My daughter was recently sent a notice to report for Jury Duty. Unfortunately, she has a form of High Functioning Autism. She also looks and behaves on a much younger lever than her chronological age. Anxiety is a prominent feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
I could not imagine how she could sit through Jury Duty and "judge" someone with this diagnosis. She is very intelligent and creative. The problem with Autism is a lack of "interpretation of reality". This is not a good condition to have when judging someone on trial for whatever reason.
I could not have imagined how the County discovered her as she does not have a driver's license or an IRS statement. The one thing was that she applied for Voter Registration while in school. I read that this is one of the items they go by to call you.
With the crime rate so high in certain counties in NJ and the increase in crime here in general, over the years, there is a high demand for numerous jurors obviously. There does not seem to be enough of a population of "eligible" jurors available unfortunately.
I was able to get her excused with a letter from her DDD Case Manager. It was not logical to subject my daughter to the tough judicial system, especially because she is so innocent and naive. She would not have lasted long and probably would have broken down, which is part of her condition.
It is too bad we do not have a better way of going about our judicial process and not depend on people who are not literate in the legal system. Instead of random people picked against their will and forced into this because of a claim that "it is their duty to judge"...we should have people chosen willingly, who have an interest, who are educated to some level about our laws, and who are more qualified to pass judgment.
This would make the cases flow through the system more quickly and fluently and save money. The money saved could be used to pay a livable wage to these jurors.
Our legal system needs to be updated and more innovative.
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