Justice

Last week I had jury duty. When Shawn went last month his experience was interesting and full of excitement (within the case itself). For me, it was a total dud.

Day 1, I sat in the jury room. There was one trial that needed jurors and of the ~115 jurors in the room, they called 100 to the jury pool. Guess who was one of the "lucky" 15 to not be called.

Day 2, we got almost to noon when another trial came up and they called 100 more jurors. I was called on that one because they pulled first the 15 who weren't called the day before (is that really keeping with the randomness required? I don't know). So we go to the court room for 10 minutes, get sworn in and told a little about the case. Then we break for lunch.

When we get back, the judge starts taking people into the court room one by one - any juror who says they can't serve on this case because of time or because of the facts of the case. More than half of the people get in line, and they make everyone wait out in the hot hall for about an hour. Then the judge just gets fed up and sends us all home, saying he'll start again on Monday with new jurors (hopefully more cooperative).

Most everyone was THRILLED to be done. I was deeply disappointed. I wanted to hear more about the case and see/be part of the jury questioning process.

So anyway, it was a wash, but it added a little jolt to the routine of my sit-in-apartment-all-day life.