Jury duty

[Torie]

I have sat in a jury pool for a day three times. One of the three times I was called, along with about 100 other folks, because it was a three month trial or something. You had the ability to opt out, if you hung around until after lunch. If you didn't opt out, you could leave right away, and would be called later. I stayed until after lunch. If I ever got selected, one side or the other would probably bounce me because of my profession. Lawyers are worried that if a lawyer is on the jury, there is a potential that it will effectively become a jury of one rather than nine.

[Torie]

One of my professors for my law classes, who of course was a licensed attorney herself said that it's mandatory that attorneys be barred from juries and she's been called but ruled ineligible on those grounds. In fact I think I've heard that anyone employed by a law firm is barred from jury duty due to a possible conflict of interest, though in that case non-attorneys become eligible again if they leave their job but anyone who was an attorney is barred for life. Maybe just the law in Minnesota.

No such ban exists in CA.

[Torie]

So wondering, if during a pre-screening interview I went on some rant along the lines of "I think the justice system is bullsh**t, they won't even let me smoke weed!", would that disqualify me from any jury, or just drug cases?

You can do better than that. One of my law partners during voir dire states that he as a matter of conscience in PI cases, will not award pain and suffering damages. That does the trick for those kind of cases. You might also say as a grand unified disqualifying that you believe in jury nullification, and will not convict if the penalties involved shock the conscience (as they typically do in drug cases for example, but it goes beyond that). This old right winger actually subscribes to the jury nullification concept myself. Shocking isn't it?