I can’t believe its been months since I went through the Jury Duty process. I’ve been meaning to blog the experience and have simply been too busy. I’d blame the holidays but really.. I can only blame my social life! (cackles of glee!)
Always in the past I’ve been able to get out of Jury duty. And then I was a military spouse registered in Texas (where they apparently don’t have juries as I was never called for jury duty there! But hey, its TEXAS! That state is its own planet, it is so different from California.)
Then for years back in California I was the sole caregiver of my kids. But the laws have changed. If they’re in school, you can do Jury Duty… you’ll just have to get a sitter. Too bad if you can’t find one… FIND ONE, they say. But I homeschool my oldest, I plead. Fine they say, do it during Christmas Break.
So I sigh and agree. Because at heart, I’m an upstanding citizen. I may be off the wall, opinionated and something of a “freak” in other areas but I do firmly believe we should all tow the line and do our share when asked. Unless you’re asking for money… then whoa, dude, you’re on your own!
So I report for Jury Duty. I got lucky it was in Pasadena and when I got to the jury room there was free wireless. Sweet! I can get some work done while I wait. And I did. Got emails answered and some data entry done. At the time I was hip deep in the online dating so I was a little disappointed I couldn’t go online to The Site and get through some emails because the site was blocked because of content. Oh.. duh!
On that first day I learned you wait and wait. If your name is called, that’s bad because it means you go into a pending jury and off to the next step. And if you’re lucky at the end of the day they dismiss all of you and you’re done. OR if you are NOT lucky they have you come back the next day to do it all again.
At the end of my first day they dismissed a few (no doubt they’d been in the pool too long) and told the rest of us to come back tomorrow. Darn, but oh well, gotta do it.
So the next day I’d tried to make a few lunch dates because they released us for an hour and a half lunch. But the few I managed ended up canceling or flaking. Oh but I did make a phone call meet. Normally I’ll text a guy but not necessarily call them. Because I’m at work or I’ve got my kids and texting is private and a phone call isn’t!
But Jury Duty.. oh another matter. So I’m in the hall talking to a new young man on my cell phone and it is so much fun. Hell, I’m pretty naughty.. but with a subtle audience.. Oh, I’m much worse! That made that day fun. But at the last hour they called a group of us, including me, and walked us down the hall to the court. DAMN!
They swore us in, explained this next process and the basics of the case and then asked for those who felt they should be excused. They then dismissed the rest of us to come back tomorrow and they dealt with those dissenters.
So back the next day, but this time I”m really worried. The case turned out to be a criminal trial, a murder case. With gangs. And after the first hour of watching the process I got worried I might end up on this jury. How long would THAT take out of my life. And could I fairly judge a murder case? Civil lawsuit, no problem, STICK it to the Man! But a criminal case, send someone to jail? What if I’m wrong? That’s A LOT of pressure.
And the process is this endless, confusing, merry-go-round selection process that makes me wonder HOW any case ever gets tried in “a timely manner” as the law dictates. They already had 12 people in the jury box. But they needed 5 or 6 in reserve. Ah but they kept substituting people and shuffling them around and dismissing the ones they don’t like.
As a juror you’re trying to to somehow convince either side that they don’t want you on their jury. So numbers would be called and people would file into the reserve jury seats and then answer the questions about themselves from the sheets. Obviously no names were called and if you felt you needed to answer the questions privately with the judge and lawyers you could (but it better be a good reason).
The questions were interesting. What do you and everyone living in your household do? What is the level of education you and everyone in your household has? Have you or anyone you know been victim of a crime? Give details. What experiences have you had with law enforcement? Good, bad, give details.
After each substitute juror answered the questions the lawyers would ask specific questions they had for each. After they’d done that they would begin the jury dance. They would substitute a juror from the new group to replace one already in the box or they would dismiss it with thanks. Once both lawyers had done that a new group of substitute juror would sit in those now vacated seats and the whole process was gone through again.
What was amusing were the few who made statements in their question answering process that they hoped would make them unacceptable as jurors. “I believe drugs should be legalized” and things like that. What was interesting was listening to the stories of these people and trying to figure out what the lawyers were going for. What was scary was the fact they were running out of people!
Then my number was called. SHIT! So I filed in and answered the questions and realized I REALLY didn’t want to do this. As a writer I can come up with a thousand scenarios behind the motives of a person, or the circumstances of their actions, or how others could be responsible. Reasonable doubt was running rampant in my mind! Plus my libido was weighing in that she thought the defendant was kind of cute. If I told them THAT would I get disqualified? I should!
But one of the questions they asked was would you question the validity of a man’s testimony if you knew he was a gang member. Would it color your judgment. He also asked if you had several pieces of a puzzle but not the whole puzzle could you make a good guess as to what the picture was. If you had a tail, a trunk and ears… would you obviously know its an elephant.
So I knew their case was circumstantial and the testimony of another drug dealer was paramount. And as I thought about it I had to admit I would take with a grain a salt the testimony of a gang member against another gang member. Because I’m always wondering about the motivations of another person and I’d be wondering if the witness had a personal agenda.
By process of elimination I end up in Jury Slot 11 but happily the prosecutor didn’t like my admission of mistrusting a witness’ testimony if a gang member so he dismissed me. I could have kissed him!
And could only pity the people still there in the process. After all, it was the day before New Years Eve!
