civic duty
about 2 months ago - I received a jury summons for a criminal federal trial. A trial they estimated would last 6(!) weeks. They included a questionnaire - which i filled out and sent back in.
About 3 weeks later I received a bigger questionnaire (~10pages long). Apparently, it was a mortgage fraud trial and there were all kinds of questions about if you associated in the real estate business, education, hobbies, etc. I sent that in.
2 weeks ago the court called me to make sure I was going to be at the courthouse on July 7th.
The Denver Federal Courthouse
Now - I have to admit - it wasn't *thrilled* about the idea of having to spend 6 weeks away from my life to go to downtown Denver everyday. what about my beloved lunch time rides? things at work are great - the work is interesting - I'm learning new stuff - having a great time at my job in general. I didn't want to miss out on anything at work! What about the short track and the tuesday nite girls rides? I wouldn't be able to get there in time to race or ride?
However, - we are super lucky to live in a country where we can serve on the jury. Other than making myself as inconspicuous as possible - I wouldn't *try* to get out of jury duty. My job would pay me my full salary and hold my job for me. so I would be able to serve without worrying about that. I went into this thing accepting of the fact my life might be different for 6 weeks.
Mainly the jury selection process is one of hurry up and wait. I reported to the courthouse @ 11am. Finally around 12:30 they come out and tell us about the process and how we were selected. Basically it's a random computer selection. I counted ~90 people in the room so I figured the odds were good that i would get dismissed.
At 1pm they took us up to the courtroom presided over by a very dynamic woman. I can't remember her name but she seemed fair, competent and had a sense of humor. I sat in the back row in the corner where no one could possibly see me.
The court clerk has this bingo like contraption and starts pulling names out for the jury panel. A subset of the 80 people that had reported for jury duty. I was the 6th name called. yowza....1 step closer. They were about ~32 people on the jury panel.
the judge asks the panel several questions and during that process people are being excused left and right. The judge is tough and really grills people that want to be excused - even some poor older gentleman that said he has memory issues and felt he couldn't be a good juror. She goes "well can't you just take good notes so if you forget something you can refer to your notes and refresh your memory??" yikes...i just sat there and didn't say a word.
As the day wore on the jury selection pool got smaller and smaller. Time passed at a snails pace. After many questions the jury panel (with me still on it!) was whittled down to ~20 people. The trial requires 12 jurors and 3 alternates. At this point in time i resigned myself to the fact I would be coming to Denver for 6 weeks. the attorneys for both sides confered amongst themselves, passed some papers back and forth and then the clerk handed the papers to the judge.
The judge read the names of the people that were excused....and my name was on the excused list. I was totally prepared to serve but I sure was glad when i was excused. I feel a little guilty about that but was the way I felt.
About 3 weeks later I received a bigger questionnaire (~10pages long). Apparently, it was a mortgage fraud trial and there were all kinds of questions about if you associated in the real estate business, education, hobbies, etc. I sent that in.
2 weeks ago the court called me to make sure I was going to be at the courthouse on July 7th.
The Denver Federal Courthouse
Now - I have to admit - it wasn't *thrilled* about the idea of having to spend 6 weeks away from my life to go to downtown Denver everyday. what about my beloved lunch time rides? things at work are great - the work is interesting - I'm learning new stuff - having a great time at my job in general. I didn't want to miss out on anything at work! What about the short track and the tuesday nite girls rides? I wouldn't be able to get there in time to race or ride?
However, - we are super lucky to live in a country where we can serve on the jury. Other than making myself as inconspicuous as possible - I wouldn't *try* to get out of jury duty. My job would pay me my full salary and hold my job for me. so I would be able to serve without worrying about that. I went into this thing accepting of the fact my life might be different for 6 weeks.
Mainly the jury selection process is one of hurry up and wait. I reported to the courthouse @ 11am. Finally around 12:30 they come out and tell us about the process and how we were selected. Basically it's a random computer selection. I counted ~90 people in the room so I figured the odds were good that i would get dismissed.
At 1pm they took us up to the courtroom presided over by a very dynamic woman. I can't remember her name but she seemed fair, competent and had a sense of humor. I sat in the back row in the corner where no one could possibly see me.
The court clerk has this bingo like contraption and starts pulling names out for the jury panel. A subset of the 80 people that had reported for jury duty. I was the 6th name called. yowza....1 step closer. They were about ~32 people on the jury panel.
the judge asks the panel several questions and during that process people are being excused left and right. The judge is tough and really grills people that want to be excused - even some poor older gentleman that said he has memory issues and felt he couldn't be a good juror. She goes "well can't you just take good notes so if you forget something you can refer to your notes and refresh your memory??" yikes...i just sat there and didn't say a word.
As the day wore on the jury selection pool got smaller and smaller. Time passed at a snails pace. After many questions the jury panel (with me still on it!) was whittled down to ~20 people. The trial requires 12 jurors and 3 alternates. At this point in time i resigned myself to the fact I would be coming to Denver for 6 weeks. the attorneys for both sides confered amongst themselves, passed some papers back and forth and then the clerk handed the papers to the judge.
The judge read the names of the people that were excused....and my name was on the excused list. I was totally prepared to serve but I sure was glad when i was excused. I feel a little guilty about that but was the way I felt.
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