There are certain difficult, unpleasant things in life one has to face: getting older, paying taxes, death and worst of all…jury duty. OK, I might have been a little harsh about the latter, and in fact I’m sure there are people out there that love jury duty (freaks) or who haven’t had the opportunity to serve and wish they could (major freaks)! Just kidding!
I’m probably jinxing myself by posting about my jury duty experience, as I haven’t had a summons for jury duty in a long, long time [knock on wood]. I got my first summons way back in 1999, and after hearing people moan and complain about it I soon learned just why this can be an ordeal!
First of all, you get this official summons in the mail that immediately has you on edge with nervousness. It’s not a friendly notice, a card with cute drawings and kind words; instead, it is an officious, serious legal document!
Then you have all of these instructions to read about the process; how you have to call a number the night before your designated day in court to see if you even have to bother to show up; when you do call and you find out you do have to appear (oh crap!) you then get the time and location of where you are to report for duty; and then there is the whole business of getting to the courthouse, going through security (at least it didn’t require body scans or pat downs!) and ending up in a big waiting room.
The waiting part is the most boring, most mundane, most excruciating aspect of jury duty. You sit in a crowded room with a bunch of strangers and everyone is pretty much feeling miserable. They have had to leave work, family and other responsibilities at their inconvenience. Needless to say, there aren’t a lot of happy faces and pleasant conversations. And what are we waiting for exactly? To have our number called to see if we will be part of a jury selection. And then there is more waiting at that point because we have to be taken to one of the courtrooms and wait in line to be interviewed by the prosecuting and defense attorneys.
My experience took place on November 29th 1999. I was already in big trouble with my job at USRA, because most of the staff was out of town at a racquetball championship, and I was needed to run things at the office. I would have much rather worked than do this, but I could not get out of this. Hello?! This is my civic, patriotic duty! I'm an American goll darn it!! I was at the courthouse very early that morning. I waited and waited in the perpetual waiting room. I had foolishly not bothered to bring a book to read and at the time I did not have a cell phone. Pure torture!
I was still waiting until the lunch break, then after lunch I waited some more before my number was finally called. It was in the mid-afternoon at this point and I realized I was never going to get those 5+ hours back! The jury selection process was surprisingly efficient; I don’t remember what specific questions I was asked, but I must have given the right answers (darn it!) because I was selected. Then I got to sit up in the jury box and watch the remaining 11 jurors be selected. More waiting. More time that I will never get back!
By the end of the day, around 5 pm, the jury has been selected and we’ve been given specific instructions by the female judge about what happens next. We all come back the next day to begin the trial. I suddenly panic, realizing that this could go on for days, possibly weeks!
The next day I’m back at the courthouse, back in the jury box, surrounded by strangers who are just as miserable as me. Then the whole trial process begins, and I have to admit that parts were quite fascinating. It did follow a lot of what I had seen before on TV and in the movies, although the attorneys weren’t nearly as dramatic and overactive as the actors portray them in movies. A reminder to me that this was the real thing.
I won’t bore you with the details of the trial itself (because I’ve already bored you with the boring details of the whole selection process and frankly I’m bored writing this post!) Here it is in nutshell: this was a case of road rage. A man was being charged with “menacing” another man, even though the plaintiff was the one with the road rage issues. Go figure!
There were witnesses, cross examinations, the whole spiel. And all the time I thought to myself “this is so stupid! All of this because of road rage!” Thankfully, the trial wrapped up that afternoon and the jury was excused to deliberate. Finally, all of us were able to talk to each other and get this thing hashed out. After about an hour or so we made our decision and notified the female judge. Then court reconvened and the verdict was given: Not Guilty. The defendant and his attorney were very relieved and thanked us. Then the judge thanked us for our service and presented each of us a certificate. And that was that!
I blotted out the names for privacy reasons.
I missed two days of work, and after the trial I had to hurry off to meet the family at the portrait studio for family picture time! I was so glad to be done with this! It was a unique experience and I’m glad I had it…but I certainly don’t need to go through that ever again! But God Bless America just the same!!
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