My eleven days of jury duty have been fulfilled. I did my civic duty and I couldn't be more happy to take part in a very important process. I'd love to share my experience and as much of the trial as I can recall, but we weren't allowed to take any notes from the trial with us.
I reported to jury duty on Wednesday January 6th. I got pre-selected for a jury, but I immediately knew specific details about the alleged crime. I asked to be removed from the trial since the case was conservatively expected to take two months. My company covers 15 days of jury duty, but not 40. The case was a murder trial for a restaurant shooting which happened in an adjacent neighborhood.
Thursday morning I filled out a questionnaire after getting assigned to a different criminal trial at the end of Wednesday. The questions were detailed and explicit. The questions asked if you'd be able to view sexually explicit videos of minors. I thought about the question for a bit and answered yes. The trial was expected to last two weeks, so I had the green light. That's a wrap for Thursday, January 7th.
Roughly 60 potential jurors funnel into the judge's courtroom Monday morning to begin the drawn out voir dire process. If you're not familiar with voir dire, it's when the prosecutor and defense attorney(s) ask questions of the jurors in attempt to reveal prejudices that may factor in the trial. It's a fascinating process in action. I will juror #89.
It's during this voir dire process where many potential jurors embellish to get out of serving jury duty. Due to the nature of the trial, we were asked if we had biases towards protecting kids. If a kid has a revelation that was sexual in nature, will we always believe what they say to be the truth? There was a great deal of discussion and about 10-15 jurors were dismissed by the judge based on the jurors admitted biases.
Other questions followed and somehow I was still there. I didn't believe I'd get seated in the jury box, but it happened. Now I was juror #6. The attorneys for both sides have 8 jurors they can remove for whatever reason. I got in the box with a few removals left. I was nervous as hell and amazingly nobody objected to my presence jury so I stayed.
I got on the jury and the following morning (Tuesday January 12th) we'd hear opening statements in the State of Washington vs. Russell Doe*. .... to be continued...
*named changed to protect the presumed innocent
Wow, this is interesting. I loved jury duty, but i'm not sure i could be impartial about the minors and sex photos.
Posted by: meno | January 23, 2010 at 05:13 PM
Can't wait to hear all the details. Or at least the ones you can share.
Posted by: Gwen | January 24, 2010 at 02:41 AM
i was wondering how it all turned out. ive always wanted to get picked! due to my profession, ive been turned down before. hmm.
Posted by: brookem | January 25, 2010 at 01:29 PM
Yeah. I don't think I could have handled the subject matter either. I can't wait to read more.
Posted by: churlita | January 25, 2010 at 07:08 PM
This sounds fascinating. I can't wait to hear more about this.
Posted by: Amanda | January 26, 2010 at 02:18 AM
....waiting patiently...
Posted by: Golden | January 26, 2010 at 03:32 PM
Wow, that sounds very interesting! The only ones I was around for were drunk driving and things of that nature.
Posted by: JLee | January 26, 2010 at 05:24 PM
Well done - of all the folks I know, you are probably the best suited to be a juror.
I tagged you in a meme, even knowing you aren't big on meme's.
Posted by: Chris | January 26, 2010 at 08:33 PM
Whoa. Where'd my comment go?
Posted by: SM | January 26, 2010 at 10:05 PM
OMG. I just got Captcha'd. Why does your blog hate me? I haven't gone comment crazy in ages!!
Posted by: SM | January 26, 2010 at 10:06 PM
It did it again!!! WTF?
Posted by: SM | January 26, 2010 at 10:07 PM
OK. I'm declaring war on Capcha.
Posted by: SM | January 26, 2010 at 10:08 PM
Seriously. One would think if I hate that bastard so much I'd just stop commenting but it's past midnight (here) and I may or may not be a little high on cleaning fumes...And, well, I'm a little hyper right now.
I had a legit comment though earlier! For reals I did! Poop.
Posted by: SM | January 26, 2010 at 10:11 PM
..still waiting... so very patiently...
Posted by: Golden | January 28, 2010 at 09:07 AM
Meno - it was tough, but I think I was as impartial as one can be given the nature of the case. Someone has to watch the videos and look at the photos to be part of the jury.
Gwen - the details will happen once I can get my head around the real world again. The adjustment to real life has been a more challenging than I thought.
Brookem - you're about to learn probably more than you'll ever want to know about the case. Stay tuned. Oh, many teachers were eliminated because of their interactions with kids.
Churlita - having teenaged girls, this would have been really tough for you I imagine. I'm just glad I was able to separate the trial from my personal life.
Amanda - it's incredibly fascinating. I will share as much as possible about the trial in the next day or so.
Golden - I know, I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things.
JLee - most people I know too have been part of DUI cases as well.
Chris - I will take your comment about jury duty as a compliment. I'd like to think I was very fair and unbiased when it came to the trial. It was a tough case.
SM - Captcha had to be enabled because I was getting spam comments on older posts from Russia and Poland. They were pissing me off because they were really long comments. I don't hate you in the least bit.
Golden - I know, I know.
Posted by: egan | January 28, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Oooh - I'm intrigued - how Law and Order SVU sounding!
Posted by: Curly Glamour Girlie | January 29, 2010 at 12:14 PM
Curly Glamour Girlie - yep, I am working on the new post right now. I can't guarantee the post will be short or coherent, but I will try.
Posted by: egan | January 29, 2010 at 03:38 PM