I used to think that most of the people who failed to show for jury service were those who just didn't want to be bothered. Now I believe that most people do honor their jury summons if they receive it.

My view changed when we ran out of veniremen while trying to pick a jury. Typically in that county only 1/3 of those summoned appear for jury service. It was 5 pm, so the def. atty. asked the court to order the sheriff to try to find the scofflaws who failed to appear, before dragooning talismen to serve on our panel, and the court agreed.

The next morning, 5 "scofflaws" showed up, along with a bunch of talismen. The Sheriff explained he could only find these five, because many of the people who had failed to show had moved or had died.

Of the 5 scofflaws, one was a very, very old man in a walker, who took his exemption, one was a mother with a new born, who took her exemption, one was a fellow who had been working off shore and had just come home the night before, and 2 were just guys who didn't want to be bothered. None of them made it on the panel after strikes were made.

I believe half the people on the venire list are drawn from registered voter rolls and the other half are drawn from D/L and state ID's. Young people tend to move much more often than middle aged people, and are less likely to be registered to vote. Thus their addresses are far more likely to be out of date than are older people and is a major reason why they are underrepresented on jury panels.

As for jury panels not coinciding with the demographics of a county, I think that is a major non-problem that govt. need not waste any more time or money worrying about.