Jury Duty

     Many people may have wondered about what jury duty actually is or even what it would be like to participate in, but in order to have even the basic understanding of what it would be like, you have to know what the role of the jury is. To start, the term jury duty means that you have been chosen to be a juror for an upcoming case and you are expected to follow through with it, because serving jury duty is actually one of the responsibilities/duties of a United States citizen. Many people actually do enjoy being called for jury duty, because it open your eyes to the courts and the systems they use in such situations, it educates you and in a way forces you to become involved at the issue at hand. In order to be called for jury duty you have to fall in to certain criterion that makes you eligible for the position. For example, you have to be 18 years of age and a U.S. citizen.

            The role of a juror can be one filled with pressure, as the jury as a whole holds an important position; they essentially make the final decision. As a juror, you are to use your best judgment, common sense, and refer to all of the given evidence and viewpoints in order to make the best choice possible. The jury does not interpret the law or interrupt its functions in any way; instead they listen, decide, and go off the given evidence that is mentioned in the actual case itself. While the case is being presented to the judge and jury, the jury members may take notes on what they are seeing and hearing, and may pass notes to the foreman of the jury to request to the judge that something be discussed in further detail. All these factors presented determine which way the jury will lean to when it comes time to deliver a verdict.

     If and when a court case drags out for days at a time, when the case is adjourned for the day, the jurors can deliberate that day’s information with each other in private in order to discuss their thoughts and hear different viewpoints from the other jurors.

            The two dominant types of actual juries are the Petit jury and the Grand jury, both serving different intentions. Serving in a Petit jury means that you will go and hear either a criminal case or a civil case and each case has different requirements. In a criminal case, 12 jurors are required, as opposed to a civil case where only 8 jurors are needed. In a Petit jury on a criminal case, the jury must find the defendant either guilty or not guilty only by a unanimous vote. This jury is responsible for deciding, based on what they were given in the case if the defendant should be further “punished” or not. In the act of reaching a verdict in a civil case, only three fourths of the jury must agree on an answer.

            A Grand jury is very different from a Petit jury, because the Grand jury is only responsible for hearing the evidence given within the court case and then deciding if the defendant should be “indicted” and further trialed. This jury usually will serve for a longer period of time when compared to a Petit jury, because these cases are usually presented more in depth. The Grand jury is not, in any way, responsible for deciding the guilt or innocence of the person on trial, it is not their responsibility.

            Currently, in the United States, we have different types of courts including Federal and State, to which each has smaller more in-depth courts. The federal court refers to the court on a national level, where state courts only correspond within specific states and they are not all the same. Jury duty can completely depend on how a certain state’s court system is set up.