Sometime in March I received notice I was summoned to jury duty. I requested the entire week off work, even though my state only requires you serve one day (unless you're empaneled on a jury, of course) because I work grave and wanted to adjust my sleep schedule to be a little more... normal. I didn't quite succeed, but I got it about halfway there. Good enough.

I first reported in on Wednesday, May 29, at 8 am. We watched a video about what jury service entails, then sat around. My name was eventually called and I was assigned a case and a number. The jury pool was large enough that they split it into two groups, 1-45 and 46-75. I was number 46, so I wasn't called up until after lunch. The judge asked whether serving would pose an undue hardship on anyone, and after getting details from those who answered affirmative she dismissed about half of those who claimed it. Since it was by then halfway through the afternoon, we were dismissed and told to return on Monday, June 3.

On Monday, I arrived, and was told I had missed a message telling me to come in on Tuesday, instead. Tuesday I reported in with no problems except that I was operating on 2 hours of sleep. Guh.

During the general questioning that first day, the judge asked something like, "Does anyone personally know myself, the prosecutor, the defense attorney, the defendant, the bailiff, or the court reporter?" Obviously, this is intended to find bias. The question found something else out, however, when one of the potential jurors said she didn't know the judge but worked with her husband, and that while he hadn't disclosed any details, "he had told her what TYPE of case this was." To which the judge said, "Oh, he DID." I think someone was sleeping on the couch that night.

Since my number was so low, the first in this second group, I was the first into the courtroom. Which meant I spent the second day in the jury box, not the spectator pews. The jury's chairs, at least at that courthouse, are pretty darned comfortable, I must say, and there's tons of leg room.

The two attorneys had very different questioning styles. The prosecutor asked questions of everyone, asking people to raise their hands if they thought they had an answer. Some of the questions were leading, some not. If nobody answered, she might pick someone from the pool. The defender, meanwhile, went methodically through the pool. She'd ask question A, and ask jurors 1, 2, 3, and 4 what their answers were. Then she'd want to hear what jurors 5, 6, 7, and 8 think about question B. I preferred the prosecutor's method, better.

The case clearly had something to do with sexual misconduct. I'm not sure if it was sexual assault, sexual harrassment, or out-and-out rape... but I think it was probably the last one. When the *defense attorney* uses a term like "forced sexual conduct" it sounds an awful lot like a euphemism for rape. Up until she said that I genuinely wasn't sure which it might be.

I was eventually dismissed, very late in the process, and I'm of two minds about that. It was a nice change of pace, and it would have continued to be interesting. Nothing like jury duty to make you feel like you Matter. On the other hand, I'm not sure I liked the idea of a guy's life well and truly depending on my ability to tell when people are lying, exaggerating, or telling the truth. And while I wasn't too worried about the loss of pay, I *was* a little concerned that, with the trial estimated to last two weeks or more, I might return to duty and find my site has been permanently assigned to someone else. I like that site; with the exception of how far it is from home (~1 hour commute in, 35 minutes coming home) it is pretty much perfectly suited to me and my temperament.

Well, for better or for worse, it's over now. Unfortunately, since I had to come in for a second day of jury duty, instead of most of a week to get my sleep schedule back to normal, I only have a day or so. This week is probably going to suck. But, oh well.

Back to the grind!