I was summoned for Jury Duty this past Monday. I have NEVER gotten a Jury Summons before and to be honest, I was pretty nervous about the entire process. I was so worried about it, that I put my Jury Summons in a safe place that would help me remember to call the weekend before to find out all the details and to discover if I was actually to report for duty. Well, for the life of me, I could NOT find my Jury Summons and I panicked when it came for the time that I needed to call in. So I looked up the information on line and found the number to call, what shuttle to ride, and what time I had to report. As you would expect, I was in Group 15 and the automated message declared that Jurors in Groups 1-15 were to report on Monday and Groups 16 and higher were excused. SO typical!!!!
I probably read the Juror website a MILLION times before Monday morning and stressed even more when I realized that to be able to ride the free shuttle, you must provide your Jury Summons...which I had misplaced. I was petrified to try and find a parking place in downtown Jacksonville, so I thought I would just try and see if they would let me ride the shuttle. And of course they did and they were SUPER nice about it...so my panic subsided :)
On the way to the courhouse, I discovered that there wer over 500 jurors summoned for that day. That's how they do it in Jacksonville...they make all their jury selections on Monday and then have the jurors report for the trials the rest of the week. I sat for FOUR HOURS before my name was ever called...talk about BORING!! I read, checked my email, and tweeted until I thought my fingers would fall off :( And wouldn't you know that as soon as I was called, they took us to a courtroom and then dismissed us to lunch for an hour. I finally got back to the courtroom at 1:30 and we started the selection process.
Once the selection process started, I was pretty interested in how the system works. But I have to say that I will be forever terrified if God forbid I am accused of a crime and am required to have a jury decide my fate. The people that were selected for jury duty just BLEW my mind. Like my dad always told me growing up...it takes all kinds to make the go 'round!
Anyway, each of us jurors had to stand up, state our name, birthdate, occupation, how long we had resided in Florida, share our spouse's occupation, share if we had children, and answer a few other questions. Then each attorney stood up and asked specific questions to specific jurors. I was NOT called to answer any questions during this time. As we left for the break for the lawyers to discuss and decide who they wanted as jurors, a girl that sat next to me shared that she wasn't asked any questions. I shared that neither had I, and we both were thrilled when we concluded that we wouldn't be chosen...afterall, they didn't even know who we were.
Well...you know where I'm going with this one...I was CHOSEN!!! And, to make things even funnier, so was the other girl that hadn't been asked any questions. So we were to report for the criminal case we were assigned to on Thursday. Yes, you read that right, CRIMINAL CASE!
So Thursday morning, I reported for duty...
On a side note, my mom gave me these shoes that she wore when she was younger and I decided that they matched my dress perfectly...aren't they SO cool????
And I was pretty proud of my "juror" pin :)
The case, I thought, was pretty cut and dry. It was about a man who stabbed his wife in the chest (it didn't kill her, but left a nasty scar) and the State was trying to prove that he did it intentionally Unfortunately, the State failed to provide enough of evidence for us to declare him guilty...after deliberating for 2.5 hours! We had one juror, who just so happened to be the foreman, that argued with us for the entire 2.5 hours :( But we finally convinced her that despite her beliefs and what she thought, the State had not provided enough evidence. And just to solidify that we had made the right decision, the bailiff that escorted us out to the parking lot shared on the elevator that he normally doesn't talk with the jurors, but in this case, he wanted us to know we made the right decision...the State hadn't provided enough.
So overall, the jury process was pretty cool. I'm glad to know how the system works and I feel good that I served my civic duty. But, I'm thanking God that I can't be summoned again for an ENTIRE YEAR :)
