Jury Duty

“You are hereby summoned and commanded to be and appear before the District Court . . .to serve as a petit juror in said Court and to have this summons with you.”

Not exactly the kind of mail that puts a smile on my face. Nonetheless (after calling the Juror Coordinator, Charlene Tallent, and trying to get out of service), I determined to do my civil duty. My wonderful sister Anna came from Utah to help care for my kids while I was away dishing out justice.

Tulsa county Jury Duty begins in room B-11--the room was built in the 50’s as a literal bomb shelter. So, as you can guess, the basement “Juror holding area” doesn’t do anything to add to the mood of those there. Although there are no windows, there are low ceilings, several pieces of worn and miss-matched furniture, a Nintendo 64 (donated by Charlene), magazines, a ping-pong table, and a random assortment of prints on the wall.

My week of Jury duty was unusual in that there was only one case the whole week. Typically, around 300 people show up, but only about 40 potential jurors were needed this time.

Once in the courtroom, most of us were randomly selected to be questioned in a process called viore dire. Because we are so technologically advanced, our selection processed consisted of all of our names being put in a metal cash box which was shaken between each drawn name.

I was put on the third row. Then the questioning began. We were asked about everything from past crimes to our hobbies. Most questions were asked to each individual juror, but a few were just “raise your hand if this applies to you.” When the lawyer asked, “Does anyone have deep moral or religious believes about alcoholic beverages?” I was the only one (of course) to raise my hand. Several heads turned to look at me and I think this was one of the main reasons I wasn’t seated on the Jury.

Now don’t be shocked, but I had a really great experience. I am happy I was selected for Jury Duty—I’m not saying I want to do it again next week, and I am relived I didn’t have to listen to the grueling details of this murder, but I got to talk to a lot of interesting people I never would have otherwise met and I got to see a courtroom in action. Maybe I should have been a lawyer.