Jury Duty Question

12-8-2008 Somewhere National:

QUESTION:

I have been called to jury duty. I am fine with this; however, the Juror Manager must be aware of an a priori conviction that I possess. This is that, I shall, without fail, irrevocably side with the defense in any legal dispute to which I am asked to be a co-quaesitor. This decision is based on several factors, the primary being moral, but also religious and historical (both personally but also legal history apart from myself).

I am not here to discuss the rightness / wrongness / rationality / etc. of this conviction, but to ask if this conviction is a basis for the contempt of court ad baculum lever applied by the legal system today? That is, shall I tuck my chin and prepare myself for a legal blow?


ANSWER:

Probably not. If you are genuinely biased, you should not get into trouble for saying so. If anything, keeping quiet about this is what could bring consequences.

The "juror manager", however, is unlikely to be the person you need to talk to. (I confess that I'm unfamiliar with the ____ court system; you may know something in this regard that I don't.) There are certain factors -- such as being a non-citizen -- that automatically disqualify potential jurors; administrative staff may be authorized to remove a potential juror from the pool if one of those factors disqualifies him or her. Otherwise, it will be up to the judge and the lawyers to decide whether you should serve. The answer may seem like a foregone conclusion, but that doesn't mean a clerk will be able to let you out of jury duty.