Civil Rights

Colo. Pedestrians Nabbed for Jury Duty

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A number of pedestrians in Greeley, Colo., were stunned yesterday to be handed documents requiring them to report immediately for jury duty as they were out and about, attending to their own affairs.

After only 40 of the 200 people summoned for jury duty by mail showed up in court, Weld County and state district court workers handed out subpoenas to more than 50 unsuspecting individuals, according to a local NBC News affiliate.

Some, not surprisingly, were not pleased at the sudden derailment of their plans for at the day. “It’s been one heck of a morning,” says Rosalee Rice, who was nabbed to do her civic duty at the post office and had to call her boss with the news.

She urged fellow citizens who receive calls to jury duty by mail to follow through. “As a resident, if you are summoned to go, you should go because it really interrupts everyone else’s lives,” she says.

Such an emergency call to jury duty, although unusual, is not unheard of: a similar scenario unfolded in Vermont last week, as detailed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post.

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