Jury Duty

I've been on jury duty this week. Today I had to actually go to the court house and I ended up getting selected to sit on a trial. It has been an interesting and boring process, all at the same time. I can't talk about the trail - it's still going on but I will describe the process.

About 40 folks showed up at 8am (as we had been instructed). We signed in and then sat for more than an hour waiting for something to happen. At this point I was glad that I had brought 3 magazines with me. Shortly after 9am we were all brought into a courtroom and eighteen of us (me included) were called to the jury box where voir dire started.

This is the process where the judge and both sets of attorneys ask questions to make sure the jurors are unbiased. Five of the jurors were eliminated for cause and three with no reason given by each of the attorneys. We then had the final twelve - me included.

Three expert witnesses have been called and the examination and cross have been just about what you see on TV - without all of the theatratics and last minute confessions on the stand. The lawyers and judge had several "side bars" and we had to go to the jury box 4 or 5 times so they could argue points of law - I guess, since we didn't get to hear them.

Interesting dynamic in the jury room. Twelve people that don't know each other thrown together in a small room with nothing in common to talk about. The only thing we have in common is the trial but we've been instructed not to talk about the trial until we begin deliberations. Therefore the jury room is real quiet.

The process seems to work - even if it moves slowly and is less than exciting most of the time. If you get called for jury duty, serve willingly and with pride.