Ahhh, yes, the joys of living in Baltimore City. In what appears to be an annual tradition, I have yet again been summoned for jury duty. The summons is not until 27 August, but given that the City of Baltimore calls about 3 times more people than actually needed for jury duty I think it is a safe bet that I will spend the day downtown. Given that I am white, male, affluent, and educated, the likelihood that I will actually serve is slim, but you never know.
To the rest of my fellow citizens, thanks for being jury duty scofflaws and virtually guaranteeing the appearance of an annual summons in my mailbox.
I get to go on Monday. I stopped at Barnes and Noble to buy books on China to read for my trip while I sit there. Yay.
It’s an epidemic. My roommate was just sent a summons – a week before she moves to NY. Two years as a Baltimore resident – she just narrowly escaped her civic duty.
You’d be a terrible juror – you might actually base your verdict on the facts of the case as presented!
I’ve been here for six years, including being registered to vote, and never have I been summoned. Until yesterday. It’s just a questionaire, though, that I have to return in five days. Even though I’ve lamented the fact before that I’ve never done jury duty, I’m going to try to excuse myself via the “work is of public necessity” route. I can’t imagine missing school for that.
I’ve never been called for jury duty. The strange thing is that my friend (who is similar in age and length-of-time-registered) has been called 3-4 times in the past few years. I think there’s a limit to how many times you can be called in a 5 year period… I think he’s either there or has exceeded it.
I’ve also been called twice in the past 5 years.
Broadsheet: Enjoy your hanging around for the day. It is such a pain. I am all for civic duty, but jury duty in Baltimore just plain sucks. At least there is the wireless access in the one office/room.
danielle: It would appear to be my luck to get called once a year. And that has happened since about 2002. I missed 2002 and 2003 due to travel for work at the time I was called. Since 2004, I have been called at least once a year. As for your roomie, I am not surprised.
Alex: I think they get around the times of service by claiming that in the city they need to expand the number of available jurors since no one else appears when they are summoned.