Jury Duty is Over...For the Next 12 Months

Well, just to let you know, I finished jury duty this week. All in all I have to say it was a very interesting process (don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I would do it again anytime soon). I did get a chance to see part of the judicial process and I did learn a lot about legal terms. There were about 160 of us potential jurors the first day. That was whittled down to about 60 by the next 2 days. Then from those, 18 were picked as prospective jurors and questioned by the judge and lawyers (with the rest of us still sitting in with them and listening).

After this, the lawyers on both sides started excusing some of these prospective jurors, based upon the answers they gave or sometimes just on a gut feeling. So that reduced that group of 18 down to about 9 or so. So another 12 were picked from the larger group of 60 (well, minus the 18 already picked or excused) and questioned. So from this second 12, the lawyers picked enough to get 12 jurors and 2 alternate jurors. Technically there should be 3 alternates, but the judge had mercy on the rest of us and dismissed the rest of us. Otherwise another 12 would have been picked from those of us remaining, and from these 12 1 alternate would have been picked. Whew! All in all a very interesting week. Now it makes me want to read 'Twelve Angry Men' again. I read it back in high school for AP English and liked it. I think we even watched the old movie.

Oh by the way, for those who have been dying to know - I can talk about the charges now that I am not on the jury. It was 4 counts of alleged rape by a police officer in this county - some of the alleged victims are prostitutes. Very serious charges, hence the care in picking the right jurors.

Now it's Becks' turn at jury duty - she has been called.