What do I need to know before I show up for jury duty?
If you are call for Jury Duty there are some thing that are absolutely essential that you have to know before you show up for Jury Duty. The most important you need to know is that you are going in as an individual and your primary job is to protect the human rights of whomever on trial. But let me say this; if the person on trial is a violent person and is a danger to society then your job is to protect the community form that individual the best way you can by making sure they are not going to be at large to hurt anybody else, because probably hurt somebody. You must remember this; you must remember as you go in you must know that the person is innocent until to proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Take with you a healthy degree of scepticism about all the witnesses in the case and remember that even forensic evidence is not always correct and remember that you have a brain, you are intelligent and you can think as well as the judge or anyone else and really, really remember that you must render a verdict based on your conscience, your own sense of justice, your sense of right and wrong. Don't be swayed by anyone else on the jury, don't be swayed by what the prosecutor says to you – I don't care if the defendant cries, or their mother cries. You are the one who must make a decision, independently, as an individual, using your own best thinking and using your best sense of justice.
