Enough Civic Duty For A While
One of our programmers got called for jury duty last month. He ended up being out of work for a week for the trial.
Earlier this month, one of our project managers got called for jury duty and was out for two days. Unfortunately, it was immediately after her vacation so she was out nearly two weeks in all.
It was my turn this week. I got called to appear at Superior Court in Mesa. I called in at 4:30 on Tuesday afternoon to see if I needed to appear on Wednesday. I was instructed to listen to the whole message so, of course, I did. It listed out three groups as needing to call on Wednesday at 10:30 AM to what time they needed to appear. Then, it listed out a bunch of groups that were dismissed.
Of course, I was in the first set of groups.
I went into work yesterday and tried to get a lot of stuff done before I called. My boss was IMing me at 10:31 to see if I had to leave. We're in the middle of doing the 2009 budget, I have a software release that was scheduled for that day and I needed to prepare to present to a group of 30 managers at a lunch meeting today.
I guess you could say I'm kind of busy.
I called in to hear that I had to report to Mesa at 12:30 that afternoon. Sugar Daddy said it was a total ripoff. I had to both go to work and go to jury duty in the same day. I agreed.
Fortunately, the court's not far from my house so I went home for a quick lunch then headed over. There were a bunch of us streaming in. I had to go through the metal detector and purse x-ray twice because I had my camera in my purse. I always do and they don't allow cameras. So, it was a quick trip back to the car for me.
We sat around for quite a while before the judicial assistant (person? She had a real title but I don't remember what it is.) took our summons forms and gave us a three part form to fill out. It had basic stuff on it - name, length of residence in Arizona and Maricopa county, years of education, felony conviction questions and demographic questions. We filled those out then watched a 12 minute film on the court system. It was interesting, actually.
Then, it was sit around and wait. I think it was nearly 2 before they started calling us and assigning juror numbers. I thought maybe they would only call some of us and maybe I'd get an escape. No such luck. All 51 of us got numbers. I was 17 - I wish I could have been 48 but I didn't get a choice in the matter.
We all followed the bailiff up to the court and lined up outside the door in number order. A few minutes later, we piled in to the courtroom and took our seats. The judge introduced everyone in the courtroom including the defendant. He was a guy about 55 years old who looked like the type that would try to pick me up at a bar. Now that I think about it, he looked a lot like a guy at Aunt Chilada's one night...
The charges were three counts of possession of narcotics with intent to sell and one firearms charge. The incidents happened in November and December in 2006 and the defendant allegedly tried to sell to an undercover cop. The trial was expected to take Thursday afternoon and Monday afternoon.
The judge started asking questions and we were told to raise our numbers up (we had them on paper) if our answer to the question was yes. The first set of questions was about who would be unduly burdened by serving on Thursday and Monday. There as a guy who was leaving town on Monday morning, a stay at home Mom whose husband's only day off was Wednesday and she had no other daycare and several self-employed people who had obligations. After a quick conferral with the attorneys, all of those people got excused. We were down to 30 at that point.
Here's what else I can recall being asked:
Have you or any of your family been arrested for drug possession?
Has anyone in your family served time in prison?
Have you been a victim of a violent crime?
Do you know anyone connected to the case?
Do you know anyone in the Mesa PD or County Attorney's office?
Have you or anyone one in your family or friends had a drug problem?
What's your employer, your job, length of employment, marital status, number of children under 18, spouse's employer, job and tenure and have you served on a civil or criminal jury?
Would we give more or less credence to the testimony of a police officer?
Depending on the question, the judge followed up with the question as to whether the prospective juror's experience would prevent them from being fair and impartial. Most folks said yes but some said no. I couldn't say yes to any of the questions so I was feeling like I was going to be stuck.
It was fascinating, though. The court stuff was interesting enough but the details from the other jurors were astoundingly depressing. One woman's father was in prison for sexual molestation of a child and she was the child. Another woman said her husband had been arrested but she wasn't sure of the status of the case because she hadn't seen him in three months and he had also committed domestic violence against her. One man's daughter had died from a drug overdose and his ex-wife had been a drug addict. Another woman broke down in tears while telling the story of her daughter-in-law who had been busted having drugs in her car while driving her baby around. The daughter-in-law eventually died in prison. Two guys reported being victims of home invasions. There were many people who had people in their families who had drug convictions. Probably nearly a fourth of the room, actually.
Me? My life and that of my family and close friends is boring. No drugs, no violent crimes, no domestic abuse...I was feeling totally stuck.
The DA lawyer took over the questions after that. She had specific follow up questions for some jurors based on their earlier answers. She then asked the whole group if we watched crime shows and how it would affect our opinions, what our bumper stickers said and then she went into drug specific questions. The first question was whether we thought our drug laws were too lenient. No one said yes. Then, she asked if we thought the drug laws were too harsh. The woman next to me chimed up and said she believed we should legalize medical marijuana. The DA lawyer followed up with whether any of us believed we should decriminalize marijuana.
Finally, I could say yes!
There were a few of us who said yes but no one said yes to the following questions about decriminalizing meth, cocaine or heroin. Apparently, we had our limits.
They sent us out for a break at 3:40 and told us to be back at 4:20. I grabbed a Diet Pepsi in the cafeteria, sent some whiny text messages to Sugar Daddy and The Rocket Scientist and finished my book.
We were all back up there at 4:20 then waited around a while longer before they called us back in. They started calling juror numbers and it was apparent they were going in order...2, 6, 10, 13, 19... They went past 17!
Sweet! I was free and happy.
If I hadn't had the presentation to do today, I would have been good with serving but I was relieved to know I was going to be able to get back to work for a full day today. How sick is that?
I think the moral of the story is that being a hippy freak gets you out of jury duty. I just wish I could have told them that upfront and not spent nearly 4 1/2 hours at the court.
Earlier this month, one of our project managers got called for jury duty and was out for two days. Unfortunately, it was immediately after her vacation so she was out nearly two weeks in all.
It was my turn this week. I got called to appear at Superior Court in Mesa. I called in at 4:30 on Tuesday afternoon to see if I needed to appear on Wednesday. I was instructed to listen to the whole message so, of course, I did. It listed out three groups as needing to call on Wednesday at 10:30 AM to what time they needed to appear. Then, it listed out a bunch of groups that were dismissed.
Of course, I was in the first set of groups.
I went into work yesterday and tried to get a lot of stuff done before I called. My boss was IMing me at 10:31 to see if I had to leave. We're in the middle of doing the 2009 budget, I have a software release that was scheduled for that day and I needed to prepare to present to a group of 30 managers at a lunch meeting today.
I guess you could say I'm kind of busy.
I called in to hear that I had to report to Mesa at 12:30 that afternoon. Sugar Daddy said it was a total ripoff. I had to both go to work and go to jury duty in the same day. I agreed.
Fortunately, the court's not far from my house so I went home for a quick lunch then headed over. There were a bunch of us streaming in. I had to go through the metal detector and purse x-ray twice because I had my camera in my purse. I always do and they don't allow cameras. So, it was a quick trip back to the car for me.
We sat around for quite a while before the judicial assistant (person? She had a real title but I don't remember what it is.) took our summons forms and gave us a three part form to fill out. It had basic stuff on it - name, length of residence in Arizona and Maricopa county, years of education, felony conviction questions and demographic questions. We filled those out then watched a 12 minute film on the court system. It was interesting, actually.
Then, it was sit around and wait. I think it was nearly 2 before they started calling us and assigning juror numbers. I thought maybe they would only call some of us and maybe I'd get an escape. No such luck. All 51 of us got numbers. I was 17 - I wish I could have been 48 but I didn't get a choice in the matter.
We all followed the bailiff up to the court and lined up outside the door in number order. A few minutes later, we piled in to the courtroom and took our seats. The judge introduced everyone in the courtroom including the defendant. He was a guy about 55 years old who looked like the type that would try to pick me up at a bar. Now that I think about it, he looked a lot like a guy at Aunt Chilada's one night...
The charges were three counts of possession of narcotics with intent to sell and one firearms charge. The incidents happened in November and December in 2006 and the defendant allegedly tried to sell to an undercover cop. The trial was expected to take Thursday afternoon and Monday afternoon.
The judge started asking questions and we were told to raise our numbers up (we had them on paper) if our answer to the question was yes. The first set of questions was about who would be unduly burdened by serving on Thursday and Monday. There as a guy who was leaving town on Monday morning, a stay at home Mom whose husband's only day off was Wednesday and she had no other daycare and several self-employed people who had obligations. After a quick conferral with the attorneys, all of those people got excused. We were down to 30 at that point.
Here's what else I can recall being asked:
Have you or any of your family been arrested for drug possession?
Has anyone in your family served time in prison?
Have you been a victim of a violent crime?
Do you know anyone connected to the case?
Do you know anyone in the Mesa PD or County Attorney's office?
Have you or anyone one in your family or friends had a drug problem?
What's your employer, your job, length of employment, marital status, number of children under 18, spouse's employer, job and tenure and have you served on a civil or criminal jury?
Would we give more or less credence to the testimony of a police officer?
Depending on the question, the judge followed up with the question as to whether the prospective juror's experience would prevent them from being fair and impartial. Most folks said yes but some said no. I couldn't say yes to any of the questions so I was feeling like I was going to be stuck.
It was fascinating, though. The court stuff was interesting enough but the details from the other jurors were astoundingly depressing. One woman's father was in prison for sexual molestation of a child and she was the child. Another woman said her husband had been arrested but she wasn't sure of the status of the case because she hadn't seen him in three months and he had also committed domestic violence against her. One man's daughter had died from a drug overdose and his ex-wife had been a drug addict. Another woman broke down in tears while telling the story of her daughter-in-law who had been busted having drugs in her car while driving her baby around. The daughter-in-law eventually died in prison. Two guys reported being victims of home invasions. There were many people who had people in their families who had drug convictions. Probably nearly a fourth of the room, actually.
Me? My life and that of my family and close friends is boring. No drugs, no violent crimes, no domestic abuse...I was feeling totally stuck.
The DA lawyer took over the questions after that. She had specific follow up questions for some jurors based on their earlier answers. She then asked the whole group if we watched crime shows and how it would affect our opinions, what our bumper stickers said and then she went into drug specific questions. The first question was whether we thought our drug laws were too lenient. No one said yes. Then, she asked if we thought the drug laws were too harsh. The woman next to me chimed up and said she believed we should legalize medical marijuana. The DA lawyer followed up with whether any of us believed we should decriminalize marijuana.
Finally, I could say yes!
There were a few of us who said yes but no one said yes to the following questions about decriminalizing meth, cocaine or heroin. Apparently, we had our limits.
They sent us out for a break at 3:40 and told us to be back at 4:20. I grabbed a Diet Pepsi in the cafeteria, sent some whiny text messages to Sugar Daddy and The Rocket Scientist and finished my book.
We were all back up there at 4:20 then waited around a while longer before they called us back in. They started calling juror numbers and it was apparent they were going in order...2, 6, 10, 13, 19... They went past 17!
Sweet! I was free and happy.
If I hadn't had the presentation to do today, I would have been good with serving but I was relieved to know I was going to be able to get back to work for a full day today. How sick is that?
I think the moral of the story is that being a hippy freak gets you out of jury duty. I just wish I could have told them that upfront and not spent nearly 4 1/2 hours at the court.
