Today's Doofus is from Montana. According to The Smoking Gun, Erik Slye received a notice to report for jury duty. He responded as follows in a sworn affidavit:
Apparently you morons didn't understand me the first time. I CANNOT take time off from work. I'm not putting my family's wellbeing at stake to participate in this crap. I don't believe in our 'justice' system and I don't want to have a g*ddam thing to do with it. Jury duty is a complete waste of time. I would rather count the wrinkles on my dogs balls than sit on a jury. Get it through your thick skulls. Leave me the f**k alone.
The Smoking Gun reports:
The document, of course, did not sit well with court officials and led a judge to threaten to jail Slye. But after being summoned to court, Slye apologized for the affidavit and avoided being cited on a criminal failure to appear rap. And he also was excused from serving on a jury.
Well, he got off jury duty, anyway! I'm amazed he wasn't fined or jailed for that outburst. He was a Doofus for writing it, but a lucky Doofus for avoiding the consequences!
Peter
I have never been called for jury duty, but am of the opinion I would go if called and do my best.
ReplyDeleteThat said, aside from the choice of words, I understand the point Mr. Doofus is making.
Our jury system is not well put together, with jurors being expected to take it in the shorts financially while everyone else in the room profits handsomely. A trial lasting a few weeks could easily bankrupt a jurors family in times such as these, if they are already on financial edge. Asking a man to fairly judge another person while they watch their own family going down in flames is a little much, don't you think?
Our local court offers $28 a day in compensation, plus free parking. The federal court, several hours travel away, pays $48 a day I think. That won't even cover the parking and fuel costs of a juror.
The judge in that court makes over $180K a year, with free parking, meals, and transportation.
I've been on three juries. One a murder trial (re-trial we learned later) and two civil trials. One of the civil trials a lawyer tried to break a contract "because he didn't read and understand it."
ReplyDeleteHe didn't win his suit. :-)
All that said, it IS a civic duty. How can we expect a judicial system to work, if we won't contribute to it?
I have been called several times and have been bounced during voir dire every time.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason neither side wants someone with an engineering degree, 2 years experience as a med-surg orderly and married to an RN on the jury :-)
His viewpoint is undiplomatically phrased, but understandable.
ReplyDeleteI've never actually served on a jury myself. Every time the Powers That Be have solicited my participation, I've been overseas. I think they finally gave up. Even if I showed up, I'd probably be excluded within a half hour--or maybe it'd take an hour, given my lack of a university degree.
My father got tapped for jury duty once, in a capital case. Responding to questioning during voir dire, he stated that, while the death penalty was defensible in theory, no government entity should be trusted to administer it.
They told him he could go home.
What's funny is that he wasn't trying to get booted off the jurt; it was an honest answer.
Here in Perth, West Aust, the system is that a company is required to continue to pay us our salary or wages while we are engaged in that duty. I recently got called for that duty for the first and only time in my 61 yrs. In the end I never got chosen anyway. They choose by lottery out of a large jury pool, and even then one can be challenged and rejected by lawyers for no particular reason.
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Morris