Life is waiting......and waiting and waiting!

I just got done with Jury Duty. Oy. Hurry up and wait! 2 days of mostly sitting around. Fortunately, I brought a book. Unfortunately, I finished it! At least there were some "left-behinds" and I found one that was pretty good, and short enough to finish in the time I had left. I missed out on the 2-3 week murder/attempted murder trial, not being available the 2nd week of September. I got cued up for Jury selection in another trial the afternoon of the 1st day, but it was pled out, so the last of us finally got sent home.

Day 2 found, you guessed it, more waiting. Finally a group of 35 of us got called for the selection process in a drug possession case-Yes! I was hoping for that, because I know that with my beliefs, the prosecution would dump me in a heartbeat. I wouldn't lie to get tossed, but I wouldn't lie to stay on, either. It was an interesting process. First, the Judge asked if there were any jurors who would suffer a hardship if the had to serve for the next 3 days, the supposed lengh of the trial. 3 or 4 got dismissed, and 3 or 4 had their "hardship" dismessed and had to stay anyway. Some of the requests were pretty lame. Then the Judge asked a series of questions and we help up our juror number cards (I was lucky #13, and filled up a dismissed juror's spot in the jury box immediately-#11 having somehow gotten out of even the selection process) if we answered yes. Quite a list! From strong feelings about drugs, interactions with law enforcement, friends or family who aere lawyers, and on and on. They the lawyers had 20 minutes each to ask quesition of random jurors, asking us to expand on the responses we made to the first series of questions. I got asked pretty quickly about my "strong feelings about drugs" or what ever the question was. I let her know that I thought drugs should be legalized, and after a few more questions, she moved on to the other 10 or so folks who answered the same way I did. I was surprised with how many folks agreed with me. The other lawyer had her turn and then, some of the jurors were dismissed after a sidebar with the Judge.

Then it was lunch-off to Chipotle again! The best thing about the last two days! Back in the court room, there were two more rounds of questioning, a couple more dismissals, and then the lawyers did their...whatever the term was...dismissing jurors from the 12 in the box without having to give a reason. As jurors in the box were dismissed, extra jurors filled in the spots. I was the prosecution's 3nd dismissal. It looked like the lawyers were trying to get rid of the extremes, and keep some sort of even keel in the jury. The NRA guys, the fundie bible thumper, and some of the others with too much personal experience with people in trouble with drugs were dismissed as well.

It was an interesting process. I'm glad I did it; I'm also glad I was dismissed.