Jury Duty

Please allow me to fill you in on my week last week....also, please don't be too jealous!! :)

I was "summoned" for jury duty last Monday.  I was REALLY hoping to be dismissed since I am pregnant (legitimate reason right?), but if anything knew I would be there on Monday and that was it.  WELL I couldn't have been more off...

After sitting in the "juror lounge" at the courthouse for about 2 hours on Monday there was a group of 40 people called to report to a courtroom for a criminal case...as in a MURDER case.  (Those of you in the area, the Brad Cooper trial was adjacent to the courtroom we were in...)  So 12 random names were selected out of the 40, they were questioned by the lawyers, some stayed, some were dismissed, more were called to replace those that were dismissed, again they were questioned, some stayed, some left...this process continued on and on...I just KNEW my name would be called.  Just after lunch, I was asked to report as "juror #7."  I sat in the seat, answered my questions, and clearly had "sucker" written across my forehead because they kept me.  Once all 12 of us were chosen, along with 2 alternates, we were told a little more about the case.  I couldn't believe it!  At that time we were told to plan on being there for 3 or 4 days!  Just my luck!!

I won't go into all of the details of the case because I would be typing here forever.  It was a very interesting experience though and one that maybe I am thankful I had.  The deliberation is the hardest part.  The defendant was guilty of murder, we had to convict him of first degree, second degree, or voluntary manslaughter, plus he was charged with two accounts of child abuse for shooting a gun in his home where his children were.  In the end, manslaughter was the verdict and he was found guilty on two counts of child abuse.

Click here to read about The sentencing

I have to say what I was most upset about was that Friday was to be a day off of school, a random vacation day and where did I spend my day off?  In the courthouse!!!!  Ughh!  I am thankful it is over!  I do feel as though I gave my civic duty though and I had some very nice people on the jury with me as well...so it was certainly not as bad as it could have been!