Leave Jury Duty to the Professionals

Re “Jury Duty No-Shows Get Their Day in Court,” Jan. 28: I take exception to Laurie Levenson’s remark that jury duty is the most “American” thing a person can do. I believe that forcing people against their will into taking time off from work by threats of fines or imprisonment is about as “un-American” as you can get.

Legal eagles think that the universe revolves around them and that they cannot function without the public being strong-armed in, but many other civilized countries make no such demands on their citizens and function quite well. These countries have professionals who know something about the technical aspects of crime (fingerprints, DNA, human eyesight, etc.), which to me suggests they can do a much better job of determining guilt or innocence than a bunch of amateurs.

Julia Dunphy

Harbor City