When did skipping jury duty became a criminal offense?

[jdog21]

I understand the history of why we have it and the importance it is to our citizenship but I can't find when they started issuing bench warrants for people who are no shows.

 

[Skeptic Bob]

I had assumed they always did that. Isn’t it just being held in contempt of court?

 

[jdog21]

I had assumed they always did that. Isn’t it just being held in contempt of court?

Yes but it usually comes with a fine. At least that's what they do in CA. I have a hard time believing that they did this at the end of the 18th century, maybe im wrong.

 

[ludin]

I understand the history of why we have it and the importance it is to our citizenship but I can't find when they started issuing bench warrants for people who are no shows.

It is a contempt of court charge for missing jury duty.

 

[Paperview]

Do your civic duty: Serve!

 

[Thoreau72]

Do your civic duty: Serve!

Serve, and remember that Jefferson was right--the jury is the best means yet devised by man to keep government within its assigned duties and powers.

My brother somehow actually forgot about his jury summons, a weather event happened, it was a short week and he never made it. He called and apologized and everything was OK.

 

[faithful_servant]

I understand the history of why we have it and the importance it is to our citizenship but I can't find when they started issuing bench warrants for people who are no shows.

The last time I got called in for jury duty, they made it clear that they didn't issue bench warrants for people who missed jury duty. They have the legal right to do so, but they don't do it because it's waste of resources.

 

[year2late]

I understand the history of why we have it and the importance it is to our citizenship but I can't find when they started issuing bench warrants for people who are no shows.

It has been around since I started doing jury duty in the late 70s. I do not know how much it has been enforced.

 

[Mycroft]

Jury duty is fun. Do it.

I was once dismissed by the defense attorney because I told her I tend to ignore spin and innuendo...that I like to stick to the facts. She didn't like that so much.

 

[longview]

If you look at Juries the way modern prosecutors would have you believe, Juries are fairly irrelevant,
They are to decide if the defendant is guilty or innocent based on the law, as described by the Judge, with little or no latitude.
In reality Juries have to authority to judge if they think the law in applicable in that case,
and can find the defendant not guilty, even if the evidence is beyond reasonable doubt.
The Courts are no longer required to inform juries of their authority to judge the law, and almost never bring it up,
But this is the reason that Juries are important to our justice system.
If people feel that their jury service has little meaning, perhaps it is because they are purposefully
not told how meaningful the role of the Jury is.

 

[Lovebug]

Jury duty is fun. Do it.

I was once dismissed by the defense attorney because I told her I tend to ignore spin and innuendo...that I like to stick to the facts. She didn't like that so much.

Here's hoping to never getting called to show up, let alone sit there, day after day, having to listen to spin and nonsense trying to explain away what even a blind man can see.
Judging over the fate of another, however despicable that person may be, should not be taken lightly. Neither should anyone find loopholes to let a guilty go free. Defending the innocent is commendable. Listening to shysters defending the indefensible is not acceptable to me. I will tell them just that.

 

[Thoreau72]

If you look at Juries the way modern prosecutors would have you believe, Juries are fairly irrelevant,
They are to decide if the defendant is guilty or innocent based on the law, as described by the Judge, with little or no latitude.
In reality Juries have to authority to judge if they think the law in applicable in that case,
and can find the defendant not guilty, even if the evidence is beyond reasonable doubt.
The Courts are no longer required to inform juries of their authority to judge the law, and almost never bring it up,
But this is the reason that Juries are important to our justice system.
If people feel that their jury service has little meaning, perhaps it is because they are purposefully
not told how meaningful the role of the Jury is.

The Fully Informed Jury Association is something all citizens should be familiar with. For more than a century government has taken overt actions to marginalize the jury power.

Jury Nullification | Fully Informed Jury Association

 

[longview]

The Fully Informed Jury Association is something all citizens should be familiar with. For more than a century government has taken overt actions to marginalize the jury power.

Jury Nullification | Fully Informed Jury Association

I agree, but was pointing out that people may not be interested in Jury duty, because they only see it as a marginal roll.

 

[Paperview]

Serve, and remember that Jefferson was right--the jury is the best means yet devised by man to keep government within its assigned duties and powers.
....

I was called up a few years ago. I own my own business, and so serving meant I would have to give up a significant loss of income -- literally thousands of dollars. The jury pay and per diem mileage amounted to like 30 bucks a day. Still I knew it was important to serve.

It was a double murder trial, and it absorbed over a full month of my time. The evidence was all circumstantial, but enough to show the man was indeed a First Degree murderer. We spend a few days deliberating, with a few on the edge -- but after careful review, it was unanimous: Guilty.

After the trial, the judge informed us "we couldn't tell you this during the trial, but this man had spent many years in prison before using this same exact method to nearly kill someone else."

Nothing made me more proud than to know I was part of a system that helped put that monster away for the rest of his natural life.

It was worth ever lost penny in what was returned in knowing I served my country and did my Civil Duty.

 

[Perotista]

I understand the history of why we have it and the importance it is to our citizenship but I can't find when they started issuing bench warrants for people who are no shows.

It all depends on the state. It might even vary county to county.

 

[Mr Person]

Here's hoping to never getting called to show up, let alone sit there, day after day, having to listen to spin and nonsense trying to explain away what even a blind man can see.

Wow. With that attitude, you really should not be on a jury.





You have no training or experience, nor have you apparently seen a trial, but you think you know what's up?

WOW.

 

[Mr Person]

Jury duty is fun. Do it.

I was once dismissed by the defense attorney because I told her I tend to ignore spin and innuendo...that I like to stick to the facts. She didn't like that so much.

lol..bull

 

[Mycroft]

lol..bull

???

You don't believe I am as honest and forthcoming in my daily life as I am in here? I assure you, I am.

 

[Mr Person]

???

You don't believe I am as honest and forthcoming in my daily life as I am in here? I assure you, I am.

Uhuh.

Your posts are almost exclusively spin and innuendo here in general.

Beyond that, your post reads like you made something up to appeal to the publicly popular "heh heh, lawyers, amirite?" routine.

But even if you did say it and the lawyer used a peremptory, rather than the judge excusing you for cause, it would be because the lawyer would suspect that someone who says that would not be able or willing to follow the judge's instructions on the law, among other things. If someone walks in with obvious biases against the legal system in general, be it against lawyers or witnesses or defendants or prosecutors or whomever, you generally don't want them on a jury.

You want people who don't act like they know it all from the get-go. You want people who will listen without prejudging anyone, then make a real and honest attempt to reach a the proper result. You emphatically do not want someone who saunters up and makes a smug pronouncement such as you claim to have made. (And getting booted for making such an impression was most likely the point in your uttering, if you actually did say it).




After all, a criminal case is about the government trying to strip a citizen's freedoms. That's important stuff. The most important stuff, in a Democracy.

 

[Mycroft]

Uhuh.

Your posts are almost exclusively spin and innuendo here in general.

Beyond that, your posts reads like you made something up to appeal to the publicly popular "heh heh, lawyers, amirite?" routine.

But even if you did say it and the lawyer used a peremptory, rather than the judge excusing you for cause, it would be because the lawyer would suspect that someone who says that would not be able or willing to follow the judge's instructions on the law, among other things. If someone walks in with obvious biases against the legal system in general, be it against lawyers or witnesses or defendants or prosecutors or whomever, you generally don't want them on a jury.

You want people who don't act like they know it all from the get-go. You want people who will listen without prejudging anyone, then make a real and honest attempt to reach a the proper result. You emphatically do not want someone who saunters up and makes a smug pronouncement such as you claim to have made. (And getting booted for making such an impression was most likely the point in your uttering, if you actually did say it).




After all, a criminal case is about the government trying to strip a citizen's freedoms. That's important stuff. The most important stuff, in a Democracy.

I don't know where you dream this stuff up from.

1. My posts here are almost exclusively fact-based. With links.

2. Yes, it was a peremptory dismissal by the lawyer. She was allowed 3. She used one of them on me.

3. I have NO bias against the legal system, nor did I express any bias. I simply stated that I am not responsive to spin and innuendo. That I prefer facts. And yes...given the case, I'm sure she was basing her defense on spin and innuendo. I was of no use to her.

4. I never acted like I "know it all from the get-go". In fact, I knew nothing except the charges against the defendant. There is no way I could prejudge the defendant...nor would I.

5. "saunters up" LOL!! Now you are devolving into imaginary hyperbole. It's making you look like an ignorant fool. Nobody saunters up to a courtroom and make smug pronouncements.

You are dismissed for wasting my time with a ridiculous post.

 

[Mr Person]

You are dismissed for wasting my time with a ridiculous post.

Umm... no I wasn't:

I don't know where you dream this stuff up from.

1. My posts here are almost exclusively fact-based. With links.

2. Yes, it was a peremptory dismissal by the lawyer. She was allowed 3. She used one of them on me.

3. I have NO bias against the legal system, nor did I express any bias. I simply stated that I am not responsive to spin and innuendo. That I prefer facts. And yes...given the case, I'm sure she was basing her defense on spin and innuendo. I was of no use to her.

4. I never acted like I "know it all from the get-go". In fact, I knew nothing except the charges against the defendant. There is no way I could prejudge the defendant...nor would I.

5. "saunters up" LOL!! Now you are devolving into imaginary hyperbole. It's making you look like an ignorant fool. Nobody saunters up to a courtroom and make smug pronouncements.

You are dismissed for wasting my time with a ridiculous post.

Your reference to "spin and innuendo" would put any half-decent attorney on alert. Doubly so when most crime-court shows always trot out the "scummy defense lawyer" archetype. Triply so when the jury gets to hear all of the testimony and see all of the exhibits, then listens to the lawyers, then listens to the judge. Who wants a juror who seems to have who has telegraphed the belief that the lawyer bit will be "spin and innuendo"?