Even when it's names being drawn randomly from a box...
I still don't get chosen for teams. ;)
I'd heard horror stories of sitting in the jury assembly room for potentially days on end, so I was surprised and relieved when my name was called in about the fifth or so group of jurors. So I packed up my iPod and filed into a courtroom with 49 other strangers. When you're in the courtroom they choose 36 names at random for the next level of selection, the voir dire - basically interviewing the jurors on their backgrounds and determining if there's anything there that would compromise your ability to render a fair verdict. 36 out of 50, I figured I had pretty good odds of getting called.
Name after name called... the benches around me get emptier and emptier, people moving to the jury chairs on the other side of the courtroom, and there I still sit. But my name wasn't in the first 36 called, and after they weeded out four (one narcoleptic, one lady who worked in an attorney's office, and two who knew some of the witnesses) and called four more from the audience, I'm still sitting in the audience benches.
40 out of 50 got picked for the voir dire, and I still beat the odds. ;) Maybe I should try for the Powerball, LOL.
And sometime after 5:00, when they finally picked the final 12 and 2 alternates, the judge had the rest of us turn in our badges, so apparently we're home free for this go around. Woo! No more jury duty! (For now, anyway.) So I basically traded in a day of sitting on my ass for several hours in the office for... sitting on my ass for several hours in a courtroom. At least I didn't have to answer any phones. ;)
Part of me's relieved, part of me's disappointed. Disappointed because I found the little taste I got of the judicial system fascinating, but relieved because I HATE parking in downtown OKC ($7 a day in the garage I used, meh). And while I would have gladly served if picked, looking back I'm not sure I could have been totally rational and impartial. It was a first degree murder trial - gang-related from the sound of it - with a guy younger than me facing the possibility of life without parole. I don't have any personal experience with murder or gangbangers (thankfully) - but having to decide whether a man younger than me is going to have to spend his life in prison is a bit heavy for a first go-around.
Non-court stuff:
-- Still loving my new glasses. I'm even blinder than I realized without them - even stuff a moderate distance away, which I thought I saw reasonably well without my glasses, looks so much sharper and clearer now. Thanks for all the very kind comments on them. :) Now, tomorrow will be the real test: my coworkers.
-- Have just realized that the networks apparently decided to frontload my TV week: TSCC, Heroes, and HIMYM are all Mondays. (Though Heroes is on borrowed time with me at the moment.) I completely even forgot about HIMYM tonight. And I'm not going to get to catch Office on Thursday night because of psych class - the one thing I do regret about that class. ;) Between HIMYM, The Office, The Daily Show, and Clone Wars, looks like Hulu is going to get a bunch of site hits from me this season. :P
I'd heard horror stories of sitting in the jury assembly room for potentially days on end, so I was surprised and relieved when my name was called in about the fifth or so group of jurors. So I packed up my iPod and filed into a courtroom with 49 other strangers. When you're in the courtroom they choose 36 names at random for the next level of selection, the voir dire - basically interviewing the jurors on their backgrounds and determining if there's anything there that would compromise your ability to render a fair verdict. 36 out of 50, I figured I had pretty good odds of getting called.
Name after name called... the benches around me get emptier and emptier, people moving to the jury chairs on the other side of the courtroom, and there I still sit. But my name wasn't in the first 36 called, and after they weeded out four (one narcoleptic, one lady who worked in an attorney's office, and two who knew some of the witnesses) and called four more from the audience, I'm still sitting in the audience benches.
40 out of 50 got picked for the voir dire, and I still beat the odds. ;) Maybe I should try for the Powerball, LOL.
And sometime after 5:00, when they finally picked the final 12 and 2 alternates, the judge had the rest of us turn in our badges, so apparently we're home free for this go around. Woo! No more jury duty! (For now, anyway.) So I basically traded in a day of sitting on my ass for several hours in the office for... sitting on my ass for several hours in a courtroom. At least I didn't have to answer any phones. ;)
Part of me's relieved, part of me's disappointed. Disappointed because I found the little taste I got of the judicial system fascinating, but relieved because I HATE parking in downtown OKC ($7 a day in the garage I used, meh). And while I would have gladly served if picked, looking back I'm not sure I could have been totally rational and impartial. It was a first degree murder trial - gang-related from the sound of it - with a guy younger than me facing the possibility of life without parole. I don't have any personal experience with murder or gangbangers (thankfully) - but having to decide whether a man younger than me is going to have to spend his life in prison is a bit heavy for a first go-around.
Non-court stuff:
-- Still loving my new glasses. I'm even blinder than I realized without them - even stuff a moderate distance away, which I thought I saw reasonably well without my glasses, looks so much sharper and clearer now. Thanks for all the very kind comments on them. :) Now, tomorrow will be the real test: my coworkers.
-- Have just realized that the networks apparently decided to frontload my TV week: TSCC, Heroes, and HIMYM are all Mondays. (Though Heroes is on borrowed time with me at the moment.) I completely even forgot about HIMYM tonight. And I'm not going to get to catch Office on Thursday night because of psych class - the one thing I do regret about that class. ;) Between HIMYM, The Office, The Daily Show, and Clone Wars, looks like Hulu is going to get a bunch of site hits from me this season. :P