Civic Duty 101 – Juror #212

Well my number has finally came up!!   Out of the twenty-five years roaming this earth it has finally come time for me to pay back my community with what else??? A JURY SUMMONS.  I called lastnight to find that my lovely number had been chosen…and it’s silly but I’m quite the virgin to this experience.   My boyfriend had gave me the 411 on what to expect… My boyfriend’s words "#1 leave early in order to find a good parking spot.  #2 leave your purse in the car..you never know  what the courthouse may mistake an item for a weapon in your purse  #3 don’t worry about a thing it’s a breeze and finally #4 have a good day and if you get done early don’t worry about going back to work." 

It wasn’t so bad…just like he said.  Its more time consuming on little things than I really antisipated.  It’s funny the questions the defense and state district attorneys ask any one person.   One that I can remember rather well " Has anyone ever been a victim of a violent crime?"   I sat a pondered the question as other jury members raised their hands one by one. The more I thought about it,  I recalled an incident.  So I too raised my hand to expain my story to the judge and lawyers.  Roughly over four years ago I was working in a convenient store.  This particular night I had this crazy man come into the store and belt out to me that someone had kidnapped his wife.  Once the man had come close to me I could instantly smell the alcohol on his breath and realized something wasn’t right with this situation.   I didn’t react fast enough for the man unfortunately.  The man became instantly angry with me, slapped a pack of cigarettes out of my hand,proceeded to curse/threaten me, and finally start to destroy the store.  This scared the heck out of.   The bad part of this whole ordeal was it was in a room full of people and even a cop that was off duty.  The cop didn’t do much during the destruction.  After this was done I never ended up finding out whatever became of the man….which brings me back to my original topic.  Once I had spilled this to the judge and attorneys the state district attorney was familar with the case and had handled the matter.  She went on to explain that the man had been convicted.  So this was rather relieving to hear. 

So after all of that was over the lawyers went through each juror, asked their questions, and then deliberated which jurors they would choose.  Luckily I didn’t get picked which I was relieved.  The accused was a man charged with aggrivated assault and possession of an illegal handgun.   This man was there through the entire juror selection and he was VERY much scary looking to me.  So like I said before it didn’t hurt my feelings one bit to not be chosen as a member of the jury.  All in all the experience was interesting and I managed pull through it with flying colors.  Just a piece of cake as some would say.