This is a very sensitive subject for me personally and I could easily climb up on my soapbox and write about this subject for pages and pages but instead let me simply leave a few points to consider.

First, I agree jury duty is an extremely important function in our society but the role of jurors is not and was never meant to be nearly has powerful as fija.org claims it to be. If you doubt that ask yourself why there are NO juries in appeals court only judges?

Second, The people at fija.org are more confused about the hows and whys of our legal system than the "uninformed jurors" that they claim to educate.

The role of a jury is not to "protect private citizens from dangerous government laws and actions." The role of a jury is to help decide the facts of the case, not judge the law. No twelve people (including the President) in this country get to decide the law for anyone else. The laws are established by a majority vote by officials that are elected by a MAJORITY of the population, not 12 random people.

Ask yourself - If your life (or a relative's) was hanging on the verdict would you honestly want 12 people picked at random from your community to decide for YOU what laws are and are not "dangerous?"

Third, if you want to know how dangerous jurors with an agenda are I recommend reading this http://www.abanet.org/journal/redesign/10fjury.html

Finally, the problem with our legal system when it comes to jurors is not bad juror instructions, greedy attorneys, or lazy judges, the problem is the same basic root issue that is at the heart of most of this country's problems and that is the utter lack of education of the majority of our population when it comes to our history, government and legal system. I love this country but the fact remains that the average person (PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER.) in this country is dumb as a stump. I have literally seen jury members who could not correctly answer "who is the vice-president of the United States?" deciding death sentence cases. Most PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. in this country talk about their constitutional rights but yet they have never even read the US Constitution much less understood it. They happily claim their right to freedom of speech and religion but most could not explain to you what the Bill of Rights actually is. History and civics have all but disappeared from our schools curriculum but if you really want to make yourself a more qualified juror, if you really want to educate your children and make them better prepared and more capable members of our society then educate yourself and them about the hows and whys of our government and legal system.

Again this is a sensitive subject for me so I apologize for the soapbox. Obviously not everyone will agree with my personal views which is part of what makes this a great country.