I subscribe to Google Alerts related to jury duty. Over the past few months I’ve collected a number of links from these alerts, which might interest those of you who—like me—are addicted to courtroom drama.

Juror Stress and Misconduct

Reports of the horrors and risks of jury duty are numerous. Here are a few particularly interesting ones.

• Minot, ND, murder trial: http://www.truveo.com/Murder-Trial-Jury-Duty-is-Difficult/id/72057615580291407 
• Boredom in Oregon: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article6386708.ece 
• California conflicted: http://www.miamiherald.com/2009/12/03/1364345/enduring-jury-duty-when-the-right.html 
• Sympathetic defendants: http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/247548
• http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/jan/25/juror-who-committed-misconduct-jaeger-trial-wont-t/ 
• http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/01/28/1047063/mistrial-declared-after-jurors.html 
• http://www.themeat.org/2010/02/11/on-jury-duty 
• Juror Journalism, juror’s profiting: http://www.jstor.org/pss/40239426 
• Fired jurors: http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/trial-procedure-jury-trial/13951735-1.html
• http://everythingoverrice.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-civic-duty.html

Involuntary Servitude

In addition to the above discussions of why a sane person might not want to be a juror are these related reports:

• Student jurors: http://www.mndaily.com/2009/12/07/courts-accommodate-student-jurors 
• Nevada public access to jury forms: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/dec/24/supreme-court-media-has-right-jury-questionnaires/ 

Jury Selection

Most people seem to find the jury-selection process unreasonable:

• http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/dec/08/jury-selection-begins-in-eldorado-for-trial-of/
• http://missoulian.com/news/national/article_97cb8691-5052-5221-9d89-bf85fa2e9cf4.html 
• http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/ayh0g/why_is_it_legal_for_a_judge_or_prosecutor_to/

Bizarre Courtroom Behavior

• New York City, bail-jumping trial: http://zoonormous.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/my-crazy-first-stint-of-jury-duty/ 

Juries outside America

Juries in other countries play slightly different roles in a trial, but that doesn’t seem to change the jury experience very much:

• Spain: http://www.roundtownnews.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18398&Itemid=38 
• Canada: http://jmortonmusings.blogspot.com/2010/02/re-jury-vetting.html
• UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/26/juries-internet-justice
• UK: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23806699-jurors-do-not-understand-legal-issues.do
• UK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/7261668/I-find-the-jury-innocent-of-nearly-all-charges.html
• Hong Kong: https://lawlib.wlu.edu/works/434-1.pdf
• Juries and Junk Science
• http://scienceblogs.com/drugmonkey/2009/02/why_scientists_hate_jury_duty.php 
• http://juries.typepad.com/juries/2010/02/new-law-review-articles.html

Jury Books

Lawyers seem to be obsessed with understanding the way their fellow human beings make decisions:

• Secrets of the Jury Room: http://www.themonthly.com.au/books-julian-burnside-one-box-twelve-exposed-men-and-women-039secrets-jury-room039-malcolm-knox-91
• Psychology of jury instructions
• The Skeptical Juror

Jury-related websites

• http://juries.typepad.com/juries/
• http://juryexperiences.org/
• http://www.solicitr.com/about-2/ 
• Alameda County Video Overview: http://www.cccba.org/comm/jury.pdf 

The following article caught my attention, because in Cook County, IL, where I live, grand jurors are selected at random from a pool, just like petit jurors:

Grand Jury Applications: http://www.insidebayarea.com/crime-courts/ci_14374440?source=rss