I got called for jury duty four times:
- First was in the mid-90s when I was in college. The letter went to my house. My parents wrote a letter back saying I was in college and unable to serve. That's the last I ever heard about that.
- Second was in 2000 or 2001. I was working in Medina, Ohio. I forget if it was Medina County or Medina City that called me. Either way, it's supposed to be a week long. "Call this number Sunday night and get directions on how to serve." So I called. "We don't need you tomorrow. Call back tomorrow." So I called back the next day. "We don't need you. Never call us again."
- Third was in Cuyahoga County. About 2017. "Show up at this time on Monday." So I did. And I sat and sat and sat. A huge group of us in a room kinda like a library. Full of other nerds called for jury duty. Every once in a while we'd get someone who'd randomly call out 20 or so names. I think those blokes were executed - I never saw them again. Friday about noon they said, "We don't like you. Go home."
- Fourth was also in Cuyahoga County. I think it was 2020, because the room that we used before was closed off from us. Now we had about 4 times as much space. Covid rules, or something. This time, they said, "Call us Sunday night. We'll give you directions." So I called. "We don't want you, yet. Call back tomorrow." Monday night, same thing. Finally, Tuesday, I'm told to go in. "Finally - I'm going to get to be on a jury and actually do something. They wouldn't call us in if they didn't have a jury for us." Wrong - I just sat for 3 days. Bor-ring.
My wife served once, though. Just once, and she got on a jury. She said it was a case where some guy was accused of robbing a bank. Or maybe it was just an ATM. But he tried defending himself. I guess the judge was like, "that's a bad idea." Anyway, he was on camera, and she said it was pretty obvious it was him. I think his defense was that it couldn't have been him robbing the bank, because he was on camera robbing this other bank at the exact same time. I think she said the jury never retired to vote on anything, but I forget that part.