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Last few weeks have been very unusual, part 2
3 years ago
General
I should probably finish this before it grows too distant and fades...
So, first of all, just to make something clear: I wasn't upset at being selected to sit on a jury. I'm not so patriotic that I see jury duty as an honor, but I do consider it as, well, a duty. More to the point, it's a break from the everyday routine. Once you're out of school many people's lives, mine most definitely included, fall into a rut. Every week is roughly the same as every other, with the exception of vacations. This would be a nice change.
Sucks that the pay is so bad, though.
Monday rolled around and I trundled off to court. I had to be there by 9 AM, and waited in the room that used to be used for holding potential jurors during the selection process, pre-Covid. After being collected by the bailiff, we were led to the back rooms of the courthouse, where the jury rooms were.
How to describe the jury room? It was fairly small, perhaps the size of a mid to large bedroom. There were two en-suite bathrooms, like you might find in a cheap motel except without the shower. There was also a kitchen sink, mini-fridge, coffee machine, and microwave. We were told that once deliberations began we pretty much were stuck in here except for lunch breaks, so this was all to give us no excuse to want to get out. There was also a large boardroom style table in there, and lots of moderately comfortable chairs plus a whiteboard.
The first day, we sat around waiting for a while. This was on the 24th, which is almost 3 weeks ago at this point, so I don't recall exactly when we were called in, but it was over an hour. While we waited we read books, used our phones or whatever.
Then we entered the courtroom. The judge swore us in, then read us some instructions. (Or maybe it was the other way around - remember, 3 weeks ago.) Basically, don't talk about the case, don't make posts about the case, and try to avoid even letting people know you're on a jury, so don't make posts online about being on a jury. It's hardly a top secret thing, so telling people who need to know is fine, but it just shouldn't be broadcast to all and sundry. This would help avoid people trying to offer their opinions on the matter, which may influence jurors.
Next came the attorneys' opening statements, where we learned what the trial was about and what each side's general strategy would be. It seems the defendant had a No-Contact Order against a woman, which he'd broken. This was at least the second time he'd broken an NCO, and this time it wound up with him hitting her. He wanted to get a key from her - a key to what, was never disclosed - and she said she didn't have it. He also said his name was really Jesus Cornelius Christ, and she refused to call him that and that was disrespectful. Add it all up, and he got pissed and hit her. The defense argued that he had been lured to her apartment by the woman and her current lover, that the lover had hit her and set up the defendant to take the fall. The evidence was that he left the scene after calling the cops on the defendant, the defendant had just been sitting in the living room quietly when the cops arrived, and the woman never said who had been the one to hit her.
I have to say, the defense argument kinda stank. On the other hand, we've all watched Law and Order and other crime shows, and this sort of thing shows up a lot. So who knows? Could happen, right?
The first week we saw maybe a half dozen witnesses. One would come up, be questioned, cross examined, and released. The jury would usually be released back to the jury room after each witness as the attorneys argued something over with the judge. More phone browsing would ensue.
Court officially ran from 9 AM to 4 PM, with lunch at noon to 1:30 PM and a 15-minute break at 10:30 AM and 3 PM. In reality, things were rarely so orderly. Sometimes the witness examination would run long, or short. We rarely got those 15 minute breaks, because we were often "on break" back in the jury room already; I think there was one time when we were let out and told to be back in 20 minutes. One day, a witness that was scheduled to testify in the afternoon couldn't, or at least didn't, show up, so court was released until the next day. All in all, over those four days (court here doesn't convene on Fridays) the jury might have been listening to testimony for 8 hours, and that's being generous. Probably closer to 6.
The next week, on October 31, the attorneys gave their closing arguments, where they reiterated the points the'd tried to make during the trial. The judge gave us our jury instructions and read them out for us - it was something like 20 pages, and he read every one of them aloud. Then he sent us back to deliberate.
And in my next and hopfully final part, I'll talk about jury deliberations, and my overall impression of the experience as a whole. But I think this entry is plenty long enough.
So, first of all, just to make something clear: I wasn't upset at being selected to sit on a jury. I'm not so patriotic that I see jury duty as an honor, but I do consider it as, well, a duty. More to the point, it's a break from the everyday routine. Once you're out of school many people's lives, mine most definitely included, fall into a rut. Every week is roughly the same as every other, with the exception of vacations. This would be a nice change.
Sucks that the pay is so bad, though.
Monday rolled around and I trundled off to court. I had to be there by 9 AM, and waited in the room that used to be used for holding potential jurors during the selection process, pre-Covid. After being collected by the bailiff, we were led to the back rooms of the courthouse, where the jury rooms were.
How to describe the jury room? It was fairly small, perhaps the size of a mid to large bedroom. There were two en-suite bathrooms, like you might find in a cheap motel except without the shower. There was also a kitchen sink, mini-fridge, coffee machine, and microwave. We were told that once deliberations began we pretty much were stuck in here except for lunch breaks, so this was all to give us no excuse to want to get out. There was also a large boardroom style table in there, and lots of moderately comfortable chairs plus a whiteboard.
The first day, we sat around waiting for a while. This was on the 24th, which is almost 3 weeks ago at this point, so I don't recall exactly when we were called in, but it was over an hour. While we waited we read books, used our phones or whatever.
Then we entered the courtroom. The judge swore us in, then read us some instructions. (Or maybe it was the other way around - remember, 3 weeks ago.) Basically, don't talk about the case, don't make posts about the case, and try to avoid even letting people know you're on a jury, so don't make posts online about being on a jury. It's hardly a top secret thing, so telling people who need to know is fine, but it just shouldn't be broadcast to all and sundry. This would help avoid people trying to offer their opinions on the matter, which may influence jurors.
Next came the attorneys' opening statements, where we learned what the trial was about and what each side's general strategy would be. It seems the defendant had a No-Contact Order against a woman, which he'd broken. This was at least the second time he'd broken an NCO, and this time it wound up with him hitting her. He wanted to get a key from her - a key to what, was never disclosed - and she said she didn't have it. He also said his name was really Jesus Cornelius Christ, and she refused to call him that and that was disrespectful. Add it all up, and he got pissed and hit her. The defense argued that he had been lured to her apartment by the woman and her current lover, that the lover had hit her and set up the defendant to take the fall. The evidence was that he left the scene after calling the cops on the defendant, the defendant had just been sitting in the living room quietly when the cops arrived, and the woman never said who had been the one to hit her.
I have to say, the defense argument kinda stank. On the other hand, we've all watched Law and Order and other crime shows, and this sort of thing shows up a lot. So who knows? Could happen, right?
The first week we saw maybe a half dozen witnesses. One would come up, be questioned, cross examined, and released. The jury would usually be released back to the jury room after each witness as the attorneys argued something over with the judge. More phone browsing would ensue.
Court officially ran from 9 AM to 4 PM, with lunch at noon to 1:30 PM and a 15-minute break at 10:30 AM and 3 PM. In reality, things were rarely so orderly. Sometimes the witness examination would run long, or short. We rarely got those 15 minute breaks, because we were often "on break" back in the jury room already; I think there was one time when we were let out and told to be back in 20 minutes. One day, a witness that was scheduled to testify in the afternoon couldn't, or at least didn't, show up, so court was released until the next day. All in all, over those four days (court here doesn't convene on Fridays) the jury might have been listening to testimony for 8 hours, and that's being generous. Probably closer to 6.
The next week, on October 31, the attorneys gave their closing arguments, where they reiterated the points the'd tried to make during the trial. The judge gave us our jury instructions and read them out for us - it was something like 20 pages, and he read every one of them aloud. Then he sent us back to deliberate.
And in my next and hopfully final part, I'll talk about jury deliberations, and my overall impression of the experience as a whole. But I think this entry is plenty long enough.
KrisSnow
~krissnow
I'm glad that the trial itself took place in person. I would object to any trial being conducted by video only!
Xodiac
~xodiac
OP
Overruled.
