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Jury Duty Update
Jul. 15th, 2005 05:13 pmTechnically I have one more week on Hennepin County jury duty, but it's unlikely I'll be on a case, or even going downtown again. For the first 3 days I had to report to the jury pool each day and hang around from 9:00-4:30. This isn't as bad as it sounds: with the 1.5 hour lunch break you really only spend 6 hours there. It's a very large room full of round tables and chairs that are not precisely comfortable but definitely a cut above the ones you have to sit in while waiting to get your license tabs.
It was an interesting experience, in a boring kind of way, sort of like a precinct caucus. There were maybe 100-120 jurors in the room at the beginning of the week. Every now and again (maybe 5 or 6 times in the course of the day) one of our minders would call us to attention and read off a list of names. The Chosen went through a quick security checkpoint at one end of the room, where they were relieved of such deadly implements and nail files and knitting needles, and then led away. An hour or so later, half of them would come trooping back, looking either disappointed or relieved or a combination of both. The rest of the group, the ones actually selected for the jury, usually weren't seen again until at least the next day. Almost everybody wanted to hear their name read - no matter how they felt about being on a jury, after half a day in the jury assembly room, any chance for new scenery seems exciting.
I never did get to be on a jury (to my disappointment, but not suprise). Most people on jury duty don't. But I did get called up for a "jury panel" twice in 3 days, which was interesting. You go into a courtroom, sit in the jury box, meet the judge and the lawyers, the defendant, and maybe other parties to the suit. The judge explains some stuff and then questions the prospective jury, mostly asking generic questions like "Do you know any of these people?" Then the two lawyers each get a turn. They send you out of the room for a few minutes, then call you back and dismiss the prospective jurors that were "challenged" by either of the lawyers. I was eliminated from the first case, a civil suit involving alleged injuries resulting from a car accident. I had been a party to a similar case in the past, so I wasn't at all surprised to be dismissed from that one. The second one was a juicy criminal case, and I had a perfectly reasonable chance to be chosen for that one. But we only got through round-one of the "voir dire" by 4:30 on Tuesday. When we all showed up on Wednesday we learned that the case had been postponed to an undetermined future date, and we all just went back to the jury pool. Presumably they will start all over with a new jury when they get the date scheduled. I had very mixed feelings on that one. I would have liked to be on an interesting criminal case, but it was likely to take 7-10 days. Yikes.
On Wednesday afternoon, they randomly assigned half of us on call-in status. I ended up on call-in. So I was able to go to work both days, calling in twice a day to see if my jury group would be needed for the next half-day. They didn't call up ANY of the backup jury groups for Thursday or Friday, so the caseload must have been very light. I have to continue calling in next week, but the chances are that I won't be called back. They adjust the priorities so that 2nd-week jurors are only called in if there aren't enough new first-week jurors to cover the need. So unless there is a big change in the caseload next week, I'm probably home free.
It was an interesting experience, in a boring kind of way, sort of like a precinct caucus. There were maybe 100-120 jurors in the room at the beginning of the week. Every now and again (maybe 5 or 6 times in the course of the day) one of our minders would call us to attention and read off a list of names. The Chosen went through a quick security checkpoint at one end of the room, where they were relieved of such deadly implements and nail files and knitting needles, and then led away. An hour or so later, half of them would come trooping back, looking either disappointed or relieved or a combination of both. The rest of the group, the ones actually selected for the jury, usually weren't seen again until at least the next day. Almost everybody wanted to hear their name read - no matter how they felt about being on a jury, after half a day in the jury assembly room, any chance for new scenery seems exciting.
I never did get to be on a jury (to my disappointment, but not suprise). Most people on jury duty don't. But I did get called up for a "jury panel" twice in 3 days, which was interesting. You go into a courtroom, sit in the jury box, meet the judge and the lawyers, the defendant, and maybe other parties to the suit. The judge explains some stuff and then questions the prospective jury, mostly asking generic questions like "Do you know any of these people?" Then the two lawyers each get a turn. They send you out of the room for a few minutes, then call you back and dismiss the prospective jurors that were "challenged" by either of the lawyers. I was eliminated from the first case, a civil suit involving alleged injuries resulting from a car accident. I had been a party to a similar case in the past, so I wasn't at all surprised to be dismissed from that one. The second one was a juicy criminal case, and I had a perfectly reasonable chance to be chosen for that one. But we only got through round-one of the "voir dire" by 4:30 on Tuesday. When we all showed up on Wednesday we learned that the case had been postponed to an undetermined future date, and we all just went back to the jury pool. Presumably they will start all over with a new jury when they get the date scheduled. I had very mixed feelings on that one. I would have liked to be on an interesting criminal case, but it was likely to take 7-10 days. Yikes.
On Wednesday afternoon, they randomly assigned half of us on call-in status. I ended up on call-in. So I was able to go to work both days, calling in twice a day to see if my jury group would be needed for the next half-day. They didn't call up ANY of the backup jury groups for Thursday or Friday, so the caseload must have been very light. I have to continue calling in next week, but the chances are that I won't be called back. They adjust the priorities so that 2nd-week jurors are only called in if there aren't enough new first-week jurors to cover the need. So unless there is a big change in the caseload next week, I'm probably home free.
