A Typical Day of Jury Duty

I got out of it twice over the summer, once because I was going out of town to see Duran Duran (gotta have my priorities LOL) and once because I was having a stressful week, but today I finally served for Jury Service. It was a teacher work day so the boys were not at school - Luckily, it was Yom Kippur, so Jonathan was home. I went in to the Jury assembly room at 8am and sat there until about 11:45, basically reading my book (Hello, He Lied by Lynda Obst) and people watching. (Courthouses are great for people watching.) They played Golden Girls and then a movie, some golf flick with Jim Caviezel.

Finally, 30 of us were called into a courtroom. We came in to hear a lady sobbing inside a small room next to the courtroom door. The trial was a criminal case; an assault charge. The state vs. the defendant, a huge intimidating looking man, who was accused of beating his wife. Presumably, his wife was the sobbing woman. 12 jurors, not me, were called into the juror box. The prosecutor asked them questions to see if they could be fair and impartial.

Then, we broke for lunch. After a break of about and hour and a half, we met the bailiff at the elevators and were led back into the court. The prosecutor asked several more questions of the 12 jurors. One girl was obviously trying to get out of it, I could just tell by her answers (heck, I might have done the same) So, after she assured them that she'd be very biased and unable to be fair, they let her go. They called another juror to replace her, not me. Whew. Then, the defense attourney had his shot. He asked some questions. One of the women on in the box had been through a domestic violence case with her husband. Surprisingly, he didn't ask to excuse her. They chose one last alternate juror and both prosecution and defense agreed they were happy with the jury. We were excused from the courtroom.

We were then led back to the jury assembly room where they were eating popcorn and watching "A Beautiful Mind" - there was a desk area and several laptop users were using the internet (Ironic because jurors are not allowed to talk to anyone, read newspapers or see local news, yet they can use the internet LOL) A couple people were sleeping. After a half hour or so, at about 3:30, we were all excused for the day. A full $12 earned for the 7 1/2 hours of sitting around.

In North Carolina, you only have to serve once every 2 years. I'm home free now :) ... for two years anyway.