Monday, September 19, 2011

Jury Duty: Prologue

I spent most of last week in jury selection as a potential juror. The first day was all of the hardship cases, so they had one pool in the morning, and another pool in the afternoon to get enough potential jurors for the trial. Since I didn't have a hardship, I was asked to come back the next day. The next day began the actual jury selection with the consolidated pools starting at 10AM. The selection went all day with anyone having an association with Law Enforcement getting thrown off. At the end of the day, there were still 3 of the 12 to be chosen, so we had to come back the next day. Nearing lunch time on Day Three, I thought that I might actually escape without having to serve, but my name was called and I was seated, and went through the voir dire with 2 other potential jurors. The court broke for lunch, and I was sure that I would be excused in the afternoon. By the end of the day the full jury, plus 3 alternates was selected and sworn, and I was then "Juror Number 2" for the duration of the trial.