Jury

I’ve been away the past few days thanks to having jury duty. I had to show up at the courthouse Monday at 8:30 for jury summons. I was ushered in a room with about 100 potential jurors. We were shown an introductory video about the jury selection process and how important our services was to the court system.

After that, we began playing musical chairs and given numbers from 1-12 for each row. The judge appeared and provided instructions on what our day was to look like. He then allowed any juror, who had legitimate reasons, to be excused from jury duty. Approximately 15 people ended up being excused during this time.

We were told to sit tight until our rows was called to the courtroom, so I spent the morning working on word find puzzles. A little while later, we were given a 15 minute break; funny enough, one juror took it upon herself to leave the premises and was picked up by a sheriff and had to explain herself to the judge heh.

We came back from break and was told to take an early lunch. We needed to be back in the jury room around 1:30 (we went to lunch at 11).

When we made it back, our group was called into the court room to begin jury selection. I happened to be selected as a juror along with 12 other individuals. We were going to listen on a case where the defendant is accused of making terroristic threats last year. The judge told us to come back to the courtroom Wednesday at 9 a.m.

The case wasn’t that interesting actually. The defendant went into a hair salon establishment asking if they were a check cashing place. He was informed they couldn’t cash his check, and he became irate. He left the establishment and came back a short time later threatening to kill them. He didn’t have a gun, but the way he vocalized the threat was enough to cause fear and terror to the customers in the establishment.

He was later stopped by a patrol officer and subsequently arrested. He told the officer that he would do the time.

That was the case in a nutshell, and the proceedings went along smoothly until a witness took too long to arrive. The judge allowed us an early lunch (11-1:30). I went to Pizza Hut for lunch and then came home to rest. My new Galaxy tab arrived, so I was able to play with that before I drove back to the courthouse.

We listened to one more witness, and then retired to the jury room to deliberate. I was elected as the jury foreman (yay!), but we spent about an hour deliberating. We took votes on three different occasions. On the first occasion, eight said guilty, three said not guilty, and one was undecided. We took another vote, and it was 10-2 guilty. We went back and looked at the actual definition of a terroristic threat, and we reached an unanimous decision of guilty.

I signed the verdict form, and we went back into the courtroom. I handed the judge the verdict; he said the defendant was guilty. At that time, we were released from jury duty and free to discuss the case with anyone if we wanted to. He also offered any of us to stay to see the sentencing portion carried out if we wanted to.

I left the courthouse and went to Sprint to buy a new screen protector for my galaxy tab. My co-worker wanted my HTC Evo for a month now. He wouldn’t be eligible for the upgraded price until next year. I told him he could give me $200 for the Evo, and we’ll call it even. I like the galaxy tab b/c I have a lower plan ($59.99 for unlimited text, data, video, etc.). I rarely call anyone or receive calls, so I can just get a very basic flip phone for calls. Plus, with our trip to Connecticut coming up, I won’t have to have my laptop out as much.

Galaxy tab completely closed up in its case:

A scene from “Let’s Do it Again”:

On-Screen keyboard: