Jury DutyI’ve had jury duty all week and just called the juror information number and found out I have to show up again tomorrow! I’m so bummed.

Its not that its that hard or that I have a problem doing my civic duty, its just that I don’t get picked for the juries so I basically just sit in the over crowded uncomfortable seating of the jury sequestration room all morning until the juries are picked for the day. The intermittent trips into one of the court rooms to go through the jury selection process is the highlight of the morning.

This is the first time I’ve been called for jury duty believe it or not. After three days of sitting in that sequestration room, I’m now an expert (hehe!).

I learned the first day that it didn’t matter that I made eye contact with and smiled at the defense attorney. I was so mad at myself as soon as I did it. Its just that I was raised to ‘work a room’ so to speak. I was raised to be friendly, smile and make eye contact. Its something I do and it seems to be in the marrow of my bones. I can’t help it. I noticed the sour expressions on the other potential jurors faces and had even told myself that I would be unapproachable when the panel went into the court room.

I told my Beloved Curmudgeon of my plan and he just laughed. He knows. I am the type of person that knows the life history of the lady checking me out at Wal-Mart. Sure enough, the woman sitting next to me in the sequestration room told me everything while we sat there waiting the first morning. When our panel got called into the court room, she scurried behind me and told me she was glad we were going in there together. What?!?! I didn’t know her - well, I knew her life history - but I had just met her an hour earlier and had only half listened to her marriage and divorce history and the stories of her childrens’ development. :sigh: When we got into the court room jury box she leaned over to me and told me she hoped she didn’t have a panic attack. I told her she’d be fine, at least there was stuff going on in there to focus our minds on.

Then I took in the room and dang if the defense attorney wasn’t scoping out the jury and we made eye contact. I smiled my friendly smile and he responded in kind and I quickly reminded myself of my resolve to scowl. By then he was checking out the other jurors and I’d lost my opportunity. It turned out not to matter, during the voir dere I was able to raise my hand repeatedly and was sitting where I could see the defense attorneys discussing their exclusions and I was among them.

From that I learned that the more times I raised my hand during the voir dere, the less likely I would be chosen for the jury. Today the defense attorney had stopped asking me why I had raised my hand after the 3rd or 4th question - she just skipped over me to other raised hands so I knew I was out of that trial.

Its a good thing I didn’t get picked. I’m sure the defense attorney’s are skilled at making quick assessments of people’s attitudes, therefore me and several others kept getting sent back to the sequestration room and back to a court room to go through the process again. I checked out the defendant as soon as I was seated in the courtroom and the unshaven, scruffy, Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt wearing crack head looking guy who the judge was insisting not defend himself did not impress me as someone who just happened to innocently be in receipt of several stolen cars. Gee, how’d those get in my driveway!!!

I like Lynyrd Skynyrd - but if you are going to court to convince a jury you didn’t steal cars then one of their t-shirts is probably not the best choice of attire for court. It also might be wise to bath prior to your court appearance. Just suggestions, of course.

One of them today was accused of assaulting prison guards while incarcerated at the county jail. This guy looked clean shaven and halfway decent, but his tattoos poked out from under the clothing that still had the creases in them from packages they had been purchased in. Ahhh, the other guy should have listened to an attorney and he too might have had a new set of clothes. This guy also just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was the other people who assaulted the police officers, he just happened to be there. Of course, where he just happened to be was in jail - they didn’t explain why that was.

They didn’t pick me for his trial either.

All in all, I guess I could say its had its interesting moments. I’m not unfamiliar with courtrooms. Because of what I do for a living I have been in one many times as a witness and have set on many citizen panels. I usually have had more background about the charges when I walk into a courtroom though. I have never been as juror before so it is interesting to see from this angel.

Still, I’m completely bummed out that I have to show up again tomorrow morning. :(

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