There are three groups that are exempt from federal jury service:
members of the armed forces on active duty;
members of professional fire and police departments; and
"public officers" of federal, state or local governments, who are actively engaged full-time in the performance of public duties.
Persons employed on a full-time basis in any of these categories are barred from serving on federal juries, even if they desire to do so.
Because we interact with law enforcement constantly and are public servants. We are assumed to be tainted in our views and have a higher than average chance of being involved in the court system.
I got called in Cook County once. Turned out to be a civil suit for a patient I treated. I was dismissed pretty quick once they figured out I wrote the patient care report they were using as evidence in the suit. Lol.
Typically it is a assumed default bias in favor of “first responders” so this means if you are on a jury where a cop shot a person whose family feels was innocent, the defense argues that you can’t be depended upon to render an impartial opinion.
It’s complete BS but that is the nature of our current legal system.
It’s still the same mentality that they will automatically assign good guy / bad guy status based upon their real life observations and will be incapable of being impartial. The last thing a defense lawyer wants in the box is somebody who is really switched on.
Its a shame, people who want to do their “civic duty” and serve above and beyond, are barred from doing so. While the rest of society is looking for an excuse to get out of it.
I did last year. It was interesting and nice to be a part of our judicial system but I don’t want to do it again. Maybe if they streamline the process but the way it went it was a huge waste of time. A lot of just waiting for lawyers to go to talk over an extended lunch! Maybe it was just my experience but I spent better part of a day just staring at the ceiling. Trial lasted 3 days, I was juror #2. Also, you get to sit for hours in a room full of strangers and you realize about a 1/3 are retarded! Not because they disagree with your view …that’s fine. But because their logic is none existent. It wasn’t like the movie 12 Angry Men. It was more like talking to Ralph from the Simpsons
Because of Fire’s legal relationship with law enforcement entities, including their investigations of arson cases. It removes any possible bias off the bat.
This was pretty much my experience as well. It was interesting to do once, but I’m not keen on wasting any more time with it. Mine was a single-day county criminal court affair, but there was still tons of sitting on ass waiting.
I don’t want any part of a federal case…That shit can take months. My dad had to sit on a federal murder trial when I was growing up. IIRC it took nearly a month and he was in a hotel in another town for most of that time.
I once sat in a jury pool for two days…in uniform. The judge (who I knew well) would not let me out of jury duty, I think she did it just to mess with me. So I would finish my shift at 7am, go to the house to eat breakfast and then head over to the courthouse. The ADA’s got a kick out of it, too. The judge finally let me out after two days of sitting there, in uniform, trying to stay awake since there was no way either side was going to let me sit on a jury.
I have been summoned three times in 10 years. Wore a badge shirt every time. Yes, lawyers don’t like the comfortable relationship that LEO and FF have with each other. The brother hood and sister hood is stronger than they are. Excused within an hour…
I’ve always been unnerved by the fact that should it ever happen, I will be tried by 12 people who weren’t sophisticated enough to get out of jury duty. That means basically Oprah viewers. I would argue they aren’t truly my peers, but I don’t think that would get me anywhere and would probably make things worse.
I expect nothing more than 12 SJW types and I will lawyer up accordingly.
As with LE, FF are exposed to much of the things that ordinary people are not. Therefore in the eyes of the lawyers they might be “biased” against would be defendants. No attorney would let an EMT, FF, or even an ER nurse for that matter sit on the jury for their client if they just killed someone in a DWI, etc…
You’ll never see anyone with a background in corrections get selected for jury duty either lol.
The people that see society as it really is, without the rose colored glasses, are being censored. The more I learn, the more I wonder how much more f’d up it really is.
And not so surprising how many people sitting on a jury really believe the police go out of their way to frame some innocent schmoe for no reason whatsoever .
The local court system often exempts full time LEO, Firemen and Paramedics in the interest of public safety. They don’t want to short staff first responders. The smaller the department you work for, the more likely you will be dismissed from jury duty on the first day.
