Doing my civic duty

For the past couple of days, I've been shut off from the rest of the world, trapped in the NY state court system. Monday morning, I reported to court at 845 as instructed by my jury duty summons. Within a couple of hours, the court clerk announced that there was a trial starting the jury selection process. Everyone in the jury room was sent to this one case (approx. 150-200 potential jurors). The judge went over the basics of the case and then proceeded to ask the audience general questions to start weeding out jurors who would not be able to serve on the trial for one reason or another. I must admit, the case intrigued me but I was forced to excuse myself as 1) I feared a little bit for my safety and my family members (but then again, reality may not be exactly like the Sopranos) and 2)the case was estimated to last at least a month, maybe two. I didn't think that I would be able to devote 2 months to a court case. That was the only case I was called for on the first day.

This morning, I went back for day 2. Within an hour of arriving, I was called to another potential trial. This time, the case was fairly straightforward and probably wouldn't last more than a couple of days. Long story short, I made it through the voir dire process and was chosen to be a juror. I'm actually looking forward to it, as I think it'll be interesting to see our judicial system at work. I'm sure it will be an eye opening experience into both the court process as well as my fellow jurors. Just listening to some of the potential jurors talking during the lunch break makes me realize what a cross section of society we have gathered together. Some people were clearly not understanding the attorney's motives during the voir dire process and some were trying to explain the process, in pompous tones, but not interpreting the motives correctly, in my humble opinion. It's also entertaining to guess which jurors would remain after the voir dire process and which would be excused. I tried to determine, if I were an attorney on the case, which ones I would want to keep and which to let go. And I was imagining how I would answer each question if I wanted to increase my chances of being chosen vs. being excused.

Then again, I may have been over analyzing the entire thing. It's only a 2-3 day case. Fairly quick, not a lot of thinking involved. I can already tell that the judge has little patience for the relatively young assistant DA's and has more tolerance for the older, more experienced defense attorney. I might possibly come away with this with a newfound respect for attorneys. Or I'll just have a nice break from work...