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Most of the time people want to get out of it but I actually would like to get ON the jury. Does anyone have any advise of how to get ON a jury?

Dress business casual, answer questions honestly and concisely but don't elaborately reveal your opinions (only yes/no/not sure if you can), appear interested in the process, and pray that they don't fill up all the juries for the day before they put you through voir dire.

Also, I haven't tried this yet, but try to get your service transferred to a superior court that has consistently heavy caseloads. The last time I was called, I went to a boondocky superior court that seemed to just have overflow from the more centrally located ones, and got sent home because only 2 cases needed juries that day, IIRC.

thanks tbz. That sounds like good advise to me. I really hope I can save some poor innocent soul from the wrath of the state.

Practice being Mr. Friendly Average Joe.

Three words is enough for any sentence.

Five letters is enough for any word.

Know your numbers up to three.  Or five.

There are six cans in a six pack.

I'm trying to practice looking attentive but dull. I have eyes that show my depth. I have to hide them. :D

I'm not sure if it's necessary to seem dull...

At least for the case I was sworn on*, both prosecutor and public defender seemed to just want alert, impartial jurors who wanted to be there and weren't stressed from loss of wages (juror stipend is a joke) or unhealthy.

I was ~19 but had graduated from high school at 16, been a intern journalist and copy editor for the local paper, and adults told me I seemed like an old man since I was ~10. I took more notes during the trial than anyone, and when both attorneys talked to us afterward, the jury's consensus was 1) that the defendant was the victim and acted in self-defense, and the "victim" should have been prosecuted instead for drawing blood 2) I would have been the foreman.

*that went to mistrial because of "unavailable witness"

noted. thanks for the input.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwaxFAC6rzk

Just make sure they are innocent first. Plenty of cases with people who fully deserve the wrath of the state.

oh sure. if there is a victim, a legitimate complaint and solid evidence than definitely.

Lol.  If I were a lawyer picking a jury I would avoid you like the plague.  You have an strong bias and seeming agenda right out of the gate without even hearing about the case.

You will be dealing with professionals who are trained to detect that.

But good luck anyway.

thanks ;D

Google jury nullification.

My experience with jury selection is it is pretty simple stuff, "let's pick homeowners not rents, let's try to get this age bracket/ethnicity/women or men", stuff like that.

I have been both picked for jury duty and not. When I was not picked I was dropped because I expressed my honest opinion (actually got into a sort of debate with the judge).

When I was picked I made sure that each of the lawyers knew that I was listening to their every word, nodding my head when needed, acting like every word that came out of their mouths was a fascinating truth. I helped to save a doctor from getting sued for malpractice when he was not guilty (swayed the jury from a knee jerk guilty verdict to not guilty).

Thanks for telling me about your experience.

I like being a juror. Just have to be honest when they call you and interview you, most people are trying to get out of it.

Kirsten Tynan of the Fully Informed Jury Association here. We actually have a brochure available that I recommend to everyone before they go to jury duty for exactly that purpose. It is called "Surviving Voir Dire" and can be downloaded from our website here, sixth brochure linked: http://fija.org/document-library/brochures/

It ended up being the case that there were no trials for the time that I was scheduled.

It's just so awesome what people like yourself are doing. People think that they have no power over the state any more, and as far as voting is concerned this is right, but they often don't realize that when they are a juror they actually do have the opportunity to have a real impact on the behaviour of their government. Its fascinating to me that people would be be in a patriotic fervour about voting when this will have no impact on anything and then act like jury duty is colossal inconvenience when this is a situation where their voice will actually be heard.

We're happy to do it, and we invite everyone interested in spreading the word about jury nullification to join us. We have Jury Rights Day coming up on September 5, commemorating the famous jury nullification in the trial of William Penn in 1670, which led not only to strong protection for jurors' rights but also for freedoms of speech and religion. Groups and individuals around the country host Jury Rights Day events. They are very easy to do, so if anyone is interested in volunteering to host one, please check our Jury Rights Day web page: http://www.FIJA.org/jury-rights-day

FIJA is strictly an educational outreach organization. We don't do legal advocacy for or against any case in progress, give legal advice, or provide legal defense funds. However, we do try to conduct outreach activities in places that are particularly timely. I am particularly interested in getting some outreach going in New York City right now. There have been some prominent local people talking about jury nullification there, as well as some recent cases where people have called for jury nullification. It seems like a timely moment in this location to get a long-term jury nullification campaign going there. We also have the bonus benefit of an Opinion and Order from Judge Kimba Wood of the United States District Court Southern District of New York explicitly protecting jury nullification outreach per the FIJA guidelines, so this is just about the safest place in the country to do courthouse jury nullification education: http://fija.org/docs/Judge_Wood_opinion_Heicklen.pdf

that was an interesting read.

I don't think you really can do anything to get on a jury. Assuming you have a summons to have to report for jury duty, your chances of getting selected should be equal to everyone else. If your name is high enough on the list of potential jurors (I am not sure how they determine the order of the people they interview, but I imagine it is usually somewhat random) then you will be given a questionnaire by the court that will try to detect certain bias about certain aspects of the case. For example if your father was killed by a drunk driver then you may be less then fair to someone who is accused of driving while drunk.

I agree. I think any effort to actively get on a jury would be seen as strong bias and would end up you getting rejected from the jury pool.

Change your first and last names to ones starting with the letter A, for when they call jurors in for voir dire alphabetically.

I don't think this is always the case. I think that the court will more often assign potential jurors a random "juror number" that is used to call them by to prevent potential "name" bias.