I have never been on a jury. I've been called to show up several times. Each time, even before we get into the courtroom, they see that my father is a retired police sargeant and they did miss me. The last time I went, they said it had something to do with him being in Internal Affairs. But I think it had to do with the particular case at hand.
I've testified as a witness before. That's fun. A woman had passed a forged check to me at a bank when I was a teller. I was suspicious of her, but her ID and signature matched. Come to find out both were fraudulent. I had to show up and identify the woman.
'Is Ms. X here in the room, Brad?'
'Yes, she is.'
'Can you point to Ms. X?'
'Right there.'
There was a collective gasp in the room. (Okay, there was no gasp, but I pictured it in my mind.)
I made the courtroom laugh, though. I thought that was cool. I was the tenth bank clerk they had seen that day and all involved looked pretty tired. After I was sworn in I said, 'You guys all look like you want to be somewhere else.'
Everyone laughed. Including (and especially) Ms. X.
She later confessed and went to jail. She was like 19 or something.
I'd love to sit on a jury. Lots of places will pay your wages for during your duty.