Anyone is welcome to submit a Guest Blog Entry to torontomike.com. I received the following submission late last night.
Today was the 1st day of my tenure for "jury duty". Even though the Prez. of the Co. I work for tried to get me excluded I was denied. This is the 3rd time I have been summoned to be a possible juror in the last 12 years & ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. You must sit in a room full of potential jurors (approx 200 people) waiting for your number to be drawn. No TV, no newspapers, no cell phones,etc. I feel this is almost the same as being convicted of some terrible crime.
Today we were dismissed after 2 hours & told to come back tomorrow at 9:30 am. Our seclusion is for 3-4 days where we were told not to watch the news or try not to read newspapers. This is Bullshit. Am I the one on trial? Our justice system & jury selection sucks. I have sat on 1 major trial already which was emotionally & physically challenging 9 years ago & it was an experience I will never forget where you hold the cards to be played for the accused - Guilty or not. (They were). They received 5 years in prison (after pleading guilty to a lesser charge). The trial lasted 4 long days - 9:00 am till 5:00pm with a 1 hour break.
The positive about today was that I got most of my XMAS shopping done after being dismissed after 1 1/2 hrs. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I can't wait to get to get back to work. The jury selection process SUCKS - I can't wait to get selected again. Panel # %# - juror # ^&%$#@&*(.
You're one unlucky dude. According to the Juries Act, a person is eligible to serve on jury duty once every three years. Otherwise, it's a completely random draw within each county or district. Remember though, it's your civic duty to serve as a juror. Besides, Homer Simpson says getting out of jury duty is easy. The trick is to say you're prejudiced against all races.
