Thursday, June 24, 2010

This Would Be A Lot Better If Pauly Shore And Tia Carrere Were Here....

So, I got called to report for Jury Selection last week. That's technically what it is, right? If I got selected, THEN I would have been serving Jury Duty. I think. Doesn't matter, really. As I was saying, I was called to Jury Selection. This was the first time I have ever had to go. I was called a couple of times in Los Angeles, but I always(unfortunately) fell into the "Economic Hardship" category, and was pre-excused.

  Not this time. I arrived at the courthouse at about 7:35, which was about 10 minutes early. But that wasn't too bad, because at least an alarm was going off in the building, so we all had that to keep us company. So that was a good thing.

 Everyone started moving forward and then we all stopped in this little atrium which I think was designed to swallow human voices, because  a woman came out to talk to us, and I could not hear a SINGLE WORD she said. There was this weird echo/white noise/vuvuzela thing going on. Oh well, I crossed my fingers and hoped that she had not just told us that by entering the jury pool waiting room we were agreeing to stay there for a minimum period of six weeks.

  I entered the jury pol room, affixed my LEON COUNTY JUROR sticker to the pocket of my shirt, and sat down. A judge came in and gave us a speech about how important what we were doing was, and then proceeded to ask all the general questions that might disqualify people. A couple of people tried to squeeze themselves into the fairly specific categories she was explaining, but most of them failed. the only person who was able top leave with her was a guy who was over 70 and chose not to serve.

  They told us that we would be called in groups of 14 or 21, and we would end up on a 7 person jury if selected. My name was called in the first group.We waited around for awhile, and then we were all called in and the first 14 or maybe 21(of which I was a part) sat in the jury box, and then another group sat out in the gallery of the courtroom.

  The judge introduced himself, and again told us how important the jury system was, and also introduced us to the prosecutor and the defense attorney. the prosecutor kicked things off by telling us the facts of the crime, and as soon as he did, I knew I was not going to be on the jury. You see, the case was and armed robbery of a local restaurant, and I have an incident in my past that I was pretty sure would disqualify me.

  The judge had us introduce ourselves, say what our jobs were, if we ere married, etc. When It came to me, I told them the pertinent facts of my life, and then I added," And in the interest of disclosure, I should probably let you know that I was robbed at gunpoint." The judge asked me a few questions about it, and then we went on to the next person.

  I assumed that I would be excused at the next break in the action...This was not the case. I had to sit through the Prosecutor's spiel, the defense lawyers spiel(they both talked about how it was not like "Law and Order" and "CSI") and then wait through their discussions. It was actually fairly interesting at times. For one thing, we got a rather exciting call of "SIDEBAR" by the defense attorney when the prosecutor asked if we had cell phones. I'm assuming that  a cell phone played some part in the crime.

  Here was the other interesting thing: There were 2 guys on trial, and they both had the same lawyer. They were going top be tried separately, but in the same courtroom at the same time. They would each have their own jury. For a split second, i almost wished I could have been picked, because that would have been interesting to see.

  Alas, I was not chosen. Que sera,sera.

No comments: