Jury Duty

I ended up having Jury Duty for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  It was weird I've never had to do it before so I wasn't certain what to expect.  It all started the night before my first day of jury duty.  You have to either call a phone number or check a Web site the day before you have jury duty to make sure that you have to show up.  My paper said that I was in Group 6 and they were on the list of people that had to report for duty. So I get there on Tuesday and have to go up to the fourth floor.  It's just a big room full of people and chairs.  There are two TV's both turned to HGTV some sort of home channel.  And there are vending machines, one had free coffee in it.  Other than that you just in a room waiting to be called.


Here's a picture of the courthouse:

It took an hour and a half to be called.  Then we were taken down to the court room and people were called up to sit in the jury box.  I was called as number 6 in the first round.  They asked a bunch of questions and removed people from the box to replace them with other people for hours with small breaks in between.  

We did get a lunch break that was an hour to and hour and a half long. At this time I got a sandwich from Irving Market and read a book in the park across the street from the courthouse.

Then the trial started.  We continued with close to that same schedule for two days.  Then on the third day we all showed up and were sent home because the prosecutor was in the hospital.  So the next day we showed up and were called back into the court room only to reschedule the trial and go home. Then a week later we were back in the courtroom for a day with really long breaks and finally we made it to the end of the trial and it was time to and discuss the case and decide if the guy was guitly or not. Which we were not allowed to talk about the trial with anyone up until that point.  But we had two extra jurors for alternates and they drew random numbers for two jurors to send home. 

I ended up being one of the two sent home.  I never got to discuss the case with the other jurors.  I wasn't able to find out what the verdict was.  I can't even find any information in the papers or online about whether or not the guy got a guilty verdict.

It was a really disappointing and frustrating experience after missing work and putting all that time into being a juror for nothing.

Does anyone else have any jury duty stories?

Beth Ann