Jury Duty

[0311Marine]

Do LEO's get Jury Duty?

I did a search and couldnt find this question anywhere so I thought I would post it.

I know at first this looks like a stupid question, since LEO's are already doing there civic duty. But while in the Marines I got called to jury duty twice. I didnt do it because of operational commitments, but I still got called.

[retdetsgt]

Yeah, but we rarely if ever get on criminal juries. My dept will get someone excused, but a lot of guys want to do it as sort of a paid, day shift vacation. The dept will support anyone who wants to do it.

My ex wife gets called up periodically to jury duty and she tells me she still can't get on a criminal jury because she was once married to me. I dunno who kicks her off, the defense or the DA because he's afraid she hates cops. (She doesn't)

[MORA Ranger]

I just got to do jury duty! I was so excited to do it, since I've never done it before and wanted to see things from the inside. I figured I'd get tossed from a regular jury so I requested to be put on Grand Jury. Oddly enough, there was a local PD guy on the grand jury as well. It was really neat and I was sad when my month was over.

[mcsap]

I would like to but the few times I did get a notice in the mail , I sent it back advising of my profession and was never contacted further.

[Wombat311]

I've been selected for jury duty twice.

The first time I wanted to do it, but couldn't because it would have conflicted with my Academy, so I was excused.

The second time, I wasn't allowed to do it. There is a bit on the form they send where they ask if you are of a particular profession. They don't let cops do it, unfortunately. Some nonsense about being biased. :rolleyes:

[Michelles]

I've been selected for jury duty twice.

The first time I wanted to do it, but couldn't because it would have conflicted with my Academy, so I was excused.

The second time, I wasn't allowed to do it. There is a bit on the form they send where they ask if you are of a particular profession. They don't let cops do it, unfortunately. Some nonsense about being biased. :rolleyes:

Same thing here in California. Has a place to mark and send back if you are in a particular profession. LEO's being the first and I think military was another.

[soundwave]

Same at my department as retdetsgt... From what I've been told the department will allow anyone who wants to go, but the county attorney here tells us that the defense and/or them will usually knock anyone employed by an agency off because of the bias issue. They basically tell everyone that they can but it is highly unlikely that they will make it through selection. I've also been told that at our main facility in the city that the dispatchers are kicked off quicker than LEO's because they usually don't like them with a passion.

I, on the other hand, am just fine with LEO's because we work, talk and do stuff together all the time due to the small size of our district and the way our station is laid out. The CA also said that's another reason we would get kicked off in a heartbeat -- it's either we like LEO's or hate them, either way biased. lol

Cheers.

[Patriot08]

I have a relative who is a retired police officer and just got called up for jury duty. As soon as the defense found out he was a retired police officer he was asked to leave. Wouldnt surprise me at all if this is very common. The way I see it though, most LEO's spend enough time in court that sitting on a jury isnt at the top of their list of things to do. Currect me if I'm wrong though :D

[0311Marine]

I knew being in the Military (esp. the Marine Corps. We are supposed to be ready to go at a moment notice for anything anywhere.) Would diqualify me from jury duty. And I was pretty sure that no defence attorney would want an LEO as a juror.

[GoDirectly2Jail]

In Virginia, LEOs are excused from jury duty.

[ngcsubutterbar]

while I haven't asked enough people to get a real good sampling, every cop I 'have' asked so far said they are booted off juries. also maybe 8 out of 10 people that are even 'related' to the CJ field are also booted off, and that includes a good number of just college students. Me personly I 'want' to serve on a jury but haven't been asked to yet.

[Valor55]

I was a brand new cop still in FTO and got jury duty on a day off. Nobody asked if there were any cops so I made it on a jury for a disorderly conduct charge. Apparently an appeal from District Court and it came to us in Circuit Court. It was neat seeing the process from the other side, I learned a lot. We found the defendant guilty after arguing for longer than the trial took. We had a soccer mom who was identifing with the defendant (another soccer mom) and was crying and didn't want to convict her. The rest of us were unanimous in about 5 minutes and spent 3 hours talking this one boob into it.

[retdetsgt]

We have a lot of civil suits in this county so there are lots of opportunities to serve on them. Attorneys don't seem to care much if you're a cop for them. I know several guys on my dept who have sit on civil cases.

[Oldbillplod]

We never used to be able to do it but we can now, annoying really because I received my jury letter when we couldn't do it and I would love to be on the other side.

[MOCOP]

I just got my jury summons for next month........whoopeee. :rolleyes: Here our Judges don't let us sit on Criminal Cases but we can sit on Civil Cases. Doesn't happen often usually one of the attorneys won't except you.