Should I serve my jury duty?

You’ve gotten a jury duty notice. Certainly, you can get out of jury duty. Most anyone can, but should you? Consider this. On the side of our courthouse is etched these words, “To effect the safety and happiness of the people, let safety be the supreme law.”

Now, what does this have to do with jury duty? Throughout our legal history in both civil and criminal cases, the jury has been considered the conscience of our community, a protector and dispenser of justice. As a juror, you will be a representative of our community on the jury with men and women from different educational backgrounds, economic status, different walks of life. Together, you will sit and hear the facts of a civil or criminal case, and this will involve rights that are important to our communities and our country. On such issues, we believe, as a country, that a jury’s collective decision reflects our decency and moral values more accurately than the opinion of an individual judge.

Jurors are considered the backbone of our judicial branch of government. It’s not about the lawyers or the judge. It is about the jurors, the common sensed decent American people with an overarching sense of duty. What do you wish for the standards of safety in our community? Do you care about this at all? You should because the safety of our community depends on good folks like you exercising their right to serve on a jury, and this may be the only opportunity, the only chance you get in your lifetime to serve your community and your country in this way. I hope you get picked.