Bailing on jury duty will lead to severe consequences

NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- Being summoned for jury duty may not be everyone’s favorite thing to do, but being there on that court date is required by law. In Noxubee County circuit court officials have had to delay cases when people don’t show up for jury duty.

A jury summons requires the person to be at the courthouse on time.  Missing those dates may allow serious cases to drag on and on.

“If you receive a jury summons you need to start taking this seriously before our judges in this county start making examples out of somebody,” said Freda Phillips the circuit clerk of Noxubee County.

“It’s going to delay it four months. It’s a very serious crime the charges are the murder of a young lady and attempted murder of a young child,” said Noxubee County district attorney Scott Colom.

Colom said the delay is usually longer for his county.

“I mean it’s been two years or more we only have court twice a year here in Noxubee which is another reason why you can’t delay because it’s not like you have a bunch of other options,” said Colom.

Not showing up for jury summons typically results in someone having to appear in court to explain why they missed, and in Noxubee, they are implementing even more punishment.

“There will be a letter that will be sent out with the Summons to let the people know how serious this really is because there’s a 500 dollar fine plus 3 days in the county jail,” said Phillips.

Phillips said being summoned to jury duty isn’t as bad as people think. But not showing up affects the county, the court, the victim, the accused, and law enforcement.

“A juror shows up on a Monday morning they will be paid once they are sworn in by the judge and they will play for that day of service, but when you get ready to start the trial and you don’t have enough to even start it the county has gone into a great loss of money,” said Phillips.

Colom encourages prospective jurors to try and imagine what it would be like on the other side.

“Everybody just needs to understand that they have a responsibility. If their loved one was accused of a crime they would want a jury of peers to be able to determine if they are innocent or guilty,” said Colom.

The Noxubee County Sheriff will now begin self-delivering summons to people’s door to get people in their seats on jury day.