Yesterday began two weeks of jury duty for me. This may seem strange to you but I was SO excited when I opened up the mail and found my summons. I have ALWAYS wanted to sit on a jury! My boss offered to write me a letter asking that I be excused but I declined because I really wanted to do it. She just shook her head and said "oooooookayyyyyyyy".
I must admit that the odds of me actually getting picked to sit on a jury are...well...slim to none. My brother is a State Trooper, I am a law school graduate who practiced for two years and I have spent my entire career advocating on behalf of Victim's Rights. One of those things would be enough to eliminate me but combined together it leaves me with little hope....except I still REALLY hope that they will pick me.
So on Sunday night I call the juror phone line and am completely thrilled to learn that I have to report on Monday (your term is for two weeks but every night you have to call the number to see if you have to report the next day). The down side is that I have to report to Superior Court in Georgetown. I never had any cases in Superior Court but this is the town in which I practiced so the odds of me knowing one of the attorneys involved in any case is pretty high which will automatically eliminate me from any jury panel.
On Monday, I arrive to Superior Court early (so excited). The paperwork informed us that we were not to park in a metered spot and we could not use any of the spots in the court parking lot that have a blue and white reserved sign. I pull into the court parking lot only to discover that EVERY spot in that parking lot is marked with a blue and white sign. "No big deal", I think, "I'll just park on the street somewhere". I begin to drive around and everything within a 3 block radius is a metered spot. Sigh! I finally find a spot 4 blocks from the court and park there. At this point it is sprinkling outside and I realize that I have no umbrella. Ugh!
I walk the 4 blocks to the court and go to the designated "juror door". When I am about a block from the court I notice this long line of people wrapping around the block. As I get closer I learn that this is the line for Jurors. Ummm....wtf? So, I along with about 125 other people stand outside in the cold and in the rain for about 10 minutes. Didn't that paperwork warn us not to be late?! Once my toes have turned to blocks of ice they make the decision to open the doors and allow the jurors to come in. This took another 10 minutes because each of us had to go through metal detectors and have our bags x-rayed. We then walk into the lobby of the court. There are about 50 wet and cold potential jurors milling aimlessly around the lobby because there is no sign or handy court helper there telling us where to go. Finally someone bellows form upstairs, "Jury Duty is upstairs". It turns out the bellower is the Handy Court Helper. At his point, I am losing some of my excitement about jury duty.
Once we make our way upstairs we find ourselves in another line. I was somewhere in the middle of the line and stood there for about 30 minutes. No one told us exactly what we were doing in the line or what we were waiting for. So we just stood there and occasionally moved up. I noticed several elderly persons with canes but the Handy Court Helper must not have noticed them because they also stood in the line for 30-60 minutes waiting for...well whatever we were waiting for.
After spending my 30 minutes in the line I go around a corner and learn what we have been mysteriously waiting for. Drum roll please...to check in! I give the clerk my license and summons and she checks me off a list and hands me my juror handbook and tells me to have a seat. At that point I am escorted to a court bench and told to sit down. Apparently they have called in too many jurors on this particular day because the Bailiff keeps telling us all to sit closer together. We are literally packed into the benches like sardines. It's to the point that you have to keep both hands on your lap because you can't really push your shoulders back. I sit in my sardine seat for another 30 minutes. Thank God I brought along a good book but as I 'm reading my romance novel I get to a particularly juicy section. Then I'm all paranoid that the rest of the sardines are reading my book too and thinking I'm some kind of pervert so I have to close it and just people watch.
After 30 minutes of waiting the court staff realizes that there are not enough seats for all of the sardines. There are about 30 people with no where to go. After another 10 minutes they come up with the brilliant idea to put the extra people in a different room. Really? Is the first time they have done this!?
Now at this point you can imagine how comfortable we all are. We are practically sitting on each other's laps, the temperature in the room has gone up 20 degrees and the guy sitting in front of me doesn't smell so good. So guess what time it is? Juror orientation time of course! You can imagine how thrilled we all are when they turn on a 1980's grainy film that is basically a history lesson on jury duty. Did you know that juries were actually developed in the 1800's? I didn't...and to be honest neither I nor the smelly guy really cared at this point. The second part of our orientation consisted of a judge coming out to expand upon the importance of jury duty...FOR 30 MINUTES...sigh.
Once the judge is done talking we are told that we have a 5 minute break and then jury selection will begin. Sure...all 200 of us should be able to use the bathroom in 5 minutes! They were not kidding about the 5 minutes because about 30 seconds into our break they were informing us that we needed to head back to the sardine box. Once we were all firmly packed again...nothing happened. Once again we sat there waiting. Nothing was happening so people began to chit chat until we were scolded by the bailiff to be quiet. Really... NOTHING is happening?! I'm not really enjoying this whole jury duty thing.
After about 15 minutes some official looking people walk into the court room and sit at the tables in front. Finally some real action (Yup...I was all kinds of excited again!). I realize that these are the attorneys and clients. Yay...I don't know any of them. I have crossed hurdle one!!!
Finally the judge walks in and says that jury selection will begin. The tell us how this will happen. What I hear is "Wawawawaw...that guy REALLY smells...wawawawah". That middle part was from my neighbor sardine. They begin by telling us that they are going to give some basic info about the trial. It is a murder trial that took place in Seaford, DE (my heart sinks...strike 1). It is a domestic violence situation (crap...strike 2) that resulted in the death of a 3 month old infant (oh dear god!). At this point I realize that there is no way in heck that I am going to get picked for this jury...but I'm still kind of hoping there is a way I can stay under the radar and make it in even though the subject matter is less than appealing to me.
They then say that they are going to ask a series of questions and if you answer yes to any of the questions you must come up front and speak to the judge and all four of the attorneys. The first question is do you know any of these people. They read the names of the parties involved and then begin a long list of names of police officers from the Seaford police department. I'm feeling pretty good at this point because I didn't recognize any of the names. They then start reading the witnesses and damn it...I know one of the first responding nurses professionally. The judge then says..."If you know any of these people please stand." I along with about 20 other people stand (it was a huge list of people). We are then all called to the front individually to speak to the judge and attorneys.
When it is my turn, the very intimidating judge who is towering over me because he is up on the judge's stand says "Why did you stand up"? "Well sir", I say, " I know Suzy Q (not her real name) professionally. I do not work with her on a regular basis but our paths do cross about once a month at various professional meetings." All four attorneys start scribbling something on their hand dandy note pad. In my head...please don't kick me out, please don't kick me out. Very Intimidating Judge says, "What is your profession?" Crap...I know this is it, my chances are done. I proceed to tell him exactly what I do. He then keeps me up there for another 5 minutes questioning me about my training, my job functions, my educational background, my recent policy work and finally says, "Do you feel like you could be an unbiased juror?". "Yes sir", I say to him, (OMG...am I actually going to be cleared for this?!...in my head of course). He then tells me to step aside for a minute. He and the attorney's chit chat for a second (yea, they are talking about me...I can't hear what they are saying but they are most definitely talking about me. So rude!) and then he bellows from his perch..."EXCUSED". DOG GONE IT...so close.
I called last night and didn't have to report today. I'm still hoping to get into a jury sometime over the next two weeks. PICK ME, PICK ME! Here's to wishful thinking...
