Jury Duty

Rats! I got the summons a week ago, and had to call last Friday for instructions. Sure enough, number A79 has to report at - gulp - 7:30 am! What? You have to be kidding! Downtown Rochester at the crack of dawn? I shuffled as much of my schedule as I could, rose in the dark of pre-day, climbed in my poor little car, and off I went.

Directions were clear enough, and there was plenty of parking available in the garage. I followed the huge signs for the Hall of Justice (is this a batman movie?) and found myself waiting in the security check line with 40 or 50 others waving their little blue forms. No admittance without the forms. The line moved fairly quickly since we could keep our shoes on, but it never seemed to get any shorter as more and more people appeared. Men had to remove their belts and all coats and sweaters had to come off.

We were ushered into a large foyer with only a few chairs. I was fortunate enough to get one. The foyer gradually filled until there were hundreds of us nervously waiting for the jury room to open. At last a woman announced that we should follow her into the official room where we turned in our forms and took another seat. Giant monitors splashed information about what we could expect as we took our places.

The court official got on the PA and welcomed us all to court. He thanked us for our commitment and explained the new system that had recently been passed into law. Turns out there are no longer any exemptions offered for jury duty. If you are 18, a resident of the county and breathing, you are in. So put the Juror sticker on your shirt or blouse, and read the booklet while you fill out a survey.

Then the next court official walked us through the process. Each of us were assigned to one of the morning court cases (4 cases, 400 jurors) for the selection process. If the case actually went to court, a jury would be selected from the candidates. If you were dismissed for any reason, you would return to the jurors room for reassignment - in case one of the other cases needed someone, or for one of the 3 afternoon cases.

They began reading names for the first case. I was about the tenth name called. So, there I had it. In 15 minutes the judge would send an officer to escort us to the courtroom where we would be either assigned to the jury or dismissed. We waited and waited and waited. No officer appeared for our judge. Two other groups went upstairs and we were still sitting there. The third case was delayed and the potential jurors were given permission to leave as long as they returned by 2pm.

We still waited. And waited. And waited. The woman next to me was so nervous she talked non stop, speculating as to what would happen if she were selected. She griped about the process and complained that women her age ought not to be forced to come and sit all day like this. The least they could do was bring us lunch. On and on her grumbling went. I am sure it was her nerves.

Finally, I said quietly, "At least you are not having to rush about at work or forced to spend the night in an airport." She blinked. "Well, that's true," she acquiesced. "I guess it could be worse." Still, she could not resist fussing. For each issue she raised, I suggested a reason to be glad is wasn't something more difficult.

I wasn't meaning to be obnoxious, but her attitude was spreading. Frankly, I think its a good thing to serve jury duty. People who have done it told me it wasn't so bad really, even when they had served on a case. Besides, if I were in trouble, I would want decent people to serve on my jury. I was half hoping to be selected even though it would mean I would have to take more days off work.

The poor woman finally turned to me and said, "You have a very good attitude about all this. I guess I should be thankful I can be here. After all, I am retired and all I do all day long is sit at home all alone and watch TV. Here I am in a room full of interesting people carrying on intelligent conversation and actually I am not having a hard time of it at all. I did bring a book to read, but the things we have talked about are so interesting it never occurred to me to take it out."

After that we chatted about the news items being broadcast on the screens around the room - fires in Manhattan and Iowa, an inner city school that is run like a military academy - all kinds of stuff. At long last they announced that our case had been plea bargained and we were released from that case.

All the afternoon cases had also been plea bargained. We were required to stay until a certain designated time. If any of the morning cases felt they needed more people, they had to let us know by a certain time. If we didn't get a call by then, we would be released to go home and we would not be called back until at least 8 years had passed.

We lapsed into sporadic conversation until the release announcement came through. I exited the parking lot, paying my $8 and headed for the nearest lunch place since we had missed lunch entirely. I was a bit disappointed not to have been selected, but a lot more relieved, especially since I would be able to do what my work schedule had listed for the week.

Check back in 8 years. Maybe next time I will go down the other path and actually serve. In the meantime, does it seem interesting to you that the city made 400 x $8 = $3,200 in parking for the day, and will do that everyday this week (x5 = $16,000) and probably most of the year (x 50 = $ 800,000)???? Does that seem right to you? Perhaps that new law wasn't so silly after all.