I knew that if I got called, there was a strong likelihood that they would keep me. The one person I most identified with -- as far as his answers to questions regarding attitudes about police misconduct and racial profiling -- was a young Asian man who reminded me of my dentist. (Well, if my dentist were about 20 years younger, had a shaved head, and one tattoed sleeve.) In any case, you could see the surprise on his face when they asked him to stand and not leave -- he would spend the next two and a half weeks in the front row of the jury box. I remember saying to myself, "If they kept Young Asian Guy, they are going to keep me if my number is called." And, they did.
Unlike many people, I am not completely opposed to jury duty. It gives me a great reason to leave the kids unattended and go out for lunch. Plus, since we actually get paid, I was making money on this. A small paycheck, but a paycheck, nonetheless. Yes, it's inconvenient. I spent many years sending in the I-need-to-care-for-my-children-so-please-excuse-me-from-jury-duty form -- but now my kids are older and I didn't have a legitimate reason to get excused. I figured this would be less disruptive to my life than it would be for many others, so if it happened, it happened.
As part of a jury, you realize that you are an important part of the justice system -- at least, if you are on the actual jury. I, on the other hand, was picked as an alternate. But not just any alternate. I was Alternate #3. The jury box only had 14 chairs. My chair was not even in the jury box. I felt so extraneous. But ... I decided to make the best of it. My outside-of-the-box chair location turned out to be a bonus: nobody in the court room gallery could see me! I could wheel my chair around within my little area so I could see the witnesses, judge and attorneys, but I could not see the people who came to watch the proceedings, and I could use the jury box step as a foot rest. My chair was the envy of the Real Jurors.
Although everybody was a little bit in shock when we were empaneled, we were all resigned to our fates by the time we reconvened the next day. The case (which I still can't talk about) was complex and interesting. Some of us took notes. Some didn't. Some asked questions, in addition to taking lots of notes. I was a note-taker, even though I knew it was unlikely I would get to deliberate. I did it to help me stay engaged and hopefully not fall asleep. I felt like I was in college again, writing frantically and trying to digest it all and stay awake at the same time. I think I was pretty successful. But the one thing about dozing off is that you don't realize you have done it until it's done. That's all I'm going to say about that.
For those of you who have not served on a criminal jury before, here is something I didn't anticipate: there is a lot of downtime in the jury room when you are just sitting and waiting for the judge to call you in. We would assemble in the jury room, push the button for the buzzer to signal that we were all there, and wait. Most days, the clerk would come in and tell us it would be a few more minutes. Sometimes that meant 15 - 30 minutes, and you can't leave the room once the buzzer is buzzed! So, we all actually got to know each other a bit, which was really nice. As I looked around the room, it was amazing that this jury was such a cross-section of society -- which is exactly what it is supposed to be. We were all isolated in this little room together, like a very abbreviated version of Gilligan's Island sans shipwreck. I wouldn't characterize anybody as the Skipper or the Movie Star, but we did have the Tall Guy who spoke Arabic, the Latina who lived within walking distance of the courthouse, the Sephora Lady who had a cute purse, the Scientist with the name that I actually learned to pronounce but cannot spell, the Cocoa Nibs lady, the Asian Man with the nut-allergic son, the Woman with the Short Hair whose ex-husband is from Hawaii, the Woman with the Long Hair who used to run a daycare, the African American woman whose phone announced to all of us who was calling her, the Young Asian Man with the sleeve, the Filipina who got a speeding ticket one day, the Artist who has a "real job" at a nonprofit, and the alternates, Brian, Woman with the Camaro, and me. I learned most of their names by the second week, but we did refer to each other by badge number and description a lot. Given that we are sworn to secrecy and couldn't talk about the case even to each other, it felt like we should remain anonymous, like we were secret agents or something. It is awkward to refer to each other by number or description when you are out eating lunch together, though, so we did eventually break the ice and start referring to people by name. At least at lunchtime.
I learned some interesting things during this trial. The Sephora Lady told us that the Disney "documentary" about lemmings uses footage of lemmings being pushed off the cliff by the Disney people. I discovered that there are quite a few people who have chickens as pets, and there were a few of them on the jury. Even more have dogs, and I would say half of us had dogs. A few of the jurors have cats. Young Asian Guy is afraid of cats, but likes comic book superheroes. Artist and Filipina also like comic book superheroes. The Sephora Lady was very kind, telling me I didn't really have dark circles under my eyes when I asked her for a recommendation about some products for that purpose. Tina, the African American woman, is a stealth jigsaw puzzler. Jesus, the Artist, is a methodical jigsaw puzzler. I realized that both styles are effective and it was fun to see progress being made on the puzzles, either way. I love jigsaw puzzles, and was happy to help out.
Unfortunately, my jigsaw puzzling days were numbered. At the end of the first two and half weeks, I was dismissed due to an upcoming family vacation (which I had told them about during jury selection), and had to leave without even finding out what the verdict was. Hopefully, I'll find out when the case is resolved, and maybe even run into some of my fellow jurors someday :-)
UPDATE: The case went one week over what was projected, with a verdict coming down a couple days ago. The defendant was found guilty of murder in the second degree.
