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Tag: jury duty

luck of the draw, i guess

Juror number 29.

Sitting and waiting was tedious. The majority of today was spent listening to each story and excuse why anyone shouldn’t have to continue with jury duty.

Out of the nearly 90 of us sitting there, the judge decided to question just the first 50. Then came time for the lawyers to follow up. Finally, deliberations about who should and should not serve.

The judge was very kind and was quick in questioning everyone for further information. Most people said there was no reason why they could not unbiasedly serve. Several others became emotional, confessing how difficult each situation was for each person. The excuses all sounded similar. The fun part, however, was watching the district attorney corner everyone into why he or she could or could not serve to be impartial and fair. This DA was relentless, too, but she was just doing her job.

After lunch and another break, the pick for a jury began. It was kinda strange watching the selection process because it was more like a game. First the state of California rejects someone. Then the defense rejects someone else. And they take turns for quite a while.

Numbers one through twelve sat in the jury box. After an initial swipe of a few people, the game began and the jury members in the hot seats were slowly axed as either the DA or defense attorneys didn’t want someone. As one person left one of the hot seats, the next in numerical order who still survived took the empty seat.

The pressure became intense as I saw each attorney axe another person. Sometimes, you knew exactly why one person was denied. Other times, it was just random. But in the end, those who were not very partial were left behind. Everyone in front of me who was not denied went up to the hot seats.

Juror number 28 was axed, and I took his hot seat. There I sat, watching and waiting for just a moment. It was the defense attorney’s move.

I was not picked for the final panel of jury duty.

Back to life, back to reality.

jury duty

From my recollection, I’ve never entered a criminal courtroom. In fact, it’s very rare that I’ve actually been to a courthouse. The three times I remember going are:

  • Boy Scouts – I went with my troop to see a courtroom and talk about law and what goes on in the judicial system
  • Speeding Ticket – I decided to actually fight a speeding ticket I got when I was driving on the Beltway 8 ramp coming onto I-45 on the Gulf Freeway. I was blatantly guilty and the court charged me an extra $50 for the 10 minutes it took for me to fight the ticket. What a waste of my time and money.
  • Family Court – My dad brought my brother and me to the courthouse when my parents were getting a divorce. We really didn’t need to be there but he felt it was appropriate for us to attend and see what was going on. I’m sure part of it was that we were symbolism of what would be lost if it was finalized.

Yesterday afternoon I finally entered into my first criminal courtroom. In fact, I sat on my first panel as a potential jury member for a criminal court case. I am one of about 90 potential jurors to be chosen for this specific case. Best of all, even if I do get picked, the longest this case should last is about a week. I don’t have a choice either way of if I’m picked or not, but I might as well make the best of it.

We received a one page questionnaire with a list of information to fill out including our biases and history into law. I finished every item, but one question said the following (paraphrased):

“Will age, race, or religious preference affect the outcome of your decision?”

This question bothers me for several reasons. If I say no, can I objectively say that none of these variables will influence or affect what i think of the defendant(s) when decision time is on hand? I try to be very practical when it comes to making decisions. I’ve always felt my rationalizations are logical, even more so than others in their rationalizations. But during a recent discussion I had a few months ago, I came to realize that complete objectiveness in decisions is virtually impossible unless you are a robot. Many factors, including nurture and subliminal messages amongst many others, can influence how you think or feel about any subject. There is plenty of evidence that bias and subjectiveness influence our decisions, especially during arguments.

Will these factors influence my decision? Of course they will in an open setting where I see and hear the defendant(s) and testimony. I am human after all. But I will try very hard to be practical and logical about these decisions.

When I decided to change the answer to that question, my answer was “maybe” with the note, “it depends on how fundamentalist they are”.

jury duty

I got summoned for the first time ever.

May 29.

Luckily, the courthouse is only 6 minutes from my house. This makes it less bad.