Trial By Jury

I got my jury summons a few months ago.  I wasn't trying to shirk my civic duty or anything, but I just couldn't make it when they wanted me to so I sent the card back informing them that I was a very full-time student and asked if they would reschedule me for summer.  They kindly obliged and sent me another summons for June 8th.  That was still a ways off at the time so I hung my summons on our marker board and there it stayed.

June 8th approached and so that morning I got up nice and early and made my way to the criminal justice center downtown.  I took the blue line to City Hall, hopped across a couple streets, and found myself there in no time.  I had to take off my earrings to pass through the metal detector and put my bag on a conveyor belt for inspection, and then I made my way toward the jury room.  I was expecting to serve my time, and I was hoping to be outta there by like 2 or 3 like Zack was when he served his jury duty a few months before.  So I settled down in a seat and waited... and waited... and waited.  At length, they called my name and put me on a 50 person panel, and they said someone would be there shortly to pick us up and take us up to the courtroom to begin jury selection.  Time went on.  More people were assigned to panels and herded out of the room.  It began to clear out, and soon it was only the 50 of us.  Finally, they reassigned us to another judge and soon enough, they herded us upstairs to a courtroom. There we sat and waited... and waited... and waited.  Then they took us into the courtroom with the judge we were assigned to, she said hello, and promptly sent us on a 2 hour lunch break.  By the time we got back, it was about 3 in the afternoon, and juror interviews hadn't even begun. At long last, that started, and a number of jurors were interviewed, including myself, but it sure took a load of time.  Well I think the judge recognized that there was no way in the world that they were going to get through the whole panel in any kind of timely manner so she sent about 20 of them home (the last 20.  I was #12).  The really narrowed down my chances of getting picked.  So when everyone was finally interviewed, we sat and waited while the lawyers passed a legal pad between themselves and decided on a jury.  It was near 7 PM when they announced their selections.  I was among them... #6 to be exact.  So, after an 11 hour day that involved mostly sitting and doing nothing, I was sent home and told to be back the next morning.  On the bright side, I had the chance to finish this book.

So I got there at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, spent a lot of that day waiting too, but also began to hear testimony.  I spent all day from 9:30 to at least 4:30 there all week.  It was a frustrating process because it involved so much waiting around while they dealt with other court matters and such, but the trial was very interesting.  There were 2 defendants who were charged with intimidation of a witness.  It's a long story, as evidenced by the fact that it took 4 days to present all the evidence about it in court.  If you are interested in particulars, I would be glad to discuss them with you verbally.  

Arguments wrapped up this afternoon around 2:30 and we began deliberations.  Overall, it was not a bad process.  Everyone agreed on some of the charges, everyone came to agree on others when the meaning of the charges were fully understood, and we reached a common ground on the remaining charges.  Delivering the verdict was a very difficult and sad process.  It was more emotional for me than I thought it would be.  We had to go out there and tell the defendants that we found them guilty (on all counts for one of them and on 3 of the 5 counts for the other). At that point, we basically just got to leave and go home and that's that.  But that's not the end for those people.  They will face the consequences.  And it's hard to think that I was one of the people who passed judgement on them and changed their lives forever.  I know that I am not the one who made them commit crimes, but it is still hard to have to be the judge of someone else's actions.

Anyway, I guess it wasn't a horrible experience overall.  The waiting around was very frustrating at times.  But I learned a lot, and I can't really think of a better time in life to have done this.  I have no school, no job, and no kids.  I didn't miss out on a single thing except sleeping in and then sitting home alone all day (okay, I maybe missed out on some job hunting...).  

One great thing- if we stay here in Philly, they can't summon me for another 3 years since I actually served on the jury.  Those who serve their one day of jury duty and then go home are potentially eligible every year.