Jury Duty Is Involuntary Servitude

How does the government get away with forcing its citizens to spend time against their will in involuntary servitude with payment far below the legal limit in the service of the legal system?

How does the legal system justify eliciting the forced service of dozens of its citizens at any one time, at a tremendous financial loss to its participants, in the interest of adjudicating, more times than not, in petty crimes?

I have just completed one week of forced labor, better known as jury duty. I knew that there was a serious problem when, during new jurors’ introduction, a videotape of a judge was shown, which explained that the jury system was installed in the 12th century. The judge argued that the present system (reminder: a system more than 850 years old) was far better than the previous system. This was then followed by veiled threats that jurors must always be on time or risk fines or who knows what else. What equitable system uses such bully tactics?

Which brings me to my final questions. Why do we need 12 jurors? Why not six or four? Because it has been done this way for more than 850 years? Why don’t we hire full-time jurors?

Under our present system, the the only people who can be jurors are the ones who can afford it--because their employers will continue to pay them--the ones who have ample free time--retirees or the unemployed. If you are going to be docked wages or are self-employed and will lose money by not working, you can be excused from jury duty.

There is a serious problem here. Our legal system is supposedly what this country is based on and it’s hemorrhaging waste and abuse and defacing personal liberties. It may be the best system in the world but if this is the best we can do, we are in serious trouble.