Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Jury Duty

This week I'm doing my civic duty by showing up to jury duty. I've never been selected for a prospective jury pool, let alone an actual jury. When I arrived at the courthouse this morning it only took about an hour for them to call my group up to a courtroom and another hour of instructions and dismissals for them to call me and 23 other people to the jury box for voir dire. Rather than try to explain that one, just click the link.

I left after the first day thinking that I'd likely be on the jury. I was pretty excited actually. It was a criminal case with a very contentious issue involved and I was looking forward to seeing it all play out. Unfortunately for me, I was one of the first people to be excused the next day.

The process led me to think about our justice system in a way I've never had reason to before. I realized that it allows for both the defense and prosecution to find the jurors they think best suit the case, even if it takes a few days. The judge had said the trial would only last about two weeks—relatively short for a criminal case—but that had no effect on the efforts the attorneys made. I realized they would have tried that hard no matter what the case, and that was pretty reassuring. I don't plan on ever ending up in court, but it's nice to know the system would take care of me—at least during jury selection.

Have you ever served on a jury?

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