Sheriff Steps in After 140 People Skip Jury Duty

A Georgia sheriff says he had to get involved when nearly three-fourths of people summoned for jury duty in his county failed to show up for court, the AP reports. Courts in Laurens County faced a small crisis last week when only 60 people showed up for jury duty out of 200 who were mailed subpoenas. Sheriff Larry Dean had deputies make calls to the no-shows Tuesday. Most said they had just forgotten. "A lot of people just said, 'You know, we are busy,' so that's the first thing—we reached out to our social media and said, 'Hey, if you've got jury duty at the courthouse, you need to be there at 1:30. You should've been there at 9,'" Dean tells WMAZ.

He also used the department's Facebook page to warn that a judge could have any absent prospective jurors arrested. Dean says enough people were coaxed into court late to make up four juries. He says many of them explained their absences by saying they were busy. The sheriff says none of the people who failed to answer a jury summons were arrested.

(More jury duty stories.)