Jury Duty

I did my civic duty this week by going to the Wake County Courthouse on Monday for Jury Duty.  It was a typical slow day at the courthouse to be sure.  I arrived at 8:30AM, 30 minutes prior to the time I was instructed to arrive so that I could a) find the courthouse and b) find a parking space.  I achieved both without issue.  I was directed to the Jury Lounge, a place that I became all to familiar with throughout the day.  We started off our day with a dated orientation video.  How do I know it was dated?  Charles Kuralt hosted it. 

Following the video, small groups of potential jurors were called to assorted court rooms for interviews.  The interviews were set up for the lawyers to insure they had a qualified jury as well as a jury that would improve their own chances for winning their case.  I was not called during the morning sessions, so I stayed in the Jury Lounge reading and iPoding.  Due to one case being thrown out and another case being settled out of court, the jurors were dismissed, but only until 2:30PM.  After hanging out with some former co-workers at SmartStart and my wife at her work, I returned to the Jury Lounge once again. 

This time I was among the pool of potential jurors called into court.  By this time I was curious about the process.  Then lo and behold, I was called to the jury box as Juror #11.  The district attorney and the defense attorney went back and forth interviewing jurors with their questions.  Some jurors were dismissed due to conflicts of interest, but mostly the attorneys were giving people with scheduling conflicts the benefit of the doubt and mercifully excusing them from the jury.  This ended up hurting both attorneys in the end.

After the defense attorney used his last jury dismissal, the defense was left with the final juror who could barely speak English.  Since so many jurors had been excused, the jury pool was too shallow presenting quite a problem.  If the non-English speaking juror is allowed to sit on the jury, understanding the facts of the case could not be insured.  However, if he is dismissed, the remaining two potential jurors would have to be assigned to the jury without any questioning (one as the final juror and one as an alternate).  Since the defense had used up his dismissals, the judge had to make this decision.  Ultimately, the judge decided to dismiss ALL of the jurors and start new in the morning.  I waited all day in the jury lounge fighting off boredom, made it to the last jury of the day, actually sitting in the jury box only to be dismissed at the last possible minute.  While I was pleased that I did not have to return the next day, I was a little disappointed that I did not get to serve after waiting so long to get there.