HELP! (personal/low content)

[ALawPoker]

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Why is everyone supporting this guy?

If you went to trial for something you didn't do, and didn't have a jury because no one turned up, and wound up being tried by a judge, how would you feel?

I know that's not going to happen, but if everyone did what he did, thats where we would be.

On a more direct point, people at college, or with porffessional jobs etc, seem to find it a lot easier to get out of jury service than others, and if I was on trial, I'd much prefer that the jury be as intelligent and as well educated as possible, so they would be more likely to make the correct decision.

The jury system is one of the ways which citizens can place restraints on the state and its representatives, for you to be too lazy to respond is pretty bad in my opinion. If you get a record, its your own damn fault.

Also, I wouldnt recomend lying to the court as to never recieving the summons etc, if you get found out, they will [censored] you over.

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It has nothing to do with going vs. not going. I was legitimately out of state and there was no way I could go. So even if you accept our process and assume it's your duty to attend jury service or whatever, that isn't the issue, because it would have been impossible for me to do that whether I filed the appropriate paper work or not.

The problem is merely that I didn't follow the correct procedure in explaining to the court that I no longer live in MA and should be taken out of the juror pool. Even if I did this after the date of my summons I doubt there would have been any legal trouble (since it took three and a half years, and presumably subsequent summons that I truly never saw, for them to finally charge me with anything).

I actually wouldn't mind serving jury duty one bit. I think it would be interesting. My laziness was just in not formally explaining myself to the court and allowing them to think I was an eligible MA juror.

You seem like an angry person.

[JammyDodga]

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You seem like an angry person.

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Really? What makes you say that? I thought my post was entirely reasonable, even if I disagreed with you. I was however suprised by the number of people who seemed outraged that the state was penalising you for what I percieved as you shirking your duty.

Perhaps I misunderstood, as I'm not entirely sure why being away at college prevented you from doing jury service. Did you not spend significant time at home in MA during this period?

[ALawPoker]

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You seem like an angry person.

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Really? What makes you say that? I thought my post was entirely reasonable, even if I disagreed with you.

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Just the vibe I got. It was only half serious though. You seemed determined to lecture for no real reason. You weren't really "disagreeing" with me or offering anything of substance to the discussion, since I concur that I'd be in a much better situation if I had just handled this responsibly 3 years ago.

Clearly we hold different axioms regarding whether might makes right, or whether it doesn't necessarily, but that's beside the point. No one is passing any judgment here because discussing the moral philosophy of civic duty is not the point of this thread; they are just offering humble help for how I should proceed because I asked for it.

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I'm not entirely sure why being away at college prevented you from doing jury service. Did you not spend significant time at home in MA during this period?

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Because the date they summoned me for was during the semester. I realize in your world I should have arranged a different time to SERVE MY DUTY, but in my world this is no duty of mine, and my only mistake was a practical one.

My point was that the issue (as it relates to criminal penalty) isn't whether or not I did my duty, but just whether or not I filed the paper work like I was supposed to (because, I could have been lawfully excused if I wanted to be). So in other words, your rant was basically irrelevant to the criminality of my situation, because "neglecting my duty" would have been no penalty at all if I just filed a formal excuse.

So all you are doing is lecturing in principle on why, according to your axioms, honorable civic duty is necessary. Your criticisms of what I did logically extend to the people who find ways to be lawfully excused, or who are dismissed.

[ALawPoker]

BPA and adios,

Thanks for the advice. I probably will get a lawyer [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]. Maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas.