My awesome week!

So last year around November, I got a letter from the clerk of court calling me to serve JURY DUTY!!! Super awesome, right? Wrong! They then, a couple weeks later after I responded with the thing they asked me to fill out, postponed my Jury Duty until May '09! What?! I was so mad! I wanna be a jury person!

So May rolls around, and the first day I'm supposed to be in court, I am late for forgetting all about it! How horrible is that? But at least I showed up, so they moved me back a week.

So I go in on time the next week, I go through security, I go sit in a big room with about 150 other potential jurors, and I wait.

Eventually, the judge comes in and starts his spiel on how he knows we don't want to be here and have so many better things to do, but that he hopes that we will take advantage of the opportunity that has been forced upon us.

He then went through the list of exemptions that almost no one met. We were then split up into groups of 30 and sent to random courtrooms to be chosen or not for a certain case.

I was in the first group, and so I went up the stairs to the courtroom and sat waiting for some Jury action!

The judge explained the case and told us that we would then be called by name and either dismissed or called by the court to serve. Now, this process is pretty nerve-wracking. You stand up when they call your name, and if either the defense or the prosecution objects to your being a juror, you're out! How uncool!

But I guess fair is fair. So I watched, as one by one, my fellow jury duty people got called and then dismissed. It was intense. By the time I stood up, there were 7 people left who hadn't been addressed and only 3 spots on the jury.

They asked the state about me. The state said YES! (Well, they used alot of technical court jargon to say it, but basically, they said yes) They then asked the defense what it thought. I didn't think I was getting it. The defense had rejected so many girl jurors that I figured I was just one more, but I crossed my fingers and waited.

And finally, the defense attorney (in her equally fancy court jargon) said YES!! I quietly "whooped" to myself, and high fived people on my way out. "Cuz I'm a winner!" I whispered to them. That caused some giggling. But I really was excited to be on a Jury!

From then on, Jury escapades ensued left and right! I absolutely loved listening to the opening and closing statements. And we got our own little Jury room, and it was adorable hearing the D.A. yell "Objection!" left and right. I think that was her favorite word.

And it was also fun watching the State's attorney trying to win us (the jury) over with his shiney smiles. It was as if he had a checklist in his head:

Smile at the Jury to show them I'm on their side. . *flash a smile* And Check!
Stand next to the Jury in order to better relate to them . . . *move to the jury box* And Check!

He even brought a cute little posterboard of the crime scene! It was adorable! Like it was a show and tell he had worked on for a week with his mom.

I was kind of sad when the Defense didn't even present a case. That meant no more witnesses or evidence. Both of which I enjoyed very much! How cool!

So in the end, we deliberated. That was my favorite part. And we decided Guilty or Not Guilty. And then we watched as the decisions were presented.

If it didn't pay only $10 per day, I think I would want a job as a professional juror. How fun would that be? Only, of course, until I finished college and moved on to medical school.

Anyway, I had a wonderful time, and I hope to do it again sometime, but they said that the cycle only allowed for you to be called once every three years! How uncool!

Anybody got any jury duty I can take off their hands? I'll trade ya!