Hadn't written in awhile but felt compelled to write about my
Jury Duty experience. The story starts like this...
Now, I have never had to serve on Jury Duty before. But going along with
everyone elses attitude about serving, I though I
Would surely hate it. I got my little notification letter, went to the fist calling where we were informed that a Juror typically serves 3 months, however we were the so called " Lucky Ones" to get a break and only have to serve 2!
wha-
hoo!! ( or so I thought). I was to call in every night from January til the end of
February. The
sucky part of it all was not knowing if I had to go in til the night before, so any of my meetings with work ( which I have LOTS of) may not happen and I would have to cancel with these poor families. But, this is my " Civil Duty" so chin up and serve well fellow citizen!
So, all goes pretty well until the big day....
January 20...
Inauguration Day! I will NEVER EVER forget this day, not because it's our first Black president ( although he isn't black because his mama was white and on the birth certificate they HAVE to list the mother's race as the race of the child, therefore he is WHITE you people!) but because of the tragedy that I went through!
I found out on the 19 that I was to report for Jury selection the next day. Still the same
attitude of: This is stupid...I am dreading this...
yada yada yada...
ok, so now I show up ( a little early) and have to sit outside the court room because court is in session. Great, gives me time to complain with the other perspective jurors. But as I look around and more and more start showing up, I am a little concerned with who they have to pick from. I mean, you've got a guy to my left who looks like he slept in the bus station last night, smelly, greasy hair and talking about his family that are all locked up. Who is he talking to? Another guy who smells like he just got out of a bar. Then there's pops, who comes with his walker, can't hear anything and is completely outta breath by the time the doors open. I thought he was gonna croak right there by his raspy breathes and shaky self.
Once inside, the judge explains that he has a case and will call 13 names to sit in the jury box. Or at least that's what I thought I heard. Mind you, by this time I was in complete utter shock that
gramps over here is still with us and that the stinky greasy bus station guy is handing someone gum ( or is it??) to some other disgusting figure. All of a sudden, the first name the judge calls is .... "Mrs. Kristina Powell". Nice. Juror #1 of course! oops, what am I supposed to do again? I stand up, walk up front and look around, thanking the convict that I now have to
sentence with a slignt nod, he points me in the right direction. Great.
So with all 13 spots filled ( greasy bus guy sits in front of me), the
prosecuting attorney starts her spill. I'm trying to give it my best and fight my
ADDness.
Judgie poo then talks to us and each one of us has to tell him a little about ourselves. GREAT, in front of the felon! At least we didn't have to give our address etc. So, a few jurors get voted off by the prosecuting attorney and the other lawyer dude and wham, we now have our 13. Me being #1. Prosecuting attorney lady asked me a question, lucky for me I was paying attention and she smiled and now she is really checking me out. Pay Attention Kristi, don't mess this up.
The story is the felon guy was caught driving recklessly ( age 19) and tried to run from the cops. When he finally pulled over, he tried to get out of the car and run. But
supremeo cop stopped him, saw the bottle of Gin in the front seat, almost empty, and smelled the tall tell sign of what he had been doing. He asked the felon, " Did you have anything to drink tonight?" " sure did" was the response.
Ok,
sounds like a confession to me welp, I know what my vote is... so now the dude recants and thinks he should be left off and not get a DUI. ( not to mention that he is under the legal age for drinking). So, now I'm all about this. We get this cool official badge for Jurors..
I'm important!! We get to go back and take a break, sent off to lunch to watch the
Inauguration, and report back. We have the coolest break room with candy and coffee..I mean "
life is good as a juror! Can I have this as my profession?? All time juror yeah buddy! I'm all about this. Court officials and officers smile as we walk by, and me..JUROR #1 Yah! I'm all excited, ran to work to show off my badge,
and believe me they tried to get info about the case, but I stayed true to my duty and told them NOTHING! Top secret, for us IMPORTANT people~ So now we go back hear some more witnesses, me the only juror with a notepad and pencil.
I am ALL about this!!! But there's a problem,
waaaaaay back in the
beginning before he called us to the jury box,
Judgie poo told us that 1 juror would not be allowed to deliberate and that their name would be drawn out of the deck with all our names and whomever name comes up goes home. I kinda remember this, but not really. So, just about time to deliberate and I grab my purse, I'm ready to go back and discuss this when all of a sudden... "Mrs. Powell, you're free to go"....
What??? What?? No way!!! I start to stand up and my face tells it all. Judgie Poo says " Wow, we've never had that response before." Well, I didn't even realize it at the time, but I started "pouting" ...Oh yes, pouting! Well, I work with 2 year
olds all the time what do you expect!
So, now I must leave. I sadly walk by the awesome jury room, take my badge off, and head for the door.
DANG!! This can't be! This just can't be! So distraught that I try to exit by way of the closet door.
Thanks bailiff! Once outside the door, a police officer asks me to wait as the prosecuting attorney wanted to speak with me.
hmm, ok, sure. Maybe she has a special assignment for me?! No, she wanted to know what my vote would have been.
Dah, this isn't rocket science, the guy is guilty and should have his license removed...She liked that and said I could call her to know what
happened.
As I head to the office, I am seriously SERIOUSLY bummed! I could barely get in the door without expressing my feelings. My boss said I could go home, all paid for by Civil Service..still didn't help me though. I came home and could not for some reason
get it together... I mean, this was
unfinished business for me. And that's just how the rest of my week went. All week, nothing I did worked out. I would try and call new
referrals, no one called me back, I tried to see people that were scheduled, they weren't home, I made arrangements to see a mama at the hospital with a sick baby and she dodged me.. I mean ALL week this went on and I STILL could not get over this whole court thing. I later found out that the other juror's decided the guy was not guilty of drunk driving and the judge was not happy with that decision.
Go figure! There would have been serious lock down if I was still there because the guy was GUILTY!! That's what you get when you leave it up to some of those crazy folks!
Now, I know this was rather long and hopefully you have stayed with me here because I have some GOOD NEWS...or not so good news...
I have to report for Jury selection AGAIN
tomorrow! Now I am here to tell you that if they kick me off this time, I won't go out without a fight!! I may just start crying or something! Chances are that they won't call me again, and it won't be the same if I'm not Juror #1. But , if I am called, at least I can wear that cool badge and eat some snacks in the deliberation room that is
ONLY FOR JURORS!!! Wish me luck!!!
