A couple weeks ago I recieved a letter in the mail telling me to return information about myself for jury duty. The next week i was invited to the courthouse for a jury selection and opportunity to serve as a juror. Everyone I talk to that goes to a jury selection usually does not make the jury. So I was thinking that I would not get the chance to sit as a juror. I guess I am a bit funny because I was super excited to go and I really wanted to be on the jury. So after all the many questions they gave us the opportunity to express any reason we could not serve. Being a single mother makes several days on a jury difficult so I expressed my concern and let the judge know that I would not be able to get sitters for more than that day. This apparently was the correct answer because there was 3 people who brought up the same concern and all of us made the jury.
After the selection they led us back into a room and proceeded to take our phones. They let us go out for lunch and instructed us to be back in an hour and a half. We were all very punctual people which made everything run smoother. So the trial began.... it only lasted a couple hours and was an interesting case. A young man in his early twenties was suspected of robbing a Dollar tree. His accomplices has plead guilty already and this young man was sticking to the story he was innocent. I really seem to root for the underdog and wanted to go into the case with the possibility that this young man truly was innocent! But all signs lead to the fact that he was not. So after the lawyers were finished they excused us into a room to deliberate.
We were in that room for 6 hours! To tell you the truth I loved every minute up to the last hour... there was this cute 80 year old lady who refused to make a decision. It;s not that she thought he was innocent... just refused to make a decision. So after I got a little frustrated I asked her "is the reason you cannot make a decision is because you think he is guilty and you do not want to put that label on him?" and she said yes. I proceeded to tell her that she would have to make a decision or else we were not going to go home... so after another 30 min she made the decision that he was guilty.
That's when it was really hard. To walk into that courtroom and hand over the GUILTY verdict that would send this man to jail. His face was pleading but it was too late. After the verdict was read they excused us and let us talk to the judge candidly. I think he was surprised it took us that long to decide. Even without the old lady we would have been in there at least 4 hours. It was fun to do and I would recommend it to anyone... but an everyday thing would drive me crazy! I would like to thank Grandma Baird for watching the girls for 12 hours that day so I could go! I do not have a bucket list as of yet but that would have been one of them! Check!
