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up vote 13 down vote favorite

The last time I was summoned for jury duty it was mid-week in January, and I made a point of telling the lawyers during questioning that I would have to be home before sunset on Friday. They were not concerned (and I was picked for the jury, and they settled the case an hour later so it ended up not mattering). A friend was recently seated on a jury where the trial ran longer than anticipated and they convened court on Saturday. My understanding is that they were told, not asked, about this scheduling. This made me wonder how one ought to handle this as a juror. I would hope that the answer is not "always try to get out of jury duty" because this is an important civic obligation that we should take seriously if we can do it without violating halacha.

So my question is: how do courts handle trials that run into Shabbat where somebody on the jury cares, and what is the right thing to do as a prospective juror?

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I was in a jury pool of a famous criminal trial, for which the defendant was found to be guilty and served time. Prior to the trial, the potential jurors were told that they would be sequestered so that they could be protected and isolated so that no media could influence the jurors. I told the judge that while I could attend the trial, I could not travel. I was dismissed. Parenthetically, a friend of mine told me to look in the mirror every morning to make sure I wouldn't care if my family member might be among the missing, such was the reputation of the defendant. – Norman Kabak Mar 13 '12 at 21:52
@NormanKabak, thanks for sharing that. Where possible I want to sit on juries, not find ways out, so if it's possible to work with the court to resolve the issues I want to do so. I want to sit in part because it's my obligation as a citizen and in large part because if the situation were reversed I would want analytical people like me (and, I suspect, most folks on JL&L :-) ) on the jury. – Monica Cellio♦ Mar 14 '12 at 3:27

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up vote 11 down vote accepted

I was in a jury pool on a winter Friday and told the bailiff that I would need to leave early. The judge brought up the issue publicly and said that she would not want me to miss out on such an important privilege because of my religious requirements. She dismissed the entire pool at 3:00. Needless to say, I was highly popular that day.

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up vote 10 down vote

I just read this super-inspiring post "Jury Duty: A Piece of Kugel". In short, talk to the judge...

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An excellent link! – DanBeale Sep 25 '11 at 14:56
Thank you. Is there an ethical concern with waiting until the jury is seated (thus forcing the judge's hand) if I know of the problem up front (which this blogger did not)? – Monica Cellio♦ Sep 25 '11 at 15:43
@MonicaCellio Sounds like a separate question to ask. (and one that I don't know the answer to) – yydl Sep 27 '11 at 22:04

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