askchapo

I am well aware of how to avoid it, but does anyone have advice on how to get selected

I've heard they want the most bog standard, boring, ignorant people. You have significant knowledge of the law? Out. You have strong political opinions that you voice? Very likely out. So don't appear terribly informed, don't appear like you're a progressive champion of justice. Act like you're open to being fair to either side but not convinced of anything in particular other than the rightness of the rule of law going in, that you're a blank slate. If it's like a case about a cop shooting someone they'd for example ask your opinion on police and push out anyone who said ACAB or anything even remotely like that. If it's about an oil company they'd ask you about energy and the environment and climate change and push out anyone too strongly negative on the industry. You have to appear to be a void, a robot willing to judge the case totally on the facts they give you and entirely according to the law they present to you. Someone without prior strong opinions.

You definitely have to pretend to not know about jury nullification. Don't ever talk about it in court or with other members of the jury. You can try to persuade other jurors that the specific law that the defendent is accused of having violated is itself an unjust law. But, you cannot talk about jury nullification, which is a not guilty verdict delivered by the entire jury, based on their agreed reasoning that the law in question itself is invalid.

However, if someone reports you to the judge for attempting to persuade the jury to do that, the judge could interrogate you and use their discretion to dismiss you from the jury, declaring a mistrial, and retrying the defendent with a different jury.

You could just simply hold out and insist that the defendent is not guilty, but that will often result in a mistrial if the jury is hung -- cannot reach a unanimous decision, which just leads to a retrial also.

Every time I've been summoned I received notification the day before that I have been dismissed.

You'll be asked questions by prosecution and defense to see if you'd be an asset or liability to the case they plan to build. Before that, maybe by the judge to determine general impartiality. You may not even be a juror, they call way more people than needed in case people present a hardship or such.

Make sure you check the county website the day before to see if you actually have to show up. I got a summons recently and my juror number was listed as not actually required.

"Defendant is accused of decapitating their landlord with a medieval broadsword, allegedly after rent was hiked by $300 per month"

Not guilty.

The first rule about nullification is don't talk about nullification. It will get you and the trial bounced. Here you only get paid for the days you are selected. There's a pool of people. You have to be available for a couple weeks typically. You have a number assigned to you and you'll have to call in the night before to see if there is a jury trial set for the next day.

If there are jury trials scheduled then there will be a 'random' selection of names called up.

They will the prosecutor and defense attorney will grill you to see if you have biases in the case for or against. Like say you don't agree with drug laws. Those can get you tossed. Nothing wrong with that. But the grilling might convince the other people.

You will get a folder with a cliffs note of the relevant law the accused broke. You get a pad you can write notes in - USE IT. You won't remember everything.

ASK QUESTIONS ASAP

You will also get a chance to ask your own questions. After the lawyers are done making their speech if there seems something that is missed or you want to ask of the witness - theres a sheet for that. Give it to the bailiff. The baliff will give the questions to the judge who will then field it with the lawyers to see if its fair game. These questions can be crucial. It is the only time you will get to question the witnesses or accused. So make it count!

A couple of things, first they might just not even select you without an interview. I'm guessing they generate a list of names and just cut it in half because I've seen people get notified they got pulled and then never see a word about it again.

Secondly it could be a years long process depending on the case. Make sure you're really committed to it if you do get selected.

Third, during the selection process, as everyone says here, they're trying to weed out "radicals". You're also under oath during selection meaning lying during it is a crime. The lawyers interviewing you will probably know if you're being purposely vague or deflecting. They will probably look through any public social media you have too and search for public records or news papers for your name. You can also be removed from the jury by the judge after the trial has started, who will almost certainly listen to the prosecutor if asked to do this.

Fourth, the defendant might have actually done something heinous and I don't think the US justice system is really justice but letting violent criminals just walk free also is not really justice. Unfortunately you will almost certainly not be involved in sentencing, just determining guilt, so your only say is in whether or not the defendant is punished or not.

If you get through all of that and still want to try to nullify and you can convince the other jurors I wish you the best of luck.

There's a few websites with more info like Fija.org

Update: fuck I was naive.