Jury Duty--The TRUTH

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Day One

I will tell you the unadulterated truth about the excitement of the beast known as ‘jury duty”.

Uhm—it isn’t . . . exciting, that is.

I left the house at 7:45, dealt with various traffic issues, but managed to make it to the assigned parking garage by 8:20.  Walking to the courthouse and passing through security took another 10 minutes.  I arrived at the jury room right on time at 8:30.

Only to discover the line snaked around the lower level until it turned back upon itself.  Another thirty minutes and then I checked in.  By 9:20, a judge showed up and we took our juror’s pledge.  Add to this another 45 minutes of waiting in ANOTHER line to pick up our badge.  Finally, at 10:30, bailiffs arrived to call juror onto cases. 

The first four cases were civil and they called 24-30 jurors each. 

I was called on the fifth case—of course, it was criminal.  After they called 30 of us, they excused us for lunch—it was 11:15 and we didn’t have to be back until 1:30. 

Uhm, I don’t know about y’all, but I NEVER go downtown and I wouldn’t have a clue what to eat or do for two hours.  But I occupied myself with a super-secret something that I can’t divulge until after March 20^th.

After lunch, I walked back to the courtroom and I’m waiting until the judge calls us in and they pick the jury. 

Stay tuned!

25 out of 30 of us were called, questioned by the judge, the prosecutor, and the defense attorney.  They prosecutor didn’t like my comment that I thought many court cases were ‘frivolous’.  Yes, I said that and for the most part I meant it.  There are too many cases that waste everyone’s time and money when the real cases can be tried.

Anyhoo, after two hours we were dismissed on break while they chose the 12 jurors and 1 alternate.  I wasn’t one of them, so I went back into the jury pool.  Two more groups were called and then a final group was called for juvenile court. 

At 4:48, we were dismissed.

I hope you enjoyed a little peek into the American Judicial System.  Oh, and the way they chose jurors to summons—it’s by your driver’s license—at least, here in Oklahoma.  They summon 675 potential jurors, but only about half show up, many are over 70 years old or have moved out of the county.  We started with 268 people and about 25 were rescheduled or dismissed.  And the court has 33 judges that can call jurors.

Day Two

Leave the house at 7:45, arrive at the jury room at 8:25. 

And I waited.

Jurors already seated arrive at various intervals until 9:30.

And I waited.

Jurors for about 6 judges were called to their various courtrooms.

And I waited.

One judge kept his jury downstairs until 11:45 and they were called to the courtroom.

We were excused for lunch.  Walked with a new friend to the local Coney Islander and ate two Coneys’.  Arrived back in the jury room at 12:30.

And waited. 

Talked to another new friend who was on the jury called at 11:45—their case never made it to trial.  The defendant took one look at the pulled jurors and struck a plea bargain.  And they were recycled into the jury pool.

And we waited.

At 3:30 another 32 jurors were called.

And we waited.

At 3:32 we were thanked for our service and dismissed for the week.

HUH??  I HAVE NEVER BEEN DISMISSED ON TUESDAY!  LATE WEDNESDAY, YES, BUT NEVER TUESDAY.  So, I’m free for the week, well, except the contest entries I need to judge and my FAERIE edits, and . . .

Later, Peeps!

Jury Duty

This week, I've been called to Jury Duty (JD) . . . again. *sigh*

Most people get called once, twice, or sometimes not at all, but not me.  I think this is about the tenth time that I've been called since I was able to vote (yes, I'll say it, over 30 years).  One of my friends laughed and said, "No way" and thought I was exaggerating. 

Trust me, I'm not.

Along with the regular City/County turns that I've been 'privledged' to be on a month long call for Federal Jury Duty (FJD). 

Yep, been there, done that. Seriously.

FJD is fairly straight forward.  You get called for a month of duty.  On Fridays, you call a phone number and find out if you have to be in court on Monday.  I was called two out of four weeks.  At the time I worked night shift, 11-7, at a hospital, which meant I also worked weekends.  Try explaining that to your boss!  I vividly remember those two cases: 1) racial discrimination, and 2) oral contract.  But that doesn't tell you about the mind-numbing evidence I had to listed to BEFORE the jury decided each case.  Let's just say that I know more about how to make rebar than any normal person should!

It's been three years since I was on JD.  They tried to get me two years ago, but it was illegal to call a juror in back-to-back years.  And they always seem to call me in March, right around my kiddo's spring break. I've been called to sit on more cases than I can even remember, everything from contracts-to-insurance fraud-to murder. I've sat on them all.  And I don't expect this time to be any different.

All I can say is that $20 a day isn't good enough.  I'll blog on Wednesday what a day in the life of a juror is all about--BORING.  I'll have my phone, Kindle, paper books, and my netbook (though I have slim hopes of trying to write my leprechaun revenge story--as they never have enough electrical outlets)

Like I said before, I don't mind JD, but I think it's time to give another upstanding citizen the chance to sit and enjoy getting grilled by the prosecutor, defense lawyer, and judge--and don't think that they won't do that to a juror, they will.

Yeah--like I said before, been there, done that. 

Later, Peeps!