Carrying out the first step in a crackdown on Fulton County residents who skip out on jury duty, sheriff's deputies are finding some have pretty good reasons:
Many don't live where the summons was sent. Some are dead. At least one person summoned is in jail.
During the past week deputies set out to serve the first 200 orders compelling no-shows to appear in court and explain why they ducked their civic duty. Superior Court judges launched the effort, hoping to reverse a culture in which would-be jurors shrug off summonses without fear of consequences.
So far, though, almost half of the orders have turned out to be for invalid names and addresses, according to data provided by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office. In 22 cases, there was no building at the address, and in six cases structures were vacant.
Only a quarter of the orders have been served. Sheriff's spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan said many people are telling deputies they didn't know they were summoned.
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The early results back up some experts' suspicions that apathy isn't the only cause of Fulton's dismal no-show rate, at times as high as 50 percent. The rate is far worse than in surrounding counties and well above the national rate of 9 percent.
Jury consultants have told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they suspect Fulton has been working with a flawed juror list.
"It's shocking," attorney and consultant Denise de La Rue said of what deputies have encountered. "It proves that sending stuff by mail to those who aren't responding doesn't work."
Superior Court Administrator Yolanda Lewis did not immediately return messages seeking comment Friday.
After sending 30,000 warning letters and giving scofflaws all of May to stop by the courthouse and set a new service date without penalties, the county still has some 8,700 people in its bull's-eye to be brought before a judge. If found in contempt of court, they face fines of up to $500 and up to 20 days in jail.
Ann Miller, of Roswell, said the county sent three summonses to her house earlier this year -- one for her husband, one for her son and one for a woman who grew up in their house and hasn't lived there for at least 22 years. Her husband complied and her son got excused because he has moved, but Miller said she didn't bother informing the court of its mistake with the third summons.
"No, I just laughed," she said. "When you call government offices, it's a pain to even get someone live to talk to."
Of the orders deputies have tried to deliver, they found 11 were for people who died, though whether they died before or after the court tried to bring them in for jury duty is unclear.
Such problems are expected to improve when a new statewide jury pool launches next month, under a new state law. It will be annually updated with driver records, voter registration lists and death records.
As for the 51 no-shows who have been handed orders, they're to appear in court on July 12.
"You don't want to do the massive cattle call," said Paula Hannaford-Agor, director of the National Center for State Courts' Center for Jury Studies, "but sometimes you have to if you've been ignoring it for years."
Elizabeth Munson, of north Buckhead, avoided the roundup by reporting to the courthouse on the final day of "amnesty month." She said she can't recall her reasons for missing a jury duty date in November, after serving three times in the past.
The crackdown seems extreme, Munson said. There should be another amnesty offer first, she said.
"If you're a repeat offender," she said, "then, yeah, go after them with the big guns."
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