Jury Duty

Since Ken gave us a run down on his day in court (as a juror folks, juror), I thought I'd do the same. Called the courthouse automated line over the weekend to see if I could somehow get lucky and not get summoned. No dice. Oh well, I always wanted to see what it was about.

According to the summons, I'm supposed to show up at 8:30am. Good thing I got there early, as there must have been about 250 summoned for the day. Also a good thing that I dressed warmly. It must have been a constant 60F inside the building. It was also suggested to bring something to read for downtime. If you ever need something to pass about 7 hours of sitting, I suggest heavy reading like Dangerous Nation by Robert Kagan.

So around 8:30ish, the morning starts with a brief introduction by a clerk of the court and a video explaining what our civic duty is. Then, the fun begins. We get to fill out some basic paperwork and wear a nice little elastic necklace with our bar code ID on it. At about 9:30, the first roll gets called. About 24 folks are selected and are escorted by a bailiff to a courtroom. 30 minutes later, another roll call for about 18 more. This continues until about 11:00.

Then, for about a half an hour, we get to see clerks and bailiffs trying to find out what judge and what court needs people. Come 11:30, the rest of us not chosen so far are dismissed for lunch with orders to return no later than 1pm.

We get a free shuttle ride to the Landing. The Landing has an upstairs area that has your typical mall-type fast food joints. I settle on the chicken teriyaki place, Sakkio. Sorry, not gonna eat at a place called Flamers. The Landing is about 4 blocks from the courthouse, so after lunch I stroll back on the Riverwalk to the courthouse.

1pm rolls around, and there are a lot more people in the courtroom than when I left. Apparently, the courtroom I was in only held about half of the summoned folks. The other half was on another floor. Great. I'll never get picked now. Well, a clerk up front must have read my mind.

In between passages on the liberal expansionist policies of our forefathers, I overhear two clerks talking about people that haven't been chosen yet. Apparently, some folks have been picked but were sent back because they weren't needed. They go back into the pool. However, those of us not chosen at all yet get sorted up to the top.

Things go very quickly for a bit. From about 1:15pm to about 1:45pm, three separate jury panels are pulled. Then, slowdown hits again. From 1:45 to 2:30, nothing happens. However, at 2:30, I get pulled. In fact, about 35 of us get pulled. 35? That's odd. Yes, it is.

So, we head up to see the judge. But, before that, we have to wait again. 2:30 to 3:30, in fact, we were in another courtroom waiting to get summoned. 3:30 hits, and we are in to see the judge. Fantastic! I get to see how this finally works.

No go on the selection. It seems that this was going to be a good case, as the judge put it. Felony case. He said we would have had fun with it. Would have? Judge says he has bad and good news. The bad news is that the main witness is in the hospital. Quite serious. They may only be able to get testimony by video. That means, no jury selection. Good news is, no jury selection. We are dismissed from our civic duty.

Hurry up and wait with no payoff. Ah well, there is always next year.