Law & Order: Special People Who Can't Decide Whether to Go to Trial.
I felt weird announcing this until it was all finished, but I got called up for Charleston City Municipal court jury duty this week. Thanksgiving week, yeah. Ick. I was afraid they were going to make us come in on Friday, but luckily they are closed. It was not quite as exciting as it appears on Law and Order. Well, maybe it is if you actually make it on a jury, but my story is one of boredom and aggravation. LOL.
I go in at 10AM monday when im supposed to report. we sit around for 3 hours while they try to settle the first thing out of court. That apparently doesnt work. They call us in to do jury selection. I am one of the people called up… you go up to the judge's bench, say your name and what you do and what your spouse does if you have one. The prosecution and defense have the opportunity to reject you as a juror for any reason.
The prosecution was fine with me (which im assuming it was them, it was two people sitting to my left when facing the judge's bench) and the guy to my right was this elderly black man with a cane… who i guess was representing himself. He apparently didnt want me for some reason. From everything I've heard probably hearing that I'm an IT Technical Support Engineer makes me sound too smart. So i go to sit down… the judge tells us to go home if we werent picked until 9:30 the next morning.
I come in yesterday morning, wait around for an hour, judge says that Mondays trial was taking longer than anticipated and the Tuesday trial was pushed to the afternoon so call in at 2 to find out if that trial is actually going to happen. call at 2… they say they're still debating…. call at 2:15 and they say to come in.
We come in, sit down, the judge says that a bunch of motions and such have been filed and so thats what delayed it. it was apparently going to be a several hour ordeal and the judge didnt want us to have to be sequestered and have to be there till like midnight which it may well could have taken that long, so he was delaying till Wednesday. He said to call back wednesday morning at 10 to find out if we were going to trial.
So i call this morning at 10… the line hadn't been updated, so i called the actual Charleston City Court number, they told me they were debating and to call back at 11. i called back just before 11 and they said the jurors were to report immediately (which i was like aw crap because its already 11 at this point, and i'm supposed to have dinner with the family tonight which if this trial went way long wouldnt happen…but also wouldnt be able to call anyone probably to tell them that I wouldn't make it lol)
So we all show up, sit around for an hour, go in, and the judge tells us they were planning on going to trial up until 5 minutes prior, when the defendant put in a plea agreement. So he apologized, gave us the obligatory speech about how serving on a jury is one of the two most important things you will do in a democratic society (besides vote) and sent us all home.
The End. Thus ends the saga of Law & Order: Special People Who Can't Decide Whether to Go to Trial.
I go in at 10AM monday when im supposed to report. we sit around for 3 hours while they try to settle the first thing out of court. That apparently doesnt work. They call us in to do jury selection. I am one of the people called up… you go up to the judge's bench, say your name and what you do and what your spouse does if you have one. The prosecution and defense have the opportunity to reject you as a juror for any reason.
The prosecution was fine with me (which im assuming it was them, it was two people sitting to my left when facing the judge's bench) and the guy to my right was this elderly black man with a cane… who i guess was representing himself. He apparently didnt want me for some reason. From everything I've heard probably hearing that I'm an IT Technical Support Engineer makes me sound too smart. So i go to sit down… the judge tells us to go home if we werent picked until 9:30 the next morning.
I come in yesterday morning, wait around for an hour, judge says that Mondays trial was taking longer than anticipated and the Tuesday trial was pushed to the afternoon so call in at 2 to find out if that trial is actually going to happen. call at 2… they say they're still debating…. call at 2:15 and they say to come in.
We come in, sit down, the judge says that a bunch of motions and such have been filed and so thats what delayed it. it was apparently going to be a several hour ordeal and the judge didnt want us to have to be sequestered and have to be there till like midnight which it may well could have taken that long, so he was delaying till Wednesday. He said to call back wednesday morning at 10 to find out if we were going to trial.
So i call this morning at 10… the line hadn't been updated, so i called the actual Charleston City Court number, they told me they were debating and to call back at 11. i called back just before 11 and they said the jurors were to report immediately (which i was like aw crap because its already 11 at this point, and i'm supposed to have dinner with the family tonight which if this trial went way long wouldnt happen…but also wouldnt be able to call anyone probably to tell them that I wouldn't make it lol)
So we all show up, sit around for an hour, go in, and the judge tells us they were planning on going to trial up until 5 minutes prior, when the defendant put in a plea agreement. So he apologized, gave us the obligatory speech about how serving on a jury is one of the two most important things you will do in a democratic society (besides vote) and sent us all home.
The End. Thus ends the saga of Law & Order: Special People Who Can't Decide Whether to Go to Trial.