Harris Interactive conducted a online poll about jury service in December 2007. The findings include the following:
* "Two-thirds (65%) of Americans have been called to serve jury duty, two-thirds of that (68%) actually attended, leaving one-third (32%) who did not.
* Of those who have attended jury duty, just over half (55%) have actually served on a jury.
* The more education one has, the more likely one seems able to avoid serving on a jury.
* A majority (58%) of adults say people on trial have a jury that is fair and impartial all or most of the time while one in five (21%) say the jury is fair and impartial occasionally. Just eight percent say juries are rarely or never fair and impartial. There is a racial disparity in this belief. Almost two-thirds (63%) of Whites and over half (55%) of Hispanics believe people who are on trial have a jury that is fair and impartial all or most of the time compared to just 37 percent of Blacks.
* Half of Americans (50%) would trust a jury to give a fair verdict while just under one-quarter (23%) would trust a judge and 27 percent are not sure."
See all the results here.
Thanks to www.juryblog.com for advising me about the poll.