Everyone is missing the key here: the key is the court administrator. She (90% of the time) is the one who can let you out of jury duty or keep you in. There are legitimate reasons for being excused from jury duty (being self-employed and there being no one else capable or able to run the business and direct employees, physical handicaps, etc.) and some not so legitimate ones ( being buddies with the judge, etc.). That said, it gets so tiring to walk in to a courtroom to select a jury during voir dire and see that the jury panel is composed of the elderly, the "professional jurors" who have no jobs and no life other than being a juror or the delightful experience of representing an African-American or Hispanic client in a criminal case and seeing 100% Caucasian faces.
A savvy court administrator can shrink the jury panel in many ways, a good one is gold, a poor one is trouble. Most judges let the administrators deal with the people who call and want to be excused. It's a lot of power in the hands of a person who has no accountability.
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