Who, Really, Wants To Serve On A Jury?

I have never served on a jury. The half dozen times in my life that I've received a jury duty summons, I've simply tossed it into the oval filing box aka the trash.

First off, for 20 years I was the sole caretaker and breadwinner in the family, and not on salary, so any days taken off would mean days that I would lose approximately $150 each day. All they pay in Los Angeles is $15! If that is all they are willing to pay, then I suggest they limit their jury pool to retirees.

Anyway, I found this story in the Los Angeles Times, interesting.

Spurned in his effort to get out of jury duty, salesman Tony Prados turned his attention to the case that could cost him three weeks' pay: A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was suing his former sergeant, alleging severe emotional distress inflicted by lewd and false innuendo that he was gay.

Prados, an ex-Marine, leaned forward in the jury box and asked in a let-me-get-this-straight tone of voice: "He's brave enough to go out and get shot at by anyone but he couldn't handle this?" he said of the locker-room taunting.

Fellow jury candidate Robert Avanesian, who had also unsuccessfully sought dismissal on financial hardship grounds, chimed in: "I think severe emotional distress is what is happening in Haiti. I don't think you could have such severe emotional distress from that," he said of the allegations in the deputy's case.

The spontaneous outbursts of the reluctant jurors just as Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James R. Dunn was about to swear them in emboldened others in the jury pool to express disdain for the case and concerns about their ability to be fair, and to ratchet up the pathos in their claims of facing economic ruin if forced to sit for the three-week trial.