Dead Man, Michael Wylie, Sought For Jury Duty For 5 Years In Massachusetts

GEORGETOWN, Mass. -- A Massachusetts man facing a criminal complaint for failing to appear for jury duty apparently had a good excuse.

He's been dead for five years.

State Deputy Jury Commissioner John Cavanaugh said last week that the state will not proceed with serving a criminal complaint against Michael Wylie.

The late Georgetown resident was issued a notice to serve on jury duty five years ago but at the time he was in hospice care and had terminal cancer. He died a few months later but the commission continued to send letters about his failure to report.

Wylie's family says they tried to tell authorities that he had died but officials say the family never sent a death certificate.

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Comments

[Donna Street]

03:15 PM on 06/29/2011

I've heard of a lot of strange things in my life, but this one takes the cake!

[Mushu Friend]

10:37 AM on 06/29/2011

Why should the family incur the $20.00 or so expense to send officials a death certificate when, following notification, all the officials had to do was verify the man's death with the state's records already on file. After notifying the proper authorities, I too would have let them do as they deemed fit, even if it meant proceeding with serving a criminal complaint against the deceased. Should they have done so, it would only illuminate their own incompetency. I'd like to see them attempt to execute that warrant. The fact that they even pursued this matter for so long speaks volumes to their efficiency. The family did precisely what they were supposed to do, NOTIFY. It was up to the proper authorities to VERIFY.

[C really]

02:42 PM on 06/28/2011

Why should the family have to pay for a ddeath certificate when a court official could simply make a phone call to another government agency?

[eyepatch]

01:32 PM on 06/28/2011

This happens in Cook County Illinois
all the time! My aunt died in 1999 and
we received a jury duty summons in
2002. We informed the county she
had past away and they took her
off the juror list.

[ickymcpooh]

10:41 AM on 06/28/2011

I had to do that once.I was on the phone and told my friend I was so board I wanted to take one of their sporks and poke my eyes out and they let me go home.

[straightuptalker]

06:22 AM on 06/28/2011

They don't give up, do they? What irks me is every time I renew my driver's license, it generates automatic feedback to the court system and shortly after renewal, I always receive that dreaded "jury duty" form. Since I've served a couple of times already, I suggest the court system devise another method besides gleaning information from the DMV. I do believe everyone should serve at least once, and surely there are many slackers out there who have never served because they're simply not in the DMV system. Gotta be a better way to equalize the process instead of summoning the same people over and over.

[decat2]

06:03 PM on 06/27/2011

Yup,and he even voted for o'bummer too !

[Mushu Friend]

10:48 AM on 06/29/2011

Ignoramus, what does your comment have to do with this article?

[Mushu Friend]

10:54 AM on 06/29/2011

Brilliant comment!! Glad you were not on the ballad.

[Heidi Dietrich]

10:39 AM on 06/28/2011

Stop posting this stuff that takes us to another link. It's just annoying. If you are that desperate to have someone go to your page, it must really be a lousy page.

[Heidi Dietrich]

10:40 AM on 06/28/2011

You really are pathetic. Sending us to Black entertainment pages. Get a life,