Jury Duty

So I finally got my jury duty summons after three years of hoping for one. I'm a freak and actually like serving on a jury, especially in the summer. The reasons are 1) I won't fight in a war so this is my way of serving my country and 2) it's nice to have a normal schedule for a couple of weeks and be able to "do lunch" with people in downtown.

My first day was actually last Wednesday, got called up to a courtroom early in the day along with 100 other people. We were given a very general overview of what the civil case would entail. Since it was a medical malpractice suit, I knew I would be considered an inappropriate juror by both plaintiff and defendant counsel. However, there were also a couple reasons why I would be biased. So being the honest and efficient person that I am, I put those reasons into writing at the end of the questionnaire and was one of the first to hand it in to the clerk. The sheets were then presumably taken to the judge and attorneys to read. I thought I'd be excused that day. Nope, about 40 people were excused before any interviews were done in the jury box.

We were all dismissed about 1pm that day and told to report back Wednesday after the holiday. I was stunned and little dismayed because I knew I would not be allowed to serve on this jury and not being sent back to the jury assembly room the first day meant that there was no way I'd sit on any other jury. Humph. So that afternoon I met another RN who happened to have worked at my hospital many years ago. She and I became buddies and both marveled at how we hadn't been excused.

So Wednesday comes, and we sit through another ENTIRE DAY of jury selection. Finally, today right before lunch I got called up. I gave my little schpiel and asked for a sidebar to explain why I might be biased without influencing the other potential jurors' opinions (it was a pretty big reason, but I stipulated that it would not impair my ability to serve as a juror but out of fairness everyone involved should be aware). Again, I thought I'd be excused immediately. Well that judge must have wanted to see my face again after lunch because he told me to please join them again after the break. So by that point I'd already made plans with some people to have dim sum in Chinatown and told them to wait for me. I had a lovely lunch with some interesting people, and upon returning to the courtroom, said my goodbyes, assuming I'd be excused. Nope. Sat another 3 hours in the jury box, got grilled by the plaintiff attorney, watched 6 jurors be excused (one of whom I sat next to and had a bit of a crush on, more on that later), and just started to think that maybe they saw that I was an intelligent, rational person and as good a juror as they were going to find, when the plaintiff attorney FINALLY thanked and excused me. I don't know what kind of jury he is going to end up with. The judge was already in a sour mood after 3 long days of jury selection, as we all were. When I left, there were only about 15 potential jurors left in the courtroom, 3 of whom I knew did not want to serve and would have lied through their teeth to be excused.

I must say I'm really disappointed by most people called for jury duty. There are some really stupid people in the world. And there are also very lazy ones who will do anything they can, including perjuring themselves, in order to get out of serving their jury duty. Several people said they couldn't understand English, even though they were having decent conversations in the halls, granted with accents, but still able to understand. I think someone actually pretended to be retarded, which nearly made me laugh. There was one woman who burst out crying saying she could never stand to listen to testimony/evidence of harm coming to a fetus, several other people who said they did not have the intellect to separate their logic from their emotions, and one woman who said she did not trust Western medicine at all (but she sure did trust tatoo parlors by the look of her).

Some funny quotes from the experience:
A man commenting on his experience with healthcare professionals in the delivery room while his wife was laboring:
"I felt completely impotent throughout the whole process, except for the conception."

A really dull fellow answering whether he knew anyone who'd given birth:
"Yeah, my mom."

A man on answering whether he never goes to a doctor anymore or distrusts doctors after being told he is too fat:
"Well, I am fat. I know that!"

The dude who was either slow or just pretended to be slow, replying to the judge's instruction to volunteer information that might make him biased:
Dude: "Yes."
Judge: "Alright, please volunteer that information."
Dude: "Yes."
Judge: "Are any of those questions relevant to you."
Dude: "Yes."
Judge: "Which ones?"
Dude: "Yes."
Judge: "You're excused."

Oh, another thing that had us in hysterics was the portly gentleman who kept falling asleep and snoring soooo loudly, that we had to poke him in the back and kick his chair repeatedly to wake him up. He was in the jury box for most of yesterday and today until the judge finally figured out who was snoring and excused him, but made the man drink 2 Red Bulls first. At one point, one of the attorneys asked him if he'd heard all the questions, and snoring guy said he had. Well that was a stinking lie.

And finally, on to the cute guy. Really good looking black guy with gorgeous hazel eyes, single, no kids, firefighter/arson investigator. I think I got him kicked off the panel. He'd been left alone by the attorneys after the first day, yet once he and I started chatting today during the sidebars(I sat next to him and he accidentally drank my water) about both being SC alums and living in the same apartment complex in college, he was excused. WEIRD. They excused a few more people after him before they excused me. I just thought the whole thing was illogical. I would have thought I would have been excused immediately after lunch. And I would have bet money that they'd have been happy with that guy as a juror. Oh well, guess it wasn't meant to be. Too bad we weren't excused at the same time. ;)