Posted: 9/1/2026 10:45:27 AM EDT
| Have you ever served on a jury in a criminal case? |
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Ha! no. My buddy was just telling me the same in grand jury selection. On the round of questions they were having people stand up if any applied. Do you know the judge in this case! Do you know any of the lawyers in the case? Do you know any of the arresting officers? Do you have strong opinions on sex crimes? Those were the ones I recall he said he had to stand up for. He knew all of them seeing as he worked for the county probation department for decades. After half a day wasted they sent him on his way. |
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Got called for jury duty (fed and state) probably 6 or 7 times since I have been in law enforcement. All but one time I never was in the building for more than an hour before i was booted... The 2 fed jury notices were easy. I stopped in to the clerks office in the courthouse before the date, showed my Fed LE creds and gave them my jury notice. They said "we'll take care of it", and I was good for another 5 years. The state ones were a little harder. I had to wait until all the "come see us to tell us why you should be excused" people were done complaining, and everyone had sat down, then I would go find a court officer hanging around the back of the room and go introduce myself. They would take my notice and say, "wait here", and 10 minutes later would come back with the card stamped, and I was on my way... Only one time I got tagged for a civil lawsuit in county court for a bs auto accident that was caused by the plaintiff, and despite me trying my best to get out of it, I got selected. Trial was three days, we deliberated for about 5 minutes and ruled for the defendant. Complete waste of time for the entire court system... |
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I was sitting in the box, when they asked if anyone had ever been assaulted. I few of us raised our hands. Then they asked if any of us had ever been hospitalized because of the attack. and I raised my had again. That got me excused. I kept hoping they were gonna ask if anyone had formed an opinion about the defendant. I so much wanted to say, "Well if the Police arrested him, then he must be guilty". My mom said that once and was excused; but it got a laugh from the States Attorney |
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Never get a notice for jury duty, I think my name is flagged by the county, which I think is wrong- crook’s lawyers should have to waste a strike on me! I am sure I would be a better juror than most of the folks I have seen at trial or GJ though. And there is no reason I could not be used in a civil trial either…. Wife gets called up fairly regularly, about every couple years. Was even called up for federal but luckily that did not happen as it was about a 2 hr drive. She has been excused before because the involved LEO was someone I had worked with before…. But she has been used as an alternate on criminal trials anyhow, despite me, my brother, my dad, and lots of my friends being LE. You never know I guess. I knew a guy (friend of my dad) who ran for a lower court magistrate position and won against some crummy long time judge. He had been a reserve with my dad’s agency as well. One day he had a defendant come in and plead not guilty on something, the judge was like “hey- I remember you- I was there- You are guilty!” No idea how that worked out in the end, back in the 80’s thing were a bit different than today! |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
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No. Until a few years ago we were automatically exempted Since the exemption was removed I was called for jury selection once I sat in the pews for two days and was in the last round of prospective jurors before they dismissed me |
*post contains personal opinion only and should not be considered information released in an official capacity*
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Booted many, many times. How long I sat there varied. Closest I came was down to the last 20 or so people out of several hundred. I was selected for a civil trial, some contractor suing the water district for work not paid. 5 days of listening to his attorney babble and not say a damn thing. I still think the guy was paid by the word. We found for the water district in about 45 minutes, most of which was trying to make heads or tails out of the paperwork and everybody taking a bathroom break. |
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Wife and I are both retired LEOs, we have been called several times, never selected. First time I was called the pool was in a courtroom where the judge ran through some preliminary stuff; he asked questions like “does anyone not live in this city any longer?” Is anyone here a convicted felon”? And several others, including: “is there any reason you cannot serve on a jury?” I raised my hand and the judge, who recognized me, waved me down and said we would talk later. So at the end of the session, starting with roughly 70 people, the prospective pool was down to about 25. The judge called me to the bench and told me of the difficulty in finding jurors, as shown there, that I could serve on a civil jury, and as for criminal, if the lawyers asked the wrong questions I could serve. I was seated for a civil trial one time, but they came to a deal before beginning. |
Official Arfcom call sign "Talon"
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I got called one time about 20 plus years ago. I took the questionnaire to the Judge, and he agreed it was a waste of resources to have me even show up and excused me. My wife just got called yesterday. I am the chief probation officer in the circuit, and the Judge is my boss. I tried to get her out of it when she got picked at beginning of term but the other Judge handling the questionnaires said she should stay on because she might be needed for civil. Her term would have ended next Monday. As soon as they started asking about family in LE she answered yes and was brought back for one on one with the attorneys and Judge. He ended up excusing her. She was aggravated because she missed a day of work. LOL |
Every normal man, at times, must be tempted to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
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I always got kicked out during voir dire for normal jury duty for criminal cases, but I did serve on the grand jury for a few months while I was still on the job. That was pretty fun, actually. Fun fact, here in Arizona being a LEO gives you an exemption where you can basically just check the block and send the summons back in without ever appearing, but as a federal agent since we are not POST certified, we are not considered peace officers by the Arizona definition therefore we have to come in if summoned and waste a good part of your day before inevitably being kicked out. |
The cost of treason isn't paid in Dollars.
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USA
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I've never been summoned, but I'm a military fed, and I've maintained legal residence in the state I'm from throughout my service. However, I'm about to retire, and will be changing my residency to the state I'm in now; pretty sure I'll get summoned as soon as I register to vote so we'll see. Me being a fed has gotten my wife dismissed from jury duty a couple of times. |