Civic Duty

I was called for jury duty last Thursday. At 7:30 am, I hopped in the car. The temperature outside was a blistering 34 degrees. Not exactly May weather!

I arrived at the courthouse by 8:15 am and sat in the room for a couple of hours. There were eight trials on the docket. By 10:00 am, all but one of them had settled. Jury selection began a little before 10:30 in order to fill an eight-person jury (six on the jury with two alternates.) I was pretty relaxed, since there were about 35 of us and I had a decently high number.

They seated eight of the first twelve jurors. The jury seemed too male and skewing older and they excused two of the older gentlemen. At this point, I started a conversation with the woman next to me. She was in her late 20s and was concerned that she would be spending the rest of her day at the courthouse. She was trying to figure out who the lawyers wanted and if she was going to be on the jury. It is an interesting exercise in mindreading. Meanwhile, they seated two more people and excused two others.

A couple of potential jurors were excused and finally they seated a younger gentleman. The woman next to me breathed a sigh of relief. She thought they were done and really was not looking forward to being at the courthouse for the rest of the day. Then they excuse a woman from the jury. The called for juror number 23 and the woman next to me stood up. I said, "It looks like there is a seat up there with your name on it."

She looked at me and shook her head in resignation. She was the last person seated on the jury. Maybe they were looking for a little younger jury.

As I got up, I looked for a trashcan so I could drop my number 24 juror card into it.