I think being on a jury is a good experience to do at least once. One jury I served on a few years ago involved 7 charges, including attempted murder - person got throat slit while walking home from Holloween party at 1:00 am. A few highlights of the trial and our justice system: both sides had interpreters (Vietnamese and Spanish); the plaintiff introduced evidence on the stand by yelling "he tried to kill me (in English)" while simultaneously pulling a bloody shirt out of a sack (which was placed into evidence), the two opposing sides were in disagreement as to how many charges there were, the jury was not told what the charges were until deliberations started, jurors falling asleep, the plaintiff asking the judge why he had to answer all these (seemingly ridiculous) questions, followed by the judge saying you have to answer every question until your lawyer objects, and then on the very next question the plaintiff's lawyer jumps up saying "I object."
We also had the defendant's 7 year old daughter called by the prosecutor to testify against her father (Q: Did your father cut that man's thoat? A: I don't know.).
Myself and another 70+ year old juror hung the jury on two counts, which were then thrown out. We had a couple of idiot jurors who actually were yelling at this 70 year old lady with their face about one foot from her's trying to make her change her vote. The judge visited us after the trial and asked if we had any questions. I asked him why we weren't told what the charges were? He said he wanted us to concentrate on the testimony and not be concerned about the charges until deliberations. Overall, it was a good experience, but I feel I've done my duty serving on a jury.