Jury Duty Update

Yesterday I fulfilled my civic duty in reporting for jury duty. In the end I wasn’t selected, so I can’t write a riveting account of courtroom drama and mind blowing legal argumentation, but I can at least give the bare details of what happened. Because I’m not totally sure how much I’m legally allowed to say, I will keep things fairly vague and not give any names.

It was a cold, wet morning when I arrived at the courthouse; sort of like the weather I remember from the last time I was in Seattle. After going through the security checkpoint, I found my way to the juror waiting room where myself and everyone else who had been summoned that day sat around while waiting for things to get going. At the appointed time, one of the courtroom staff gave us the rundown of what to expect that day and we watched a short video with further details on Colorado’s legal system. Then we waited some more for the judge’s assistant to arrive, which he did about fifteen minutes later. He escorted us to the courtroom where the trial was to take place. It was much smaller that I expected, but it was fitting given the nature of the trial. There was no high-profile case today—instead it was just your average DUI offense. The judge introduced the parties of the trial and gave us more details on what would be happening that day. Juror numbers were then called. One by one, twelve persons were selected to sit in the jury seats. My number wasn’t called, but the juror whose number was one digit above mine got selected. At that point a combination of both relief and guilt came over me. The relief was from knowing that my odds of selection were now absurdly low—the only way I getting on the jury would be if more than half of the twelve people seated for jury got disqualified—and I’d soon be on my way out of the courthouse. The guilt was over feeling relieved—I shouldn’t have been feeling relieved about escaping from performing an important duty of US citizens. Though I didn’t get selected, I still had to sit around for another hour while the judge and the attorneys for both parties questioned the seated jurors. At this point I could have just tuned out of the proceedings, however I did my best to pay close attention to everything that was going on, as there was still a small chance I could get put on the jury and if I ever found myself on trial I would want potential jurors that did me the same courtesy. Both attorneys were probing the potential jurors for strong opinions related to the subject of the trial, and there was one juror in particular whom I could tell was going to get off the jury due to what he was saying. Maybe he really believed what he said, or maybe he was just trying to get off the jury. When the defense attorney finished with the questioning, the attorneys and the judge briefly convened at the judge’s seat to discuss things. Interesting, in this courtroom the audio speakers will play white noise when the judge and attorneys need to talk in private, which I think is a pretty clever way to keep the jurors and audience from hearing what they are saying. Once the judge and attorneys finished their chat the judge announced that everyone not sitting in the jury seats could leave. I shuffled out the door along with everyone else and made my way back to my car. It was still cold, cloudy, and wet outside. As I was driving out of the parking lot, I saw that one guy with strong opinions leaving the courthouse. Sure enough, he had been dismissed.

Now that I’ve got a bit of separation between myself and the experience, I think I can honestly say that I walked out of that courthouse with a better appreciation for the legal system here in Colorado. No, it’s not perfect, but I think, at least from what I saw, the court in this case was making an honest effort to provide the kind of justice we expect in our society. Then again, this was my first time reporting for jury duty and it looked to be a fairly vanilla trial, so maybe I just need more time in the courthouse to turn myself sour to our legal system.