Jury Duty summary

I got up way too early but I am paranoid about being late so there you have it..Got up at 6:15, had to be there by 8. Its like 15 minutes away but I left at 7. Now I think since I was nervous, my sense of direction was totally screwed up (Michael, No comments please, hahah). Well, I was not late and found the overflow parking at the library at Marietta Square.

I took the shuttle bus over to the courthouse, got frisked and was signed in. I went to the juror assembly room and sat in the front row! Why? I swear the whole room was staring at me and figured once I sat down, they would quit. I then started my Debbie Macomber book. Got to page 5 and then orientation began. Okay, Fulton County is so much bigger than Cobb county and we never got an orientation. The judge on today was the one who did the whole Crematorium thing a few years ago when bodies were not buried in the right places. I never would have known this but the dude sitting beside me told me this. So the front row was full and we proceeded to hear what we would be doing and such, pretty much waiting.

As you read in the previous post, the guy beside me literally lives right around the corner from me. We talked about the neighborhood and he gave me his wife's number as she hires nurses for Home Health. I continued reading and got about 150 pages done today.

We get a break from 9-10am. We get back in an wait some more. We were given our panel numbers (i am panel 4) and a few panels were told to go ahead and leave and come back at 1:30. We figured they were definitely getting a case and perhaps we would go home. Honestly, no one went home early. At 11:30, more people are told to leave and come back and the rest of us were dismissed at noon.

As you can tell, I spent my lunch hour on the computer, which was A okay with me. 1:30 comes and not everyone is back. Uh oh. Panel 4 is called and is asked to line up. I first to walk into the court room and I find my nice comfy seat in the corner..A court room is a pretty cool place. Once all 36 potential jurors are in, we are sworn in and they start asking each group of 12 of us certain questions. they ask a question and if your answer is yes, you raise your hand. they take a tally and this will help later. In the room are the judge, the defense attorney and state prosecutor, the court report who had this large thing that covered his mouth. I have to figure what this was because it was very odd looking. Also in the room was the person who was accused and a lady who simply read out names.

After group questioning, we took a break and came back for individual questioning. This was done in front of the whole group. They asked some more detailed questions to the previous questions and some other things. I was not surprised by what they asked me. Then break time again and then the strike out. I was number 6 in my group and was declined by the state but accepted by the defense. They had chosen the 12 after the first 24, so they other 12 were just excused.

Long day, but interesting. I didn't add that many details because I am paranoid of getting in trouble so I am not sharing what potential case it was or what questions they asked me. If you get called for jury duty, bring a book but it will be a positive experience!