We were told to report at 8:45 a.m. to the 6th floor of the Justice Building in downtown. I wasn't sure what the traffic would be like right at 8 a.m. on the freeway as I usually don't leave my house til 8:45 to go to work - so I left at about 7:45 a.m. and promptly got to the parking right next to the Justice Building at 8:05 a.m. Niiiiiiiiiiiice. What was I gonna do for 40 minutes. Oh well, better early than late. I parked (in a cheaper lot this time, yesterday was $15 .. today $7), and walked across the street and into the building. Went through the metal detectors and over to the elevator to ride up to the 6th floor. Then, the weirdest thing. The elevator started TALKING! It said "Going up?" I almost answered, before I realized it was the elevator. When the doors opened on 6, it said "Sixth Floor", I resisted the urge to say "Thank you" when I got off :)
There were a few of my fellow juror pool buddies there already, I grabbed a seat and began the process of waiting around. I tried to read some but people were talking around me, I tried to watch some of The Office on my iPod but felt people staring at me, I did play a few hands of cards on my phone though, that passed a few minutes for me. Every once in a while the baliff would come out and talk to us, answer questions, tell some silly jokes, check roll to make sure everyone was there, etc. This went on for quite a while, like over an hour. Come to find out later, its because the court reporter and defense attorney were trapped in one of the talking elevators! Anyhoo, one of the baliff's came out and started explaining to all of us what the dealio was going to be. We got new juror numbers, I was now #7, and we were led in to the court room in order to be seated in the gallery. Being #7 I was sitting in the front row - right smack dab in the middle, that was not really fun. To one side was a table with a man and woman, they both were dressed very smartly with laptops in front of them, looking at all of us as we walked into the room. On the other side was another table with 2 men, they were dressed less stylishly with no laptops in front of them - instead it was just a mass of papers all strewn about. The one that I later figured out was the actual Defense Attorney had, no kidding, a huge lime green plastic "Bubba Keg" mug sitting in front of him and he was making his notes with a bic pen that looked like it was taken from the local Holiday Inn. He also appeared to have no neck at all. I don't know if I'd be so jazzed to trust my future to this guy if I was on trial.
After everyone was led in and in their appropriate seats, the Judge came in and we rose for him and then seated. That's some power right there, to have people automatically stand up when you walk into a room. He was a normal looking guy, he came in and sat down and began to explain what was about to happen. He was funny, made a few jokes to warm up the room. He told us that when we were speaking we should stand out and use our loud voices so the court reporter (the one who had been stuck in the elevator earlier) could get all our answers on the record. He then went into much deeper detail as to what the qualifications were for serving on a jury - he had a whole big speech about how even if you were a kid and stole a Hershey candy bar from the 5 and Dime, if you were convicted and had to pay a fine that you weren't eligible to serve on a jury ... ever. And then, bless his heart, this guy behind me a couple of rows stood up to ask if that meant that he wasn't eligible because when he was 15 he stole a candy bar from "The Wal-Mart" and was caught, then having to pay a $7 fine to - he thinks - the police. He wasn't really sure where the money went. The Judge was so nice and patient with him, thanking him so much for standing up and asking this potentially embarrassing question in front of 60+ strangers. He eventually was allowed to go up to the Judge's desk and discuss this in more detail with the lawyers. He came back to sit down in his spot, so I'm guessing since he was a juvenile when it happened it wasn't going to count in this situation. A few more people came forward with questions about whether or not they were eligible - including one little lady who wasn't very familiar with the English language, she was dismissed. Some of the ones that went forward were dismissed, some were not.
Then the Judge went in to reasons people may be excused from jury service in general. Those were medical issues such as hearing problems, blindness, mental capacity, etc. A couple of people came forward and were dismissed. Then came the big news. This was going to be a murder trial! And because of that the length of time that would be needed to complete everything was a couple of weeks. So, the Judge asked if there was anyone that had any medical tests coming up or pre-paid vacations where they would lose their money if they didn't go or things like funerals, etc that would prevent you from being available during the next 2-3 weeks to come forward. And wouldn't ya know, I have a couple of doctors appointments coming up in the next 2 weeks that I really didn't want to change. I figured ... its worth a shot, so I went up and discussed with the Judge my situation and he said I could be dismissed. I asked if they'd like my doctor's phone number to verify my appointments, but he said no - that I was under oath and people typically don't make that kind of thing up (which I wasn't, I really do have those appointments). I was handed a yellow piece of paper with the Judge's signature and a note about being dismissed and told to go with the baliff to get further instructions. I was told to go back to the jury pool room from yesterday and see the lady in charge, give her the yellow slip and she'd give me a check (woo hoo! $46) and I'd be free to go.
I realize this is probably an anticlimactic story since I didn't actually get chosen for the murder trial jury. And although I'm very happy we have that system in place, I'm equally happy I didn't have to sit on that panel. I think I've watched too much Law & Order, CSI and John Grisham novels-turned-to-movies, because when the Judge said "murder" I immediately thought - oh man, if I get on this jury they're gonna come after me! Not to mention that the second guy sitting at the defense's table stared at the group of us the entire time, writing down notes on this piece of paper that had the "seating chart" of all the potential jurors. Every time someone would get up and leave for being dismissed he would systematically put a big black X through that spot on his chart. I really don't know who he was, but if he was the defendant and the one on trial for committing murder, I didn't really want to spend more time with him staring at me - just in case he did do it.
Labels: whatnot
