6 ms·
A ‘glitch’ left young people off jury rolls
- js2 7y agoI’m surprised at how few times I’ve been summonsed. Once in Miami when I was maybe 20 and made it to voir dire but was dismissed. Once in Santa Clara, CA but never got to voir dire, and twice in Raleigh, NC but when I called the night before was told I wasn’t needed. So I’ve basically only ever even been interviewed once. I’m 47. I’ll probably have a summons waiting for me in the mail tomorrow.
- house9-2 7y agoAlso 47, sounds similar - 2 times had to call but wasn't needed - once, sat in a room waiting but then we were all dismissed - this year, 2 day jury selection; I ended up in seat #2 on the 2nd day for about 4 hours before being dismissed
- rxhernandez 7y agoI've been called for jury duty almost every year since I was 20 (I'm in my late 20s now). It's a frustrating waste of time considering how much lawyers hate engineers being on the jury.
- ralusek 7y agoProbably a good thing, young people are idiots. - medium person who is less dumb
- tareqak 7y agoWhat would be the penalty for the company and the state government in this case?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- pg_is_a_butt 7y agoEvery case handled during the time should be reopened and closed as a mistrial.
- GavinMcG 7y agoFor a penalty to be appropriate we'd need to be able to identify a harm to someone. That's a stretch in this case, I think.
- dmckeon 7y agoI wonder what proportion of judicial districts or jury pools are managed by external companies, and how concentrated their management is - if some large proportion is managed by some very small number of companies.
- pkaye 7y agoAs compensation they should increase the probability of them being called by 10x for the next few years.
- mises 7y agoIf the goal of a jury is to be unbiased toward the person on trial (attempt equal representation from the citizenry), wouldn't biasing the selection now violate the right of the defendant to trial by jury of peers as much as the instance in question? We would do well to remember that the objective of jury selection is not to give all groups equal representation simply for the sake of fairness but to give the defendant a fair, unbiased jury for a trial. It wouldn't be fair to today's defendants to do this, just as some sort of "justice" for those of yesterday.
- FakeComments 7y agoIt’s the thinking that underlines blood sacrifice: if we ritually commit an injustice, it will atone for past injustice.
- pkaye 7y agoThe defendants who were previously found guilty under the old jury selection can ask for a second trial under this new jury. Any the young people who were deprived of jury duty also get a chance.
- mises 7y agoA jury that is 10x more likely to have youth? Not necessarily any more just. That's not right either. Couldn't we just strive for a just jury?
- Meph504 7y agoThere is nothing yet that says anyone convicted has a right to a new trial based on this information, the supreme court granted a stay until the case, and the effect of this error can determined.
- 7y ago
- mises 7y agoThis doesn't seem purposeful. It seems like someone finding confirmation bias because a group more likely to identify with their beliefs has been partially left out (in this case). At least for the "anti-black" case mentioned, here's the case itself: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1604783.html https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1604783.html Reading over the technical part, it seems like an honest mistake. Who's to say everyone doesn't end up affected at some point or another? I agree we always ought to minimize such errors, but they're arguably better than the human alternative (against which many accusations of various biases have been leveled). I think we're more likely to find examples of this because the normal cases (where minority groups aren't affected) aren't litigated as widely.
- tareqak 7y agoNow that there is evidence that this sort of thing can happen, it should be a responsibility of the justice system to have regular audits in place to ensure that it stops happening.
- olliej 7y agoMeanwhile I (a foreigner who has to report every change of address I make) continue to be selected for jury duty and then reply again with “dude I’m a foreigner”
- tareqak 7y agoI can see a reason for it to be the way it (ICE having possible access to a database of foreigners on US soil), but I agree that dealing with repeated problems like this one is exasperating. I think Selective Service does the same thing (occasionally asking foreigners to enlist for US military service by accident).
- sand500 7y ago>occasionally asking foreigners to enlist for US military service Only if there is a draft.
- olliej 7y agoDraft isn’t asking, so maybe it’s periodic “hey would you like to be in the army?”
- Taniwha 7y agoForeigners join the US army all the time, often with the hope of gaining US citizenship
- olliej 7y agoThat may change given the current administration claiming that Defending Freedom and America doesn't make you worthy of being American.
- hermitdev 7y agoRegistering for selective service isn't being drafted, it's adding you name to the registry of those eligible to be drafted, if needed. US males aged 18-25 are compelled to register, under penalty. You must also update the agency in event you move. Despite a recent US SCOTUS ruling that only requiring males to register is unconstitutional, the agency stands by the law as written. See "STATEMENT ON RECENT COURT CASES PERTAINING TO WOMEN AND SELECTIVE SERVICE REGISTRATION" at [1] Selective service also has nothing to do with Jury duty - thats normally driven by voter registration as it tends to be one the most accurate records of who lives in a jurisdiction. I've been of voting age for more than half my life now, and I've yet to be summoned. :shrug: [1] https://www.sss.gov/ https://www.sss.gov/
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Animats 7y agoIt took defense attorneys years to figure this out?
- Meph504 7y agoYou must not know much about public defenders offices, in general they are under funded, and undermanned, and it isn't like there is anyone monitoring the jury composition of every case in the state at any given time. The problem is compounded by youth being the number one group of people who naturally aren't called for jury duty. You have to be registered to vote, or have a drivers lisc. to even be in the pot to be selected as a possible. Young people tend to move around a lot more than other segments of the population, so even if they are called, they may no longer be reachable at the address the state has for them, or they have moved out of state entirely and are no longer eligible to be seated. Many youth, don't have access to reliable transportation to get them to a courthouse even if they are on one of the two list mentioned above. They are also in one of the largest groups of people, who just flat out refuse to show up. You also can't be a felon, you have to be literate, and able to read/write/speak English (This is in Louisiana law.) and considering that Louisiana has roughly a 25% youth illiteracy rate. So it isn't really difficult to see, how this could be overlooked. And honestly, there isn't a chance in hell that a defense attorney noticed this, and more likely one of the many justice reform groups in Louisiana that found this, or received a tip about the issue.
- seniorsassycat 7y agoI've been called once in a decade of being elegable. Seems I should be able to calculate the odds of that happening
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]