Jury duty and diabetes

I was a witness to a fatal motorcycle/car wreck and I was summons to court. I emailed the Sheriffs Dept because they’re the ones that are in charge of security in the court house. I got a response saying I shouldn’t have any problems.

Because I had my meter in my hands and they saw it, I had to send it through the conveyer belt which I was concerned about but, I was assured it wouldn’t harm it. They had no problems with my insulin pump. I never took it off and they never even looked at it. I believe next time I have to go, I will use my back up meter instead of my good meter that came with my pump. I can put it in my pocket and not even say a word. They won’t know that I have either one on.

I agree. Diabetes should not hinder you from doing anything. Unfortunately bigotted ignoramuses have decided that I cannot go and help with a restorative justice course in prison - because you are diabetic. I could have left my kit in the room adjoining the chapel, and was allowed to take my stuff in - but one of the other staff objected.

The thought that I would need a doctor’s note to have my supplies and be allowed to participate in what is supposed to be an inclusive, non-discrimatory jury selection process, is just antithetical to the thought of “justice for all”.

Verges on, say, “voter literacy tests” as a way of excluding women and blacks from voting pre-civil-rights-act. (Not that challenges don’t still exist post-civil-rights-act). The thought that diabetics don’t want to serve jury duty has the analogy of the allegation that blacks or women didn’t want to vote.

In fact while security rent-a-cops have tried to stop me from getting into many private retail, entertainment, or restaurant establishments with syringes and insulin, I have never had a single problem going into a courthouse even in the face of the modern veil of security checks and metal detectors. So it’s a non-issue. There is a broad awareness in the courthouses I’ve been in, that they are there to serve the people, not exclude the people.

His name was Stieg Larsson.



Larsson is in Swedish “son of Lars”.



(Larsen is the same surname in Danish or Norwegian)

I think you’ll do just fine. Jury duty is a bit of a hassle for all the reasons that you mentioned (parking, traffice, etc), but it’s do-able. I’d come with my own food/snacks as other said. Good luck!

Thanks. I’m hoping if I am picked by that time I will have been on the Lantus long enough to get my dosage stabalized. It is going a lot better and the lows are not as frequent like they were being. I’ve had to split my dosage cause 24 u of the Lantus was way to much and I’d be super low in the AM, but not enough for the rest of the day. I’ve now got it down to where Im taking 20 of Lantus at night and up to 6 now in the AM and it is working a lot better. THANKFULLY. I guess I wouldnt be so stressed about it if it hadn’t come up RIGHT as I was changing my medications around. Hard enough somedays, then when your changing meds all around trying to find what works…grrrr just makes it a bit more stressful.

You won’t have a problem taking in your meter or some food. Courts differ – some even allow cell phones and smart phones. Many now allow computers. But even the stricter courts allow insulin pumps and meters.

I didn’t have any problems, but the prosecutor dropped me. (In Oregon the prosecutor is allowed to drop a certain number of jury members without justification: the prosecutor was right; based on a later conversation with a jury member who didn’t get dumped no way would she have got a guilty verdict had I been on that jury.)

There are no rules about carrying electronics here; the only rules I recall are that you aren’t meant to carry guns and that you are meant to switch your cellphone off. The judge gets really annoyed if your cellphone goes off and, presumably if you pull a gun, although I’ve haven’t seen the latter yet.

You need the BG meter. I need the BG meter. All of us need the BG meter. The US justice system doesn’t need some hypo or hyper glycaemic individual making decisions that affect many peoples’ lives.

You don’t need or require an exemption: you have an absolute right and an absolute duty to be there with your BG meter, your CGM, your pump, whatever is required. Do they bounce people with pacemakers? Do they bounce people in wheelchairs? (Oh, ok, in certain backward States in this land of the not-quite-so-free they might carry people in wheelchairs in just to make a point by humiliating them, but not in Oregon.)

Oh, and on the bathroom break thing (which, I admit, concerned me) Oregonians just wave happily at the judge. It is suggested, though, that one carries candies that don’t make obnoxious sucking noises when consumed.

Well, you were dismissed, so you cannot change your mind! Doh, didn’t the lawyers realise that you had been dismissed? I think I would quite like to be on jury duty, diabetic or not - just that in the UK unemployed people are not asked to do so. Bit sillly really since we have all the time in the world!

Wow, thats interesting. Here if your registered to vote, it makes you eligible to be called for jury duty. Wow, I agree, I think it would be easier for people who are unemployed, I mean really, lol what’s that got to do with anything.

I think you got that the wrong way round:

United States: you have to be a US citizen to be a juror; you do not have to have registered to vote.

United Kingdom: you have to have registered to vote to be a juror; you do not have to be a UK citizen.