On Jury Duty

by Karen L. Brady

I come from odd stock. My sixty-three year old mother, who is also my key assistant at the law firm, has never been called for jury duty. What’s odd is that she would LOVE to serve on a jury. So, she’s always been jealous of her brother-in-law, who has served on at least three that I know about.

So, Mom was envious when I was served with a jury summons. Me, I had what I think is the more common reaction– irritation. “I don’t have time for this,” a thought I’m sure most people have when they are served with the summons. In my case, the date on the summons was a day I really didn’t have time, as I had already been served with a subpoena to be a witness in another trial. It never rains but it pours.

So, I filled out the form indicating why I couldn’t serve on the day that I was called and what days I would be available in the future. Lo and behold, the summons comes again, this time listing the very first day I was back from an out-of-town trip.

A large part of my irritation was borne of the belief that I would never be serving on a jury, so all the hassle would be for naught. After all, what attorney wants another attorney to play armchair quarterback? But, I would have to wait and wait, and if I was ever even called out of the pack, I was sure to be excused after questioning.

Wrong. I was among the first group called, and maybe the only one called that day. First does not mean early, as we had waited over 2 and 1/2 hours by then. Of this first group, mine was among the twelve names drawn from a hat to sit for voir dire (questioning) on a county court criminal trial.

During voir dire, we all give names, occupations, occupations of close family, familiarity with the parties (if any), etc. After everyone gave that information, the judge honed in on me to ask about the type of law I practiced, whether I had ever dealt with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, and the like. After ascertaining that I didn’t know any of the parties involved, and didn’t practice criminal law, the judge determined that I wouldn’t be excused for cause. That meant that one of the attorney would probably excuse me, as each attorney had three opportunities to kick someone off the panel. I thought the defense might actually want to keep me on, as in the judge’s questions I was the only one who made it clear that the prosecution’s burden, coupled with the presumption of innocence, meant that I didn’t have to hear the defense “side of the story” if the prosecution didn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

After more questioning of the other potential jurors, I began to do the math. There were some people who clearly were going to be objectionable to one side or the other. The woman whose son had been wrongfully accused of a crime and said she didn’t think she could ever find anyone guilty became pick number one for the prosecutor in my mind. The woman who had worked twenty years for the probation department and had a predilection to believe the police but not the accused would be the defense counsel’s first choice. Then there was the man who expressed concern that we were having a trial over a fairly small amount of allegedly stolen property. I thought the prosecutor would like to see him go.

And as I did the math, I realized that there were at least five on the panel who were more obvious choices than I was. I began to entertain the possibility that I might be serving on this jury. Good thing I had cleared my calendar for three days, as it was already nearing noon on the first day and the trial hadn’t started yet.

Sure enough, when the dust cleared I was one of those left to serve on the jury. Now, I wasn’t overjoyed, but I was intrigued.