Juror Number 18 You are Dismissed

Blind Justice Lady

I had the civil duty/opportunity to be on jury duty this week. You talk about your interesting experience. There were fifty of us that made up the jury pool (yes, it was the shallow end of the pool). We all showed up early on a Monday morning ready to face the new week, and all of the challenges ahead!

The first thing we did was wait. For about 1/2 hour. We were then shown a VHS tape on the joy of being a juror. I'm not saying the film was old, but the building they filmed it in was torn down in the late 80's. The only thing that would have been better would have been if they had interviewed Judge Ritter (perhaps a little too inside).

After the film, we were given a break. Then we came back to some snacks. Water, Peach Mango juice, and some of those Quaker Oats chewy granola bars. See the basket being passed around below:
Sorry about the fuzzy image, but I sensed that I would have polluted the whole pool if anybody got a whiff that they were going to be blogged about, complete with pictures.

Turns out that I was juror 18, and that after all of the preliminary legal culling, one of 25 contestants. The need was for four jurors, so I felt my odds were pretty good to get out by noon. The case before us was about some old scruffy looking guy in a new shirt who had been pulled over for DUI, but apparently wasn't behind the wheel when the cops approached. Must have been some shenanigans going on between the time they lit him up and had the window rolled down. Although he looked to be no stranger to a bottle, we were advised that looks have no bearing on the case.

All twenty five of us were questioned on our views of driving impaired, if we ourselves had ever been pulled over for DUI (some had), or had any relatives affected by a drunk driver (many had). There were many questions about each juror's relationships with law enforcement personnel and various officers of the court. I think that after mentioning a son who is a policeman, a father and sister who are attorneys, and my wife's uncle who is a judge on the 10th Circuit Court in Denver, that I may have overplayed my hand.

Some time during the four hour process, in between the questions, two nice ladies showed up with little brown envelopes with $18.50 in cash for each of us. Number 17 and I discussed the possibility of taking our reward and buying the defendant a drink and talking about the case.

Based on all of the questions asked and the respective responses, four jurors were chosen, none of which were numbers 17, 18, or number 19 who spent the whole morning drinking Mt Dew and eating Planters treats. I heartily recommend the experience to anybody, if for no other reason than to compare yourselves to a random eclectic gathering of concerned citizens. OK then.