Juror Number 60

A few weeks ago I received my very first summons to appear for jury duty. I had to go today for the jury selection. The process was interesting, but a bit confusing. I still don't understand why some were picked for both trials coming up this week (three of whom barely spoke english) and some of us were not picked at all. There were 110 perspective jurors and only two civil trials coming up this week, so you would presume they could pick 24 different jurors. I was really surprised that the one juror, whom no one could understand, and had to be asked to repeat his information three times and still no one got what he said, was picked for both juries. Still the process was interesting.

First we all had to meet in court room 1 and were told to sit on one side. On the other side were the people involved in the cases coming up this week and their attorneys. After waiting and waiting and waiting past the 9:30 a.m. summons we were told to rise and the judge came in and then we sat. They then read this pledge we were to swear to, but at the last four words I put my hand down ... so help me god. As an atheist those words mean nothing to me and as far as I'm concerned have no business in a court of law. But that's just my humble opinion.

Then they did the roll call and as our name and number were called we were to stand, state our name, community, occupation, spouses place of employment and occupation. We had a little blue card to read from and it amazed me how many had to refer to it for those short little sentences. But we finally got through all that and then the judge went through a series of questions...are we u.s. citizens, etc etc etc. One question was did we have valid SC drivers license. He admitted this next question was dumb but he had to ask it anyway... do any of you not understand the english language. Then with a twinkle in his eye he said, "of course, if you don't understand english you have no idea what I said and won't be able to answer. So, if everyone would just look at the person next to you and if they have a spaced out dumb look on their face let me know, because they didn't understand what I said." Now we get back to the DL. He had to go through the same thing for the second trial and when he got to the DL question, he said, "unless someone has lost their drivers license within the last 15 minutes I'll presume you all still have a valid licence." So, at least we had a judge with a sense of humor.

Anyway... to my disappointment I didn't get picked for either trial. I know, I know, the idea is to get out of jury duty, but this seemed like a unique experience for me. After all at age 60 there aren't a whole lot of knew things to experience and I would have made a good juror. I did enjoy the time I had there and wish it could have been longer, but you never know... I may get called again someday.

In the meantime, this is juror number 60 signing off.