People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury duty?

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

A jury should represent a good cross section of our society in order to be fair. A good cross section can't be assembled from those who are retired or unemployed. Lets give an example:

A guy gets fired, goes to his truck, gets a gun, and shoots his boss. The defense argues temporary insanity caused by the sudden and unexpected job loss and the stress of being the sole supporter of a family. Could the verdict change if everyone in the jury was unemployed and going through the problems that individual foresaw when he was fired? Would there be a natural sympathy in such a jury for the defendant that may not be present if some of the jury members were currently employed?

I'm sure you could think up similar examples for any specific segment of our population (unemployed, elderly, young, single, with a family, etc). Without providing a decent cross section of our entire population for a jury, there's a risk that sympathy with the defendant or the victim could cause the jury to return a verdict that isn't entirely impartial. While we have that risk today (given the random sampling for the jury pool, and the way jurors are selected for a specific case), it would be much, much greater of a risk if we started narrowing down the jury pool to only include select segments of our population.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

lol, it'll never happen and would never work - just watch Jerry Springer for reasons why!

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

1. A jury is supposed to be of peers, not people from a particular socio-economic class.

2. To a large extent jury duty is fully compensated, but by employers. But it isn't mandatory that employers provide full compensation (only that they grant leave for it), and the self-employed get nothing. Juries should be paid by the government their full daily wage (which our taxes should fund). This would mean that jurur A might get 10 times more than juror B, but to call this unfair misses the point. Both jurors are doing their civic duty and are simply being compensated at their daily rate. Jury duty should not be considered as a "job" with its own market rate BECAUSE it is compulsory, and that compulsion removes it from conventional market considerations.

3. You could ameliorate the expense somewhat by making the first 2 days of jury duty uncompensated (our own "contribution" to civic duty, which most people could afford). I think the vast majority of jurors and potential jurors fulfill their duty within 2 - 3 days. The number of trials that reach into weeks (or months) are comparatively rare so fully compensating those juries would not cause insupportable expenditure.

4. All of that said, judging by the mood expressed in other threads and in other comments sections in the electronic mainstream media, we should probably do away with juries altogether and just strap all defendants to a post in the ground and blast 'em. Taking care not to harm any animals in the process, of course.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

That's a brill idea, jury trials on Jerry Springer.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

My respect for elders is their's to lose, sometimes it's lost as soon as they open their mouth.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

I know plenty of "elders" who aren't any wiser than myself and my friends.

Do you have a serious comment to make on the issue, or are we already to the point of attempting to distract from the topic of conversation due to the strength and validity of the opposing argument?

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

In addition to the problem of getting a jury of ones peers, there's the issue of the size of the jury pool itself. Awhile back there were reports of problems finding enough jurors in a high volume court district who had not already fulfilled their jury duty. In Massachusetts we can be called up every 3 yrs. I've been called for jury duty 8 times - twice within the 3 year grace period so I was excused for those and once for a federal jury.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

How about augmenting the pool of potential jurors to those who dont vote?
Like a pool from the DMV.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

Just to be a condescending voice here, while eagle make a valid point, if taken to it's logical conclusion, there might be no juries. Here in AZ, if you have a drivers license you're eligable for JD. So there should be no traffic cases tried by jury? No DUI, no manslaughter in a fatality cases, etc. In other states, it's only registered voters that are called, so depending on if the accused was a voter or not could influence the verdict. But what if we expanded it to any US citizen? Then you could not try an illegal alien for any crime, because the jury could assume guilt because of lack of citizenship, etc.
Perhaps we could import a jury from Great Brittain,...Grumpy, come on down/over...
Personally, I like the OP's idea. Could it/would it work? Good question.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

And there in lies one of the major problems with this country.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

In the near future, all trials will be posted on YouTube and the verdict will be reached by the responses the video gets.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

I think we should eliminate courts altogether and just put all the judges and lawyers and politicians in prison. The probability that any given judge, lawyer, or politician is a criminal is greater than the probability that any given prison inmate is a criminal. So if we just jailed all the judges, lawyers, and politicians we wouldn't need juries.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

Guilty or not guilty? Just asking.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

No.

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

I knew that I liked the Brits for a reason!!!

Actually succinctly put!! I really would not want to be judged by an audience of Springer morons!!! They simply are NOT my peers!

 

Re: People who collect social security and unemployment, why can't this be the main pool for jury du

California does use DMV drivers license and ID card lists to establish the jury pool.