Miss jury duty, go to jail
Chief judge of Washington D.C.'s Superior Court issued 92 arrest warrants recently for citizens who shirked their civic duty in the District, the Washington Post reports.
These courts take those summons seriously. Los Angeles Superior Court has a similar policy of fining jury duty scofflaws up to $1,500 or sentencing them to jail. Usually, after being ordered to appear before a judge, most people get slapped with a $200 fine and signed up for jury duty on the spot.
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Larry Altman has covered crime in the South Bay since 1990. He's seen it all - the missing model who turned up dead in the desert, the wives found dead in trunks, the high-school coaches who get a little too close to their players. He drives his young colleagues nuts with his "I remember when" stories. He welcomes your tips and observations about the present, and you can mix in a little Lakers basketball talk if you like.
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Denise Nix knew as young as grade school, when she spent every summer working on the camp newspaper, that she wanted to be a journalist. Denise has spent most of the last 12 years of her career in the courtroom. She joined the Daily Breeze in 2001, where she tracks and reports on hundreds of cases at every level of the justice system. And she's never, ever, seen a judge use a gavel.
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People should have the right not to participle in a flawed system. Isn’t this the reason we fight wars? Bringing freedom and democracy to all? I should be free to not have to sit on a jury if that is what I choose.
I don't think it is right to call jury duty a privilege and yet be forced into it. As it is I think it is a violation to have your name automatically entered to serve just because you get a license or register to vote. I do not believe that not showing for Jury duty should be punished, there are a lot of things that can happen and prevent you from showing, many of which are beyond control, so why should you be punished for something you didn't do. It defeats the purpose of justice, justice implys that people get what they DESERVE for WHAT THEY DID, not be thrown in jail because they didn't get the notice in the mail; don't own a car or have money for the bus, or are elderly and forget to call (which having you call everyday, it is likely that you'd forget)Honestly, you could be terminally ill and they still wouldn't excuse you.It's just stupid what they are putting people in jail for, the judicial system is very flawed and I really don't believe that justice exists anymore.