Ten Things I Learned at Jury Duty
Monday August 18, 2008
I was called to appear for Jury Duty at the Superior Court of Maricopa County. That's in downtown Phoenix. I seem to get called every year or two, but not always for the same court, and usually I don't even have to show up. Previously, when I had been asked to actually appear at the designated court, I was never selected for a trial. Here are ten things that you may or may not know about jury duty for the Superior Court.
- If you are a registered voter in Maricopa County, or you have a driver license in Maricopa County, you might be called for jury duty.
- Not everyone has to appear for a full day. I didn't have to appear until 1 p.m. on my assigned day.
- The jury assembly area has vending machines with snacks and soft drinks. In the building next door, there's also a food court with various fast food options.
- If you appear for jury duty, you will either be assigned to a trial or released. If you aren't picked as a juror, your service is finished on that day, when you are released.
- There's free parking and a shuttle in downtown Phoenix. It was easy to maneuver.
- You must assume that you'll have to stay until 5 p.m. They won't keep you later than that.
- Wireless Internet is provided in the jury assembly room.
- You don't have to serve if you are over 75 years old.
- Your employer can't stop you from serving as a juror, nor can they penalize you for it. They don't have to pay you, though.
- If you are selected to serve on a jury you are paid $12 per day plus some mileage reimbursement. If you are retired, unemployed, or your employer is not paying you for the time you are serving, you may be entitled to more, possibly as much as $300 per day.
Do you own a gun, or is there a gun in your home?
1) A member of my family was a victim of a crime, so now we have a gun.
2) No one in my family has been a victim of a crime, but we have a gun.
Comments
Per your comment about how often you are selected: Barbara Mundell, the Presiding Judge of Maricopa County Superior Court recently related to the Arizona State Legislature that approximately 75,000 jurors are summoned annually in Maricopa County. Extrapolating that out must mean that every 18 months only 112,500 people will have been summoned.
So, given that the 2006 estimate of Maricopa county was 3.8million with 27% under the age of 18 (1million) and 11% over the age of 65 (.4million) that means the Jury “random” selection program has a grand total of approximately 2.2 million people to ‘randomly’ choose from.
Now if this were a sequential system, I would only get called for jury duty every 29 years. So please can someone explain how come every 18 months like clockwork I receive a jury summons. Coming from the computer programming world, I realize that it is inherently more difficult to create a program for “random” selection than a sequential selection. So, from my perspective would I be unreasonable to question the “randomness” of this system and of the thought that only 112,500 people have been profiled in this “random” system to be rotated every 18 months to perform this “civic duty” that 2.1 million others never have to contend with.
Having now returned from my latest “civic duty”, I can now confirm my assumptions. Of the other people in the room to be selected, approximately 75% of them were profiled as drug addicts, recovering drug addicts, multiple DUI’s, felons (who had had their felonies overturned), and approximately 25% of them were, as I was, profiled as a ‘immigrants’.
Added to this when asked whether anyone had served on a jury, again approximately 75% detailed that they had served multiple times since 2000. Again confirming the rotation of 112,500 profiled jurors. I got to speak with a number my fellow prospective jurors as I know that on Feb 4th 2010, I will be back in the court jury selection box along with the same group of people, whereas all of my colleagues will, as usual, be at work with their schedules unaffected.
It’s nothing personal, Elanor. It’s just that your name starts with ‘E’ and that’s pretty close to the top of the list.
Eleanor -
Be sure to keep your slip from Jury Duty that you collect at the end of your day/assignment. It is proof that you have served recently and can prevent you from repeat servings in a short amount of time.
And I think I got on my recent Jury Duty a total of $0.14 cents for mileage back/forth from Glendale.
I’m annoyed! I moved to Arizona 3 years ago. I have received a jury duty summons every year for the past 3 years. I wouldn’t mind doing my civic duty but each time it was for a downtown Phoenix court. I live in the east valley which makes it a 45 minute drive - in awful traffic. Why isn’t there some way to categorize people by their zip codes so we can serve in local courtrooms?
I have been here only 1 year when called to jury duty. I live west side one block off of 303 and less than 2 miles from courts in Surprise and had to go to Mesa. Taking the mail system out here (which is REALLY bad)…there is no proof that you got the summons in the mail; so I hope the summons and where you report get better or may never see it in the mail.