Jury Duty

A month ago I got a paper in the mail that said I would be on jury duty sometime during the month of June.  I had to fill out the sheet and list any conflicts that might prevent me from being able to serve on a jury.  I sent the sheet back and didn't think much of it.  Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago when I got a half sheet of yellow paper that told me I had been summoned for jury duty.  I would need to call a number each night to see if I needed to go to the courthouse the next day.  I called in on Friday night for Monday and it wasn't called, Monday night for Tuesday and it wasn't called and then on Tuesday night my number was called.  This meant that on Wednesday, June 5 I would need to meet at the courthouse at 8:15 am with the other jurors to see if I would be needed to sit on a jury. 

I was excited about this experience for a couple of reasons, I hadn't been in the Matheson courthouse or a courtroom before and the other reason was I had no clue how they select a jury or how an actual trial works so I was excited to see that process.  I got to the courthouse a little early and went through security and walked to the end of the hall where the jury waiting room was located.  There were about 100 or so people in the room and we all just waited there until the head lady came in and told us about what our day could look like.  There were 4 trials that day so everyone would be called up.  The judge would ask a few questions and explain the trial and the jury would be selected.  One of the judges likes to have all the possible people that might be on his jury fill out a questionnaire.  I was in the group that had to fill out the questionnaire.  We watched a short movie on why "normal" people sit on a jury and what our experience could be like.  The bailiff came in and took up the first group of people.  We waited for a few more minutes before the second bailiff came and grabbed my group.  There were 32 of us for 8 spots on the jury.  We went upstairs and went into the courtroom.  The judge had some questions that he would ask everyone and that is what we were going to do next.  The questions were: what juror number are you?; highest level of education; occupation; spouses occupation; number of children and their ages; what magazines/newspapers do you read; an interesting thing about you.  It was fun to hear every one's answers to the questions.  They sent us out in the hall and pulled in certain individuals that they wanted to ask more questions to about certain experiences they had in their past and if serving on this jury would be an issue since the items in their past and the trial were related on some level.  We were all called back in and the judge asked us if we had any questions for him.  After he answered those, he read off the juror numbers.  I was number 5 and my number wasn't called.  So I left the room with the other people whose numbers weren't called and went to work.  It took the whole morning, but was a fun experience.  I am off the hook for 2 years now, but hope to be asked to do this again in the future.

written June 10, 2013