I got called to the kind where you have to be 'on-call' for a week. You may or may not even need to go downtown. Well, Sunday morning I got a voicemail saying, Alas, I need to go down Tuesday morning.
So Tuesday I headed down, and learned that if you get called down... there is a trial that you need to sit in on the jury selection. So, they randomly give you a number, and you sit in order of your number. Well, we all know it takes 12 for a jury, and I got number 11! So I pretty much knew I'd be considered for the jury.
Well, this was a sensitive case, it involved topics that many could not handle, and I understand that. But seriously, losing 35 out of 67 jurors on 1 question! That's kinda ridiculous. I am sure some of them (particularly the women) couldn't handle it, but wow, lots of people took that out.
As I sat there debating, keeping in mind my CRAZY emotional mood swings, and my sensitivity to visual pictures, my bladder control abilities (or lack thereof), and just the pure sensitive subject... I tried to logically decipher if that meant that I couldn't be "fair and impartial". But ultimately, I decided I could be as "fair and impartial" as anyone else could.
So, by 2pm the first day, we were out of jurors and didn't have enough for the lawyers to pick from. So, we had to come back the next day at 10:30am after they had called more people to jury duty. After being sent out again for a recess, we came back in, and they jumped from juror number 1 to number 6 to number 10! Ah! That means that all those people in front of me had some reason that the lawyers didn't want them. Each lawyer only gets 6 rejections, so I knew that chances were not good. And thus, it is true, I was selected, inspite of me mentioning my child advocacy and community service.... shoot! not opinionated enough! And not that I mind being on a jury, but UGH what an inconvience during pregnancy!
I spent the next day and a half listening to a sad story that no one could prove. All in all, it was a very interesting experience and I learned a lot. But it was hard and exhausting. So pretty much the best news that came out of this is, that Wednesday night I got the best night's sleep I have had in months! I only got up to pee once in the middle of the night! Amazing!
2 comments:
I'm surprised that I have STILL never done jury duty. I was asked a couple times in college, but since I was going to school out of state, I always got out of it. And since then, I think nothing. Or did I maybe get out of it once by having a nursing baby? I don't remember. Still, one of these days I'm bound to have to do it. Ticking time bomb...
That's so funny because I had jury duty when I was like 8 months pregnant. I thought for sure they wouldn't want me because of it, but I ended up on a jury for a narcotics case that ended in a mistrial. I agree, a very interesting and informative experience, but even more challenging when pregnant!
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