Our Civic Duty

About a month and a half ago I got a jury summons in the mail. Oh joy, jury duty. There must be a way to make jury duty more convenient. It would be hard to make it more inconvenient.

My previous experience from years ago was ... let's say enlightening. My number came up, so I told my boss I'd miss work. The next day I checked into the jury pool and we were ushered to a courtroom in another building. They started jury selection. There were 2 young men being tried together which seemed rather strange to me. They selected a jury and alternates and I wasn't called. Yay! I figured I was off the hook. Then there was some discussion between the lawyers, the 2 men and the judge while we all sat and waited. And waited and wondered. The defendants settled for a plea bargain. A court official explained to us that this was often the case. Only after they were facing the real jury would a defendant realize they weren't going to negotiate any better deal. We found out the case was for theft and vandalism of police property. Our sense of relief about it being over and done was short lived. With the day almost over we were told that we all had to report back the next morning. So I notified my boss again and went the next day. Again we are ushered into a courtroom. Again they start selection, except this time they were much more selective. The lead question for a while was "Have you ever been the victim of a crime". The person would say "yes" and after a few questions about it be excused. Except for the guy who had an argument with the judge that he should be excused for hardship ... because he was an executive in his company. Anyways, after going through about a dozen people with only 1 or 2 jurors they stopped asking that question and to make a long story short I became juror number 6. The trial was for auto theft and during the 2nd week us jurors took about a day to deliberate that the guy was guilty. Then we learned something that stunned us. We learned that it was a 3rd strike case and the jury could be kept to review the prior cases to make sure they were appropriate. But in this case we were lucky. With 8 prior felony convictions the defendant was waiving his right to the jury and allowing the judge to do the review. The ongoing review could have easily kept us there for a month, we were told. In the end my boss was less than understanding and unforgiving of work project commitments.

So, this time when my group number came up and I had to go in I groaned. Seeing my plans and schedule for the near future cast into mayhem was upsetting. I would have checked in early except for the half hour long line to get past security. They had a much nicer juror waiting area this time. I chuckled at the large selection of jigsaw puzzles that were available, some with large piece counts. I sat and started reading the magazines and books I had brought. First one group was called, then another. Finally I heard these fabulous words. "Group 4, your case has settled and you are being dismissed". Wow. A woman across the room did the "yessss" arm pump while another man got up and said "well that was easy" as he headed towards the exit. Can I say that I was elated and relieved. And I didn't have to come back.

So I did my civic duty and intimidated another defendant into settling. Such is justice, it seems.