Texas Man Jailed For Dodging Jury Duty

Chris | InformationLiberation
Nov. 05, 2012

Is forcing someone under duress to "serve" on a jury against their will a recipe for justice?

Via CBS Dallas / Fort Worth:
TARRANT COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) – A North Texas man pushed his luck one too many times trying to avoid jury duty. Efforts to avoid doing his civic duty have landed Jose Bocanegra Jr. behind bars.

The Mansfield resident spent months either making up excuses for not attending jury duty or simply not showing up.

"He tried to get disqualified by stating he was a felon — that got denied," Jury Bailiff Paula Morales recalled. "He tried to get excused by claiming he was the caretaker of an invalid. We couldn't substantiate that, so that was denied."

On one occasion Bocanegra actually reported for jury duty, but after checking in, he left minutes later. That's when a bench warrant for his arrest was issued.

[...]One day after the warrant was issued the 20-year-old stood before Judge Wayne Salvant, in handcuffs. The judge found him in contempt.

"The judge told him he wasn't taking his jury duty seriously, considering his history. So he sentenced him to five days in the county jail," Morales said of the hearing.

When the judge asked him why he hadn't served Bocanegra told him line was too long and he didn’t feel like waiting. So now he'll wait in jail.

[...]When asked Thursday night why he kept fighting jury duty, Bocanegra said “I didn’t want to because it’s all the way in Fort Worth – way out of the way.”


How is forcing this man to "serve," when he does not want to "serve," in any way in the interest of justice? Would this entirely disinterested young man really make a good juror?

In the recent highly publicized Apple v Samsung case, the jurors, all of whom were drafted into jury slavery, clearly rushed the case and did not dole out any "justice." Despite predictions the case would last for months due to the complexity of the issues, the case ended in three days, and ended with a horrible decision which hurt consumers by reducing consumer choice.

People being drafted into jury slavery are quite simply not good jurors, the same as people drafted into war make for horrible soldiers, or the same as slaves sold to a plantation owner make for poor field workers. Mr. Bocanegra has no desire to "serve" his country, he has no interest in being a juror, yet the state feels compelled to force him to take part in some trial where some poor sap's life is on the line. That's not a "justice" system, that's a charade.
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