Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Jury duty

I survived jury duty, with nary a scratch upon me. I was out the door by 6:30am, after reminding hubby that he had to make luch for the boy. I was a bit worried that I would miss my bus due to the fact that the drive to the park and ride took longer than I thought it would. It seems a car was broken down in the left hand lane and was snarling the traffic for miles. I made it to the station with seconds to spare, walking from the parking lot right onto the bus I waved my jury summons at the bus driver (it is free to use public transportation when reporting to jury duty as long as you show your summons to the driver)and sat down for the ride in. The use of public transportation was very smart of me for several reasons. The garage that the internet recommended jurors park in has not yet been completed, and I doubt the construction workers care all that much about keeping the paint job on the car pristine. It was also quite fun to watch the rest of the traffic that was at a standstill as we whisked by in the HOV lane. What would normally be an hour drive was just a 30 minute ride for me.

I knew I had to walk a few blocks to the courthouse when I got off the bus, but was unsure of the exact way. Luckily, the woman who got off the bus ahead of me was going in the same direction and guided me to my location. (Thank you kind stranger!). The county I am in does many jury pools in one day, with about 1500 people called in to serve that day. I was polled for a civil trial, which I was happy for since they usually last just a day or two. I didn't actually get selected for the jury, as I was potential juror #26 (remember, they only need 12). Some of the potential jurors were very obvious in their attempts to get removed from the jury pool. If I had been selected, I might have had to ask to be excused anyway - the plaintiff's lawyer had such a heavy Louisiana accent that I was having a difficult time understanding him!

We were dismissed around lunchtime and I headed to my bus stop, which was different than the one from the morning. I circled a 3 block radius a couple times, asked the homeless guy at corner three if he knew where my stop was (he tried to help, but actually had me going the completely wrong way), waved to homeless guy #2 as I passed him again as I and finally found my way. Luckily, the bus comes every 40 minutes, so I didn't miss it and in fact got a little exercise in the process.

1 comment:

Envoy-ette said...

So far...I have never gotten to serve with a jury. I haven't lived in that state for 16 years now. I'm not sure if I would want too though. What if I got a case in which the defendant was a real wacko...torture and killing thing. I would have to look at pictures and a grieving family. I wouldn't like that. I would have to smuggle in a gun and shot him on the final day if the jury voted not-guilty.