In the Us there are different levels of courts, county/city, state and federal.

Jury Duty is mandatory in the US. I have been called for Jury Duty numerous times for the County I live in.

Each county has different procedures. One county I lived in gave you a number and I was required you to call a phone number every monday and the message would list the range of numbers that had to report.

I had to report on two different cases and in both cases I got removed from the jury Pool by the Void Dire process.

How the Void Dire Process worked in that county was there was a court room full of potential Jurors who each got a number and the judge would ask questions like. “Do you know anyone involved?”, “have you read anything about this case?” Do you work in law enforcement?”. You would raise your number hand and the judge would bring you up and clarify.

One case was a wrongful firing case a doctor brought against his previous practice and the Void Dire process had selected the 12 Jurors and three alternates before my number came up.

The second case was a murder trial and after the Void Dire Process I was the third alternate. the juror was composed of 12 members and three alternates. I guess the defense did not like somethign about me so they just had the judge remove me.

How that Void Dire worked is that the judge could remove any potential Juror and the defense and Prosecution could remove up to three.

In the current county I live in I got called up and there was maybe 50 of us sitting in a room waiting to get assigned to cases and we sat there for about 4 hours and the Court Clerk announced that all trials scheduled for the day had either been rescheduled or reached plea agreements so we were all released.

Though I have never been called up for a Grand Jury, I know two people who have. I think a Grand Jury is only a state level thing in the state I live in. That process is fucking nuts. The Jury consists of 18 people and you have to do one day a week for three months.

In a Grand Jury, only the prosecution presents evidence and they jury decides if there is enough evidence to go to trial. Its weird..it is nothing but a rubber stamp.

I have never been called to a Federal Court or known anyone who has.

Beyond the Void Dire process there are other reasons you can be released from Jury Duty. My wife got called up and she had a surgery scheduled for that day, so I took a copy of the surgery “appointment” slip to the Court Clerk and he told me she was released on the spot.