Who are you to judge

The continual trials and tribulations of Courtney's civic duty.

Day 2

10:00am- I'm back at the Moss Justice center sitting in a super cold room. Its called the "deliberation room," I need one of those in my house. I am sitting with 12 other people and we just stare at each other sort of suspiciously; sizing each other up as to who is going to be the trouble maker who goes 12 Angry Men on us.

10:30- We go and sit in the little box in the middle of the court room, its kind of like being a rockstar but without smiling and no Lycra. We find out that this is a domestic violence case-great and learn all the rules and stuff about what we can and cannot do. I feel bad one lady is the alternate. Like in miss America, she has to go through all the same junk but cannot make a decision, that's some boo.

10:45- Trial starts. Stereotyping is wrong? I think not, the prosecution and defense lawyers look and act exactly the way you see in movies and TV.

Prosecution:
Little, nervous, bad tie: Begins his tail with "It was a dark, cold, rainy evening in December. The Christmas tree was lit up." Really, this is your A game? Its gonna be a looong day

Doogie Howser Pictures, Images and Photos" src="http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c186/Heather110277/DoogieHowser.jpg" border=0>
I passed the BAR on Tuesday

Defense:
Smarmy, smug, southern. Not regular southern but slightly Foghorn Leghorn: Begins with talking about TV shows, You good folks like them TV shows like Law and Order, well that's not exactly how it works...ya see." First of all, don't tell me Law and Order isn't real cuz I saw you on last week's episode. Secondly, please don't ever refer to me as a collection of you folks.



I got my degree from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Law.


Join me for the next installment: The Trial aka Rednecks in Love

Don't you Sequester my Authority!

So I have been remiss in my blogging lately; I think my soul has yet to fully recover from the stagnation that is jury duty. At the age of 29 I have been pretty lucky in avoiding jury duty for the past eleven years. This January my number was up.

Day One:

9:00am- After getting lost and driving all around the Moss Justice Center in York, SC I finally find myself corralled into a room that for some reason reminds of an airport.

9:10am- I fill in all the little sheets and junk when you arrive for duty and am given the number 107. Damn you 107!

9:30- Waiting around with a bunch of people, make a friend who is about my age we start talking junk about some of the folks near us.

9:45- Justice lady comes in and gives us a lecture about civic duty and we should be thankful that we get to do this. She wishes we could all serve on a jury to learn about our justice system. I whisper a little too loudly that I watch Law and Order, the people laugh. Oh, also, we should not try and weasel our way out of jury duty because they will send the sheriff after us. Not scare anyone, but the sheriff gets mentioned a lot.

9:50am-We do role call. All 150 people have to stand up, state our names and occupation, state our spouse's name and occupation. Pretty basic stuff, one guy was named Richard Kimball-awesome



I didn't skip out on jury duty!

I don't care


10:50- Yes it took an hour for role call.

10:52- We wait

11:20-The judge comes in. Gives us the same speech, mentions the sheriff. We then wait some more. Some people go and try their case to be relieved of jury duty.

I give the story of:
One Women Who Failed
Some chick with flame red hair and a denim jacket comes back to her seat dejected and angry. See she has to go to jail on Friday. She has been convicted of domestic assault, she hit her husband and she begins her sentence on Friday. Hand to God the judge does not excuse her. Seriously...what!

12:00- Lunch

2:00 We come back. Justice lady comes up and tells us that everyone but these forty people can leave. You hear a collective groan as numbers are called. Juror number 107 please stay. Damn!

2:15 We get ushered upstairs and have to sit in the court room. New judge asks us a bunch of questions.

2:20- They then call out numbers and those jurors go and stand up in front of both the prosecution and defense. Sort of like sorority rush, but with this one you wanna be rejected. Were are on Juror member number 11! Sweet, the smell of freedom begins to tickle my nostrils the BAM!! Juror number 107, I march up there no hesitation let's take her. Hooray I got a bid for a really crappy sorority with terrible mixers. Yay!


I'm the one in the tie