Jury Duty

I've been on jury duty all week. That means I have had to call in, or visit the jury website, on a daily basis to get my instructions for the following day. On Monday they had stopped four short of my number, 259. Tuesday's message said, "All trials are finished. No jurors are needed for Wednesday." But on Wednesday they called a whole new batch of potential jurors - 255 through 332.


I dutifully checked in this morning and was escorted to a holding pen - ahem, waiting area - with the others. I bumped into a friend of mine. She had served as a juror on a murder trial four years ago. They were showing a movie - something with Sandra Bullock - I wasn't paying attention. Then they played a short film about how serving on a jury is part of the system that guarantees everyone the right to a fair trial by a jury of their peers. Later the members of our group were assigned numbers from 1 to 35. I was number 34.

Once in the courtroom, we were sworn in and the judge gave us some instructions. This was a case of child neglect. The prosecuting attorney asked a bunch of questions. She asked me one question, "You are a Public Information Officer. For which department?" I answered, the defense attorney looked at me, and I knew I was done. Four jurors were dismissed for cause. One left in tears. We had a short break before the defense attorney asked his questions.

Finally the jury was selected. More than half were taken from the first ten jurors in the pool. My friend, Kari, was selected again. We were dismissed and I was on my way home shortly before noon. I've never been in a courtroom before and it was interesting to be part of the process.