What a day! If a person could sit through jury selection at U.S. District Court and not be worried about being selected . . . oh wait - a person CAN. Courtrooms are public spaces. I would recommend doing it at least once. Today was so interesting. Yeah, I had the added pressure of perhaps being called to serve but it was nevertheless, really interesting.
There were 130 potential jurors in the pool. Because of the nature of the trial and the anticipated length of 10 weeks, the jury pool of exceptionally large. In fact, it was the biggest selection pool in CA history. I was number 72, the middle of the pack. I figured I would have a 50/50 chance of getting in the box.
The judge asked a series of questions of all jurors that could be answered yes or no. All 130 of us had to listen to the questions and if we were called into the jury box, we were to be prepared to indicate if we had any yes answers. Being prepared meant the questions did not have to be repeated. A yes answer was followed up by some gentle but pointed questions by the judge to elicit what was really in the potential juror's mind.
As it turned out, the attorneys had their jury after calling only 59 potentials. It took them all day to get there and it did get a little frantic towards the end with some of the jurors when they realized they were IT. And all the attorneys were maneuvering like mad over the last of the selections. It got to be a little bit theatrical. I was thinking that if this is what jury selection is like, the closing arguments are going to be grand opera.
So in the end I didn't even get close. After all my worry, I dodged the bullet, BUT, I'm not off the hook yet. I have to call in again on Friday after 5 p.m. to find out what my instructions will be for next Monday. I'm still within my 30 work days on-call period so anything can still happen but nothing like today ** (I hope) **
3 comments:
Oh yay, hopefully that will be it. I was called to regular jury duty at the end of school once and even had to sit on the jury. I know that it is stressful (missing school, but at least local) Curious which case it is if that big of jury pool and the length.
Good Luck! I have been on jury duty before and yes it is interesting. I would not be happy to be stuck on a long jury though. Cross your fingers for me tomorrow.
Thanks for the call, Anne. I'm glad you were almost home. I get called at least once a year for our county, but have never had to serve. I often wonder how impartial I really, really would be. I think it is a difficult task at best. Yet, having been involved with law enforcement all these years, I always think that by the time the defendant makes it to court, there is usually something there. Thank goodness we are judged innocent until proven guilty.
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