Jury Duty

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What do you do when you get Jury Duty?

Has anyone been on a Jury? Did you run into any difficulties?

Is it necessary to reveal you have ASD?

I was interested in asking this question to see how other people on the spectrum deal with this issue. My concern was if we make good jurors or is this just another thing that differs from person to person.

It will take a long time, so bring any medication you use.
Only bring a notepad,pencil or pen, no literature.
make sure you take your medication before getting on the stand, otherwise you might find yourself yelling out words you will regret later.

Let them bring up the top of ASD, answer truthfully. they may bring up a list of medications that disqualify prospective jurors, answer those questions truthfully

To my knowledge, you are exempt from jury duty if you are on the spectrum. At least that's how it is where I live.

I served on a jury for a drunk driving case. The DA, before jury selection, was questioning everyone on their understanding of innocent until proven guilty. He stated repeatedly that as a DA he didn't have to prove anything because the assumption was his client was innocent. It was up to the prosecutor to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The DA was not getting many responses to his statement, so he singled me out to paraphrase. I think I was chosen as a juror because I did this effectively.

The trial itself wasn't too troublesome for me. I forced myself to take notes (using paper and pencil the court provided) to make sure I didn't zone out (which I often do). We were shown pictures and diagrams and listened to several witnesses before being excused to deliberate. My examination of the proposed sequence of events actually swayed the opinion of the other jurors. The suggested sequence didn't make sense with how the suspect was found and in the end the jurors agreed with me. I don't believe AS hindered my experience.

There will be a selection process that will vary depending on where you are and what kind of court and trial it is. Expect to be asked questions about your experiences and opinions. Nothing real personal but just things that might have some bearing on the case.
You may or may not be selected.
You may have to call in every day for a week (give or take) and see if you have to report for a jury.




I served on a criminal jury. No difficulties.



I’d say only tell them if they ask.
The exception would be if you are severely afflicted then it would be best to at least tell them.



Yeah, it’s going to vary from person to person.
You’ll need to be able to stay seated and listen up to the proceedings, though.

I think most of us can probably be effective jurors, but it's not out of the realm of possibility not to be able to do it because of an ASD.

I got a notice for jury duty a couple of weeks ago; I replied, but a week ago, I moved to a different county. I have no idea if they still want me to, as I've not heard from them. I did leave a forwarding address, so any return letter should've reached me.

If you moved, you should let them know. Most service is done by county, so you would not serve in a county where you no longer live.

As for the overall question, I don't think AS by itself is a disqualifier. But, if you want it to be, you might be able to make that work. I assume you have to use the process for a medical excuse, which in my county has to be done BEFORE you get a notice to appear. I am planning on asking my doctor for a letter about my hearing loss, because I think defendents deserve to be heard accurately and properly, and during my last appearance I realized that I was having a lot of difficulty hearing. You don't exactly have the luxury of raising your hand and saying, "sorry, I didn't hear that!" from the jury box and because this hearing loss developed later in life, I do not read lips or know sign language.

I was excused from Jury Service because I've got AS. It will vary from person to person whether we make good jurors or not, and whether we can cope with jury duty at all. As well as having poor social skills I also have very severe social anxiety/social inhibition and selective mutism which would make it impossible for me to take part because you have to be able to interact with the other jurors to deliberate the case.
I don't think you have to tell them you are on the spectrum, unless you think it's going to cause problems for you. But if you don't want to do the jury duty or if you don't feel able to do it then you can be excused on the grounds that you have an ASD. It might help, in that case, if you can get a professional to write a letter backing you up.

Yep, I did put a note on there about me going to move in a couple of days.

I've served on a civil case, but since they've done the call-in system, I only had to actually go in once, on a Friday. I was actually done before noon on that day because most of the cases that were looking for jurors settled, so we were dismissed. At the time I actually served on that jury, I wasn't formally diagnosed with Asperger's, so if I was going to be dismissed, it would have been for some other reason. Now that I have my diagnosis, unless they specifically ask, I'm not going to mention my AS because it doesn't interfere with my ability to serve on a jury. If someone were to ask, then I would have to disclose my diagnosis in order to avoid an accusation of perjury.

State that you support the right of jury nullification.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification

Otherwise, do what I did: tell them you are prone to adopting arbitrary prejudices and making assumptions based strictly on how amusing they are at the time.

A more respectful method is to state that you do not recognize the right of anyone to sit in judgment over anyone else.

I went even further along those lines, by stating that I do not recognize the court as one which has any right to exist, due to the claim that it is empowered both by an imaginary deity, and the U.S. government. The first claim being vacuous is bad enough, but the second claim requires ignoring the incompatibility of the modern U.S. government when cast against the principles upon which it claims to exist. Thus making me unable to take part willfully in any precedings or matters related to it.

I must ask: If you do not recognize the U.S. justice system or the government, then how do you manage paying taxes and using all of those things the government provides? Serving on a jury is your civic duty, and if you do not wish to do it there are plenty of places in the world where they won't request you do. If the U.S. government is so problematic, then what efforts have you taken to change the way it works?

I am an unwitting participant. I recognize that I benefit from the arbitrary location of my birth, I pay taxes as it is contributing for services I make use of, that is appropriate. I avoid breaking laws strictly as a way to avoid conflict.

I do not owe anyone anything to the point where I am obligated to sit in judgment of another person, that is not my right, and it is not the right of anyone else to sit in judgment over me. It is a ridiculous system, but sadly it is what we are stuck with due to quirks of history.

I work on small scales, I attempt to raise awareness of certain things, that the way things are is not the only way they could be, is not how they have always been, and is not arbitrarily more correct than any other possibility.

I would vote if I had any illusion that it mattered, but voting for two sides of the same coin is foolish at best if you disagree with the system by definition. The differences between the two main parties, and the differences between my views are utterly incompatible.

I took a political spectrum test once, apparently I sit where Ghandi and the Dalai Lama do on most things.

Which is weird, because the only solution I can see to the current quagmire is to become a supervillain, colonize an asteroid in a high elliptical orbit, and send out robotic drones to deliver two things: an ultimatum to stop being as*holes and find a better system of government, or if that fails to deliver meteors to every major capital on the planet.

people of the jury. im voting guilty everytime so dont pick me, thank you.

I was picked for a murder trial jury 6 years ago. One of the worst experiences of my entire life. Everyone in the room was yelling at me, I melted down - there is NO PLACE TO GO - you are locked in that room. I was crying, I asked to get out and we were granted a 10 MINUTE break only and then back into that room. Men were yelling at me and standing very close to me pounding their fists on the table and telling me I had to vote the way they wanted because they all wanted to get back to work and all these stupid reasons - they didn't care about the person on trial or if he was guilty or not. It was just an inconvenience to them that they had to be there.

I was the last hold out and I held out as long as I could but on the last total meltdown I agreed to vote with them. I'm still ashamed of myself for not being able to stick to the principle - even as we argued the mob agreed with me that it was self defense - that if nothing had happened (a gun went off) and the movie had continued to play - frame by frame - what would have been the result in three frames or so? they all agree that the person who fired the gun would have been killed instead. It was clear cut self defense. The defendant was black, jury all white, they made fun of him at breaks even tho we were instructed to not say a word to each other about the trial until deliberations time.

And they all made fun of the defendant's lawyer. Like since they didn't like him they should just vote guilty and that would show him. It was worse that grade school in their thinking.

Anyway, I got called again a few months ago, could hardly believe it, showed up, got all the way through the process all the way to sitting in the jury box AGAIN - get this - IN THE EXACT SAME SEAT I was in before! I was having panic attacks for weeks before I had to go, sure I'd be cut loose but it just kept going on and I wasn't being released. I was rocking in my jury chair and putting my head in my hands on my knees just thinking "get me out of here". I flat out told everyone I did not want to be here, I had gone through this terrible murder trial before, I would make it miserable for everyone if I was held against my will and forced to participate in this one...... they let me go.

I can't tell you how much I hate jury duty.

The last time I didn't even know I was an Aspie. This time I told them and no one cared They did care that I would be a troublesome juror tho and the prosecution was the one who voted to dismiss me.

I used to work for a federal law enforcement agency so I'm wasn't allowed to be called for jury duty. It's been 7 years since I left and still never received a summons so I am wondering if my time there has struck me off the list for jury duty permanently. I guess there is always a chance that cases I worked on still could make their way to the courts even after all these years.