Although I didn't end up on the jury, I have a few observations about the whole thing . . .
First off, I had forgotten about it entirely and ended up reporting late. Fortunately the the clerk was cool about it. Those that were called were still watching a video about the jury process. So I didn't miss anything too dreadfully important.
We went downstairs to the court room where the attorneys would select the jury from those that were called for jury duty. All in all, there were approximately 40 of us called, give or take. The initial 12 people were called and they moved to the jury box to be interrogated by the attorneys so that their fitness for jury duty could be established. This process is referred to as, Voir dire. This whole process kind of amused me.
First off, each person had to tell their name, their age, how long they had lived within the county, their marital status, occupation, their ( if applicable ) spouse's occupation and how many kids they may have and ages. While I'm not fully convinced that that information needs to be disclosed, I'm not going to dwell on it because there are other things I would much rather focus on.
There were a lot of questions initially asked by the district attorney. Rather than get into the specifics of the case, suffice it to say that each potential juror was asked questions like, "Will you be able to fully commit your attention to this case for its duration?" or "Are you physically capable of serving for the duration of the proceedings?" or "Can you separate your personal experiences for the purposes of reaching an objective decision in this case?"
The number of people willing to try to get out of jury duty for any one of those three questions was really quite surprising. But that isn't what amazed me. What amazed me was that the attorneys and judge seemed to try anything to keep them on the jury panel??!!
For example, let's say I tried to get out of jury duty by telling the DA that I have something going on at work and it is going to keep me from being 100% focused on the case. My mind will wander, I will be a worthless juror and the defendant or the state will seriously suffer and justice will not be served thanks to me - the entire judicial system will fall apart at the seams. It appears that even though there are thirty ( +/- ) people still available in the jury pool, sitting on their ass, doing absolutely nothing, patiently waiting, wasting their time, being entirely unproductive is of no importance. The attorney still asks, "Well do you think you can set it aside or manage through for this case?"
It seems to me that if someone doesn't want to be on jury duty and tries to get out of it, you should let them go and move on to the next person in the jury pool. Why keep someone on jury duty if they don't want to be there? Quite honestly if I was on trial I want each person on the jury to want to be there.
Ultimately I never even made it to the jury box to be questioned by the attorneys. So yeah, I sat there for almost 5 hours waiting to be called. By the time the attorneys actually reached an agreement on the jury I was actually kind of irritated at the fact that I hadn't even been questioned. I mean crap, what a waste of time.
I suppose there's those folks out there that will probably comment that, "Well it's your civic duty . . . blah blah blah . . ." If you're the kind of person that would say something like that you're most likely the kind of person that would turn in your kid for stealing a piece of gum from a store because, "Honesty is the best policy." Whatever . . .
First off, I had forgotten about it entirely and ended up reporting late. Fortunately the the clerk was cool about it. Those that were called were still watching a video about the jury process. So I didn't miss anything too dreadfully important.
We went downstairs to the court room where the attorneys would select the jury from those that were called for jury duty. All in all, there were approximately 40 of us called, give or take. The initial 12 people were called and they moved to the jury box to be interrogated by the attorneys so that their fitness for jury duty could be established. This process is referred to as, Voir dire. This whole process kind of amused me.
First off, each person had to tell their name, their age, how long they had lived within the county, their marital status, occupation, their ( if applicable ) spouse's occupation and how many kids they may have and ages. While I'm not fully convinced that that information needs to be disclosed, I'm not going to dwell on it because there are other things I would much rather focus on.
There were a lot of questions initially asked by the district attorney. Rather than get into the specifics of the case, suffice it to say that each potential juror was asked questions like, "Will you be able to fully commit your attention to this case for its duration?" or "Are you physically capable of serving for the duration of the proceedings?" or "Can you separate your personal experiences for the purposes of reaching an objective decision in this case?"
The number of people willing to try to get out of jury duty for any one of those three questions was really quite surprising. But that isn't what amazed me. What amazed me was that the attorneys and judge seemed to try anything to keep them on the jury panel??!!
For example, let's say I tried to get out of jury duty by telling the DA that I have something going on at work and it is going to keep me from being 100% focused on the case. My mind will wander, I will be a worthless juror and the defendant or the state will seriously suffer and justice will not be served thanks to me - the entire judicial system will fall apart at the seams. It appears that even though there are thirty ( +/- ) people still available in the jury pool, sitting on their ass, doing absolutely nothing, patiently waiting, wasting their time, being entirely unproductive is of no importance. The attorney still asks, "Well do you think you can set it aside or manage through for this case?"
It seems to me that if someone doesn't want to be on jury duty and tries to get out of it, you should let them go and move on to the next person in the jury pool. Why keep someone on jury duty if they don't want to be there? Quite honestly if I was on trial I want each person on the jury to want to be there.
Ultimately I never even made it to the jury box to be questioned by the attorneys. So yeah, I sat there for almost 5 hours waiting to be called. By the time the attorneys actually reached an agreement on the jury I was actually kind of irritated at the fact that I hadn't even been questioned. I mean crap, what a waste of time.
I suppose there's those folks out there that will probably comment that, "Well it's your civic duty . . . blah blah blah . . ." If you're the kind of person that would say something like that you're most likely the kind of person that would turn in your kid for stealing a piece of gum from a store because, "Honesty is the best policy." Whatever . . .
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