No. 613 -

It's a number I won't soon forget. Civil duty calls... and it's the number assigned to me. I had to call a recording for instructions last night and guess who's number was called?? Yep. Mine. In fact, numbers 579-633 were to report to the court house today! At 8:30 in the a.m! Not that I have a problem with that time. But let's face it, I'm a stay-at-home mom who will sleep until 9am if her son allows it! Needless to say, this was the kind of morning when I reeeally wished I liked coffee of the non-froo-froo variety ~ unsweetened, uncreamered, black-as-the-night coffee! Just for the caffeine... well, and the rich, robust flavor - to which I'm apparently not accustomed since the extras are a must if I'm to enjoy my coffee bitter-free. I settled for a sparkling water instead. Since I don't have time to stop for a caffeinated beverage, perhaps the fizziness of the carbonation will wake me up! Ok, enough about coffee. :)

Once at the court house, all 50+ of us jurors assembled in a room that was about half the size of a school classroom. And there we sat... and waited... and waited. We had roll call. Then waited some more. The bailiff informed us that a jury is usually not needed for this type of case and that they'd "most likely" settle. About an hour or more later, we were walking single-file into the court room to go through the selection process. So much for "most likely!" As a group, we were asked a series of general questions by the attorneys. If the question applied to us, we raised our hand in affirmation. One guy said he didn't agree with how some evidence can be withheld. He was excused. (In my opinion, he must've used that technique before to get out of jury duty.) After they seemingly got the information they were looking for, the jurors were ushered out of the court room for another exciting time of waiting. Finally, they reached an agreement on which jurors to have sit on the panel. I was one of them.

I must admit, it was actually quite an interesting process. The jurors had a designated room to which we retreated during any short recess and the deliberation time. We'd line up in the order we were to sit in the juror's box, then file in and remain standing until the judge said to be seated. We listened to testimony from Police Officers, saw evidence, heard opening and closing remarks in addition to lots of questions from the attorneys. The defendant, who had no witnesses nor did he want to take the stand himself, had a feeble case - at best. I'm still not sure why he wanted a trial by jury. Eh well. It was kind of a "Day in the life..." scenario. It was quite educational and I liked the variety in my day but I wouldn't want to do that full time.

After we came to our conclusion and the verdict was read, we were done! Don't even have to call that recording for the rest of the month! And we can't be summoned again for another 2 years. Which is fine by me. Goodbye #613. It was fun while it lasted. :)