Jury Duty
Oakie
Member Posts: 40,510 ✭✭✭✭
AGAIN🤬. Our sleepy little town is where 4 counties come together. I always get pulled for Camden, which if anyone knows about it, is one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Population is about 95% Black and Hispanic. Every time they pull me in and ask if I have an open mind about serving, I have no problem with it. It is my civic duty, but I really don't want to do it. I have sat on two murder trials, and both times they worked out a plea deal, right before we went back to deliberate. That really stunk for this one lady. She was a domestic abuse victim that had enough . She got four years. We were going to vote not guilty. The other one was a gang slaying. Guy was guilty as heck and we were going to hang his butt. The biggest problem with this jury duty, is the timing. It is the day before my nieces wedding in Pittsburg. I am going to try to get out of this one. I am definitely not showing up. I wouldn't miss this wedding for anything. She is my favorite niece.
Comments
I recently got notice for jury duty. I replied with request for permanently excused. With my hearing loss I can't understand a word they say, and the courtrooms are like an echo chamber. Volume is not the problem, it's clarity.
I hope so. I really don't mind serving. It is our civic duty to serve.
Camden New Jersey, huh? Arguably the worst city in America.
I have done it a dozen times over the years. I have to drive twenty miles to the courthouse. Retired is retired.
Have only been tapped once in 37 years, and I was excused for that one because I had a non-refundable cruise booked for those same days. I'd serve if called, but they don't seat many retired military officers. Defense always rejects us.
I did my 2 weeks on a rape & robbery case. Called twice later, but they only had parking for compact cars, not full size. Now it would be the same excuse as @montanajoe (thanks 👍️.)
Served several times in my younger days. Haven't been called in over 25 years . Always thought it was a civic duty that all should participate in .
Yup, Guess you have been there. We actually run all the lights when driving through there. If you stop, you have about a 50-50 chance of being car jacked. I take the train, right to the court house. No way am I leaving my car in that city.
Quick funny story. My neighbor was a prison guard at River front prison in Camden. A prisoner got released one day, and promptly left the jail, walked through the parking lot, and stole his jeep. LOL. He made it three blocks before he smashed it into a fire hydrant. He was out for exactly 45 minutes, before being arrested again.
I had to make a delivery to Camden one day in my 18 wheeler. Normally I drove from South Carolina to Texas but on this day, I had to go to New Jersey. As I drove around Camden, I was astonished to see thousands of abandoned houses and apartment buildings. Camden looked like a movie set, of life after the nuclear war.
Two months later, my dispatcher told me that the next day, I had to take another trip from Greenville SC to Camden. At my company we had "no right of refusal" meaning, if we refused a load we would be fired. I told the dispatcher to find another driver because I wasn't going back to Camden. I guess my dispatcher valued my work, because the next morning, I got a load to El Paso. Loads to El Paso were the best we could get! I guess dispatcher found a dumb rookie to take that Camden load.
Here's a photo I took of one of the downtown buildings in the dystopia of Camden New Jersey.
I have never been on jury duty.
I've been called twice but for some reason or other the defense folks don't like to seat the spouse of a police officer. Wonder why that is?