Doggone Jury Summons

Jury duty, I've been called for it a bunch of times. Most times the defendants plead at the last minute when they realized they had made it to a judge’s calendar and I didn’t have to serve. One time I actually made it to voir dire but was dismissed. When I was querying my husband for blog topics, as I often do, he mentioned an unusual jury summons. One court in New Jersey summoned a German shepherd for jury duty. Of course dogs aren't allowed to serve on juries (you have to be a human and at least 18 years of age) and a computer was blamed for sending the dog the summons in error. Too bad because I wouldn't mind being on a jury with a dog. Dogs are pretty empathetic and if the evidence produced in court was too graphic or upsetting the dog would be there to offer comfort. Dogs don’t need sequestering either and they aren't that expensive to feed so the taxpayer could save a buck or two on lunches if they were allowed on a jury. I've also found dogs to be pretty good judges of character, despite what theories the lawyers for the prosecution or defense come up with. I’d find it easier to accept a dog’s judgment any day of the week. Having a dog or two on the jury might just make cases finish quicker and since the constitution guarantees a speedy trial (along with the presumption of innocence) some of the backlog could be eliminated. In this case the owner of the summoned dog contacted the court and cleared up the matter which was a good thing, I guess, because I’d hate to find that the pup was picked up for failure to appear.