Facts about Juries

Each year, approximately

3 million people

1.2 million people

• 15-20% of people commit the crime of refusing to respond to a jury summons

• Others might fall under some of the exemptions from jury service (such as being an attorney, or if jury duty would cause unusual financial hardship)

• Some people who show up for jury service might not be assigned to a trial

• Out of those assigned to a trial, some might be excused by an attorney because of possible prejudices or biases

  
  

  

  Payment for jury duty on the state level varies according to county. While most of them are around the $5/day mark, federal courts boast $20/day. The cheapest county (for state juries) is in South Carolina, paying only two dollars a day. Compare that to the generous $40/day paid by Massachusett's Middlesex County. Juror pay costs a total of $200 million dollars annually.

  The rolls of potential jurors come from many sources, including:

  • voter registrations

  • driver's licenses

  • tax records

  Interestingly enough, approximately 10% of defendents in state courts opt for bench trials , in which no jury is present. In such instances, the judge determines guilt or innocence.

  ---

  Special thanks to the Chicago Jury Project and Seymour Wishman, author of the book Anatomy of a Jury , for providing this data.

  ---

  Go to next fact sheet

  Go to next chapter

  Return to table of contents

  Return to home page

  Graphical bars used with permission and taken from the CD-ROM accompanying the Que Corporation book Using HTML by Tom Savola.