On the case!

On Wednesday I wrote a blog about Jury Duty, little did I know that I would be coming back to the Courthouse for more than one day.

After lunch on my first day at Jury Duty on Wednesday they called another group of people, but this time instead of 20 people there were over 50 of us called and I was the first of the group.  As I walked up to the 15th floor and waited, when most of us had arrived they did role call and we waited for everyone to show up.  It was amazing to see that we had already lost a few people on our way up 2 floors.  So that delayed everything and when we finally got into the courtroom and took our seats it was after 3 pm.  The Judge introduced the case and the lawyers and said we wouldn't be in court on Friday, not because he was playing Golf, but because he had a prior commitment.  It was nice to see a little humor in the courtroom.  

Then one by one, they called people up by their Juror ID and I became Juror #6.  I was nervous as I took my seat in the Jury Box and as we filled all the seats the next part was something they never show on TV or on the Court Shows.  There was a question and answer format as well as general information about yourself.  You say where you live, your marital status, your occupation as well as if you've served on a Jury before.  The Judge told me to be elaborate and asked if anyone would have seen me in anything when I said I was an Actress and Bartender.  I didn't want to get into too many details since everyone in the room including the defendants were there so I mentioned my Hosting Job for PowerTV and said it was a great experience.  Then we had to answer if we knew any police, lawyers, knew of a crime to a family member or ourselves, and if we'd ever testified or been a witness in court.  I thought by saying that my purse was stolen might get me excused from the case, but I said I could be unbiased in the trial that would happen next week and they went on with everyone else.  It was easy to spot those that were trying to get out of serving on Jury Duty and everyone has their reasons so if someone is scared or doesn't want to be on a case for whatever reason, just let them leave.  This process took a long time and we didn't finish before the end of the day so we were required to show up on Thursday at 10:30 am to continue with this.

When I arrived the next day, Stacy, another juror I had been chatting with the day before was there already and we started talking since we both were Actors and the younger people of the group.  It was an hour before we even went into the courtroom and we continued the question and answer process and some of the jurors got excused before the Attorney's could ask questions to the Jury Panel.  Some of us were addressed personally by the Prosecuting or Defense Attorney's based on the answers to the questions from the previous day and I got asked about my stolen purse, but I said it was a learning experience and I don't blame LAPD for their inability to find or convict the girl who stole my purse.  As people answered questions, and counsel took breaks to discuss in private, more people were excused until we went to Lunch at 12 pm.  The process continued around 2:15 pm until around 4 pm when they finally had their 12 Jurors and I was one of them.

The Defense Attorney's made sure to explain that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and the Prosecution needs to prove that the defendants did what Prosecution is accusing them of beyond a reasonable doubt.  To be perfectly honest, I'm a little nervous but also excited because I think the whole process will be very interesting.  Of course, I can't say much more than I am or give any details until the case is over but I'm looking forward to the first day of the trial on Monday and listening and making an informed decision based on a fair assessment of the information given to me.

Who knows, maybe I'll decide after this process that I'd like to be more involved with Legal Issues and decide to go back to school and pursue a career in Law.  Those are my initials so I think I have a good start on it ;)