The letter in the mail that most people dread. I received one back in November and since it was scheduled around the same time I was planning on leaving for the holidays, I postponed it to February. Beginning Feb 4, I had to call an 888 number each night to see if I had to go to the court house the follwing day. If I made it through the week not being told to go, then I was done. On Wednesday, Feb 7, I was pretty tired and went to bed. Just before I was about to fall asleep, I realized I hadn't called the Jury Duty "Hotline" to check if I was needed. So, I made myself get back out of bed and call ... and to my dismay, heard the message that I was expected the following morning at 8am. So I let my boss know and reset the alarm to an earlier time.
I arrived at the courthouse to find that it wasn't your typical old style government or courthouse building that I had expected. It was a 9 story pretty glass building. There was a long line snaking through the lobby of the building of potential jurors waiting to go through the xray machine when I walked in. The jury waiting room was on the 4th floor but apparently they make everyone wait to go through security at the same time. One of the security guards was very good at keeping everyone in a neat line and cracking jokes. Finally, around 8am, they let us through and up to the 4th floor we went.
The jury waiting room is a large room with TV's hanging from the ceiling, vending machines and even some desk space with internet connections. After everyone grabbed a seat, a woman came out of an office and explained how everything worked and then played a DVD for us on the TV's that explained Jury Duty even more and also told us how great Jury Duty was. We then had to fill out a survey and line up in groups to turn in our paper work. When we turned in our paper work, we were given juror badges to wear. They did not display our names, but a juror id number that we were given.
If no court needed us, then we would stay in that waiting room until about 4:30 or 5 and then that was it ... our service was over. If we were called into a court room and were excused from a jury, then our service was over and we could go home. So, at this point, it was just a waiting game. We were free to turn on the TV's or whatever, but not to wander to far from the waiting room. Around 10 or so, we received a visit from a judge, who talked a little more about jury duty and what it means and how it works, etc. He was very nice and very informative.
Around 11 or so, they read off a long list of names, of which my name was one of them, and we were told to report to a court room on the 7th floor. We all filed into the courtroom. There were 14 chairs in the jury box and 4 in front of it. They then called out juror numbers and one by one, people filled in the 18 spots. I was not among them. Each of the 18 potential jurors then had to answer 3 or 4 questions, mainly where they lived, what they did, and if they had been on a jury before. After that, the judge then asked more questions. It was so obvious that some people didn't want to be there, by the way they would answer these questions, and the became more and more annoying. Instead of answering yes or no to a simple yes or no question, whining and whatnot would ensue. Once the judge was done with his questions, the defense attorney and prosecutor each took time to ask them questions. Once all this was over, both lawyers took turns thanking and excusing some of the 18 potential jurors. Finally, they were down to less than 14 jurors, and so new juror numbers were called to fill the remaining seats back up to 18 again. I was yet again not called. The new people had to each answer the first 3 or 4 questions and then the judge simply asked each juror, if they had an answer to any of the questions that had been asked prior by the judge or the lawyers. Thank God they didn't have to go through all the questions that were asked, although, there had been a lot of questions asked, and I began racking my brain in case I was called. At some point, during all these events, we had broken for lunch and returned and so it was now mid afternoon. More jurors were thanked and excused and eventually my number was called. I answered all the questions I could and I was not thanked and excused. After more whining from more potential jurors, they finally had their 14 jurors (12 + 2 alternates) and we were sworn in and told to report back the following day at 10:30 am. We were also told that the trial was expected to last 4 to 5 days.
Courtroom hours aren't bad. We reported each morning at 10:30 am. We broke for lunch at 12 and returned from lunch at 1:30. We'd have a 15 minute break between 2 and 3 and then were dismissed by 4:30. The following Monday was Lincoln's birthday, so the courts were closed and I worked my regular job that day, training a new guy that my boss had brought in to help cover for me since I wasn't going to probably be there for the whole week.
Closing arguments finally came, Thursday morning and we began deliberations that afternoon. It felt good to be able to finally talk about the case with someone, even if it was only in that room with the other 11 jurors. We had 2 counts to decide on: wreckless driving and hit and run with injury. If we had a question, we could ask the judge, but it had to be in writing and we would have to go back into the courtroom with everyone present and then the judge would read the question and answer there. We could also have testimony read back to us by the court reporter, and again this would happen in court on record. We asked a question that afternoon and after the judge answered it, it was around 4 so we were dismissed and told to come back at 9:30 the following morning. It was a complicated case. You can be charged with hit and run even if your car was not touched in the accident. It's too complicated to go into here, but we had to figure out if the defendant knew that he had been a cause of the accident.
So, Friday we arrived at 9:30 am, and had the court reporter read back some testimony and asked the judged another question, dealing mainly with the way the particular law was written, because it could be read 2 different ways. After getting our answer, we were unanimous on our decisions, and filled out the paper work to hand in the verdict.
/soapbox
I am glad I had this experience and although it was time consuming and you only get $15 a day, I won't be upset if I get called again in the future. As annoying as jury duty is and can be, it is part of being a US citizen. Having the right to be tried by a jury of our peers is one of the reasons this country came into existence. I think most people take this for granted nowadays. If I was accused of something, especially if it was something I did not do, I would want people like me and you on the jury. It was so disheartening to see so many people whine and complain and try to get out of it. For people that just can't afford it, it's understandable, but that's not the case with everyone. The only time that I feel my time was really wasted during this whole process, was the first day of jury selection. The bulk of that day was wasted listening to people whine and complain and try to get out of it. The trial might actually have begun and ended sooner had people just sucked up and answered the questions honestly and let the process take its course. So, as hoakie as this may sound, if you get called up for jury duty, be thankful that you live in a country that protects your rights from being judged unfairly.
/off soapbox
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