- 8:30 am - arrive to building, just south of China Town. Get repeatedly threatened by loud security guards who insist on perfectly straight lines. My pink leatherman is immediately confiscated. Enter room with approximately 150 of my fellow citizens who were stupid enough to have a valid drivers license, to pay their taxes or to register to vote in the city of New York.
- 8:45 - watch short film featuring Diane Sawyer trying to guilt trip me into feeling patriotic {& excited about sitting in a room all morning in an uncomfortable chair next to a weird guy who smells like peas}. Highlight of the film is when she says, "If you spend all day waiting to be called, but never am, don't worry- you're still playing a vital part in democracy." Right.
- 9:00 - Receive thorough instructions on how to fill out our name, address and phone number on the sheet that said in bright red letters "YOU MUST FILL OUT BEFORE YOU ARRIVE." Following instructions is clearly not a required competency for jury duty.
- 9:15 - Receive ridiculously detailed & thorough instructions on how to use the vending machines.
- 9:30 - 11:35 - Sit. Wait. Play with my new Blackberry & try to figure out how to type on it's extra-small keyboard. My fingers feel like marshmallows, but I start cruising in no time. Battery starts getting frighteningly low {it's only 9:30!!}. Try to read. Quickly realize I am too bored to read. Try to come up with an A-Z list of adjectives that describe people, but determine that I need to develop a better vocabulary first. Email Dad & tell him to compose a list {he's into that kind of thing}. Stare at clock & sigh every 2 1/2 minutes.
- 11:35 - My name is called. Crap.
- 11:35 - 1:00 - The group is whittled down to the lucky 12. Apparently I answered all of the questions right & am Jurror #5. During this process, I notice that the man next to me is trying to discreetly look at a porn magazine between his legs. Ew. The prosecuting attorney is fairly incompetent {& her use of the word "uhm" quite excessive}. The judge snaps at her several times. I don't really sympathize, because I'm fairly confident I could do a better job without going to law school.
- 1:00 - Have our official juror's meeting. Two people ask to quit {one woman says, "I don't like the judge."}. I'm notified that I need to report again on Friday, Tuesday & likely Wednesday. Ugh. Only good news is that La Esquina {yummiest tacos & corn ever} is only 3 blocks away. Lunch time will at least be nice.
Oh- & I can't {really} even describe to you how stupid my case is. It's actually quite enfuriating. More details when I can't get arrested for telling them.
4 comments:
Seriously! When I think of jury duty I really DO think of doing a service that needs to be done...one that I would willingly and gratefully do out of duty and a deep seeded belief that we all need to participate in the system to make it work. However if I had to go through what you did today, I would have literally gone crazy...I would have jumped out of my skin in maddness. Seriously.
I got called twice and both times I was nursing a baby and they excused me. Sounds like I missed out on oh so much fun!
From your blog it sounds like the person on trial is definitely guilty. I would send a message and put him away at Sing Sing for a LONG time. I mean - bending a Metro Card has GOT TO STOP. I'm so mad about this kind of civil disobedience that I'm going to write Fred Thompson and demand he go on network television and do something about it.
I've never had to do jury duty, but it sounds like everything I've heard...at least you should be done by Wednesday right?
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