jury Duty... it's a U.S. Constitution thing. When somebody is accused of a crime here, they are entitled to a "Jury of Peers" as part of the court processing (with the judge and the lawyers) to help determine their guilt or innocence. This jury is comprised of common people from the local area (registered voters/citizens), and chosen randomly from the voting record pool. Usually a bunch of people are "called" as potential jurors for an upcoming case and get a notification in the mail to show up at a specified Court on a specified day, at a specified time. If you receive this notification, you are expected to attend. Workplaces are required to give you the time off without penalty, and there are valid reasons (primary caregiver for young children/elderly, no longer living in the area, being an active police officer, etc.) to be "excused" and not to show, but it your Duty as an American Citizen to participate in this process to help retain and safe-guard the Freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The whole idea behind it is, as mentioned, to be a type of safety-check to make sure that judges and lawyers don't start abusing their power and putting all kinds of innocent people in jail. It is supposed to be local, peer, representation and voice of the People.
Often, the cases that are scheduled for Court are resolved before the court date, in which case the potential Jurors are excused, and their call to Service is cancelled. This is what apparently happened in my case this time - I didn't have to go. If the case is not resolved ahead of time though, and actually goes to trial, the candidates show up where/when indicated and usually sit around in a courthouse for a while, waiting to be called (or not) to go through the interview process to select Jurors for whatever case(s) the Court System has scheduled for that day. I have been called for Jury Duty ... about 4-5 times?... in my life and never got past the initial interview stage (I got to this point once, and I was very young; don't think I was the "peer" demographic they were looking for at the time). If you are selected through the interview process, you are expected to sit in the Jury, in the court room, listening to the legal arguments, assessing whatever Case you've been chosen for, and do your best, along with the other Jurors, to help determine Guilt or Innocence for the person being tried for their crime.
Other countries have a "jury of peers" system in place as well, but a number of other countries do not. I don't really know anything about that or those alternate systems, though...