Jury Duty

Yesterday and today I fulfilled my civic duties by responding to a jury duty summons. It's a bit of a bummer to have to be at the courthouse at 8:30 am the day after 4th of July. I mean, the sun doesn't set until 10 pm so the fireworks don't finish until late and then just a few hours later you have to be fresh and alert, ready to possibly send someone to jail for a very long time.

Nonetheless, I arrived at the Kootenai County Courthouse on time and made my way into the building. As I walked towards the courthouse I saw several television reporters, local and national, stationed right outside. For those of you following this national story, Shasta Groene was found on Saturday at the local Denny's restaurant and her abductor was set to be arraigned at the courthouse later in the day. (More about the Groene case in my next blog entry.)

I've never served jury duty before so I was looking forward to this new experience. I'd interned in the DA's office a few years ago so I was familiar with the jury selection process and I'd observed several trials but I'd never been a participant in the process. First, the kind bailiff showed us all an antiquated video of the jury system in the state of Idaho. Then, after a short break, the judge entered the courtroom and informed us that the two trials set for that day were canceled because the defendants had both plead guilty. So we were told that we all had to return the following morning for the next slate of trials.

So the next morning we all returned to the same courtroom for yet another day of waiting. Living in a small town like Coeur d'Alene you're bound to run into people you know almost everywhere you go and sure enough, I knew a few of the people also serving in the jury pool. In fact, several of the trials I observed when I interned in the DA's office, many of the jurors knew each other and that was the case in my jury pool as well.

When I first received my jury summons I wondered whether I would even be selected to serve on a jury because of my law degree and acquaintance with the district attorneys. I needn't have worried as I didn't even make into the 27 jurors selected. The court clerk took all of our numbers, put them in a box and then drew out the numbers at random. I wasn't among the 27 chosen for the attorneys to question. I probably wouldn't have made it into the jury box anyway as I was familiar with the prosecuting attorney from my internship days.

At the beginning of the jury selection we learned that the case was a young woman charged with vandalism of someone's car. It's interesting to listen to the questions the attorneys ask the jury because you can tell by the nature of their questions the basic arguments they're going to make in the case. I was surprised, based on their answers to the questions, that some of the jurors made it into the final jury. It was very interesting to sit through the process and one day I would like to serve on a jury. But I've fulfilled my civic duty for now and can relax for two more years.