[brownsfan]

Jury trials - the American justice system nightmare. Trials decided by a group of people too stupid to get out of jury duty.

(Ok, I know that's not 100% true, some do it out of a sense of duty, but I'd say fully 75% of jurors don't want to be there, they're just too stupid to know how to get out of it).

[Pessimist]

"but I'd say fully 75% of jurors don't want to be there, they're just too stupid to know how to get out of it"

That, or they have menial jobs w/ gold plated bennies and they just prefer getting out of work for a few weeks.

The last time I got called it was for a grand jury. Here in Ohio, that means you go for something like 1 or 2 days a week for 6 months (I forget the exact terms). For most people, this is going to be a real pain. My company pays a max of 10 days / yr for jury duty.

Luckily, before they got down to me they filled the box w/ retirees and gvt employees who get payed no matter what.

Some representative sample, huh?

[pollyannaish]

Actually, I think that what needs to be changed is the jury selection process. You take the first batch out of the hat unless there is an egregious conflict of interest. No time off for hardship, etc.

I think it would, first, shorten the trial because people would be ancy to get on with their lives and the lawyers would know they run a huge risk of ticking people off. And second, usually, there would be at least a few decent people on every jury to balance out the rest. Finally, it would put those "jury specialists" out of business and make them get real jobs. ; )