My Experience with Jury Duty

Let me set the record straight: Jury duty is awesome.

All of those people who make it sound like it's a bad thing have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. At least in my opinion, I found it to be an extremely fascinating, interesting and exciting experience - unlike anything I've ever done before. I would gladly do it again, in fact I really hope that someday I get to!

In case you're curious, I'll tell you about how jury duty works (in Alberta), and also about my specific experience.

First, you get a letter in the mail called a JUROR SUMMONS. Hooray! You have to fill out and mail back a sheet full of info within 5 days. Then the day before the jury selection date you have to phone a special number and it will tell you if the selection is still going ahead. When I called, it said that "selection was proceeding."

So then the next day, you head on down to the Law Courts downtown. They file all of the potential jurors into a courtroom - there are about 150 of you. They explain how things are going to work, and then they make you watch this amazing VIDEO which is straight out of the 80's. But it's a pretty accurate representation of exactly what happens.

They do a roll call and take attendance of everyone who is supposed to be there. You stand up and say "present" when your name is called. They then told us that out of the 150 people there, they would be picking the jury for one trial only, which is 12 people. At that point, I was quite certain that there was no chance that I'd be picked. I tried to dress up as professionally as possible though, because I really wanted to get picked!

At this point they listed the four charges against the accused in the case. She (the accused) was there as well. Then they named all of the witnesses in the case, and if you knew any of them, you weren't allowed to continue on. They also told us that the trial was scheduled to last for 10 days. Then they start picking names randomly out of a drum. They picked 12 names first, and I wasn't among them. I figured that the 12 people were already chosen and that I was out. Boy was I wrong! Out of the first 12 up, only ONE person actually got on the jury! When you go up, you're allowed to speak to the judge and tell her reasons why you can't participate. She can then tell you that you can leave, or that your excuses aren't good enough. (Saying that your work won't pay you or that you have other things to do doesn't count.) THEN you have to stand in front of the two lawyers, the prosecution and the defense. Then THEY each either choose you, or reject you. If either of them rejects you, then that's it. They say either "challenge" or "content." Two "contents" and you're a juror. So anyway, in the second or third wave of 12 people to go up, my name was called. I obviously didn't try to get out of it at all.

I stood up there and I heard the prosecution say "she works for Rogers Broadcasting" and I thought that for sure they wouldn't choose me, since I work in the media. (All they have is your name and occupation.) But what do you know, I got two "contents" and the next thing I knew, I was juror #8. At that point, you go and sit in the juror's box. So then they finished picking the rest of the jury, and then the chosen people left and went to their jury room. It's like a boardroom with a bathroom in it. And they keep you LOCKED in there all the time, unless you're in court. They went over some details and told us that court would start on Monday morning.

I was trilled and excited to be picked. Jury duty pays $50 a day, and they also cover your lunches and parking/bus fare. But I wasn't in it for the money! I wanted the EXPERIENCE!! (Luckily, my regular job still pays regularly when you're gone at jury duty. So I was lucky for that.)

Monday was the best day. The jury has it's own Juror Officer that looks after you the whole time, and they lead you around the building almost like a body guard. We sat in our jury office, and finally the moment arrived when we went into the courtroom. It was a pretty small court room, but pretty similar to ones that you see on TV. Everything is very formal and serious. We each got sworn in while holding a Bible. The judge talked a lot about how things would work, then the charges were read out to the accused, and she pled "not guilty" to all of them. The prosecution started things off, and he went through an overview of what his case was going to be. He said that there would be 10 witnesses, and this was the first time that we really got to hear what the case was all about.

If you read THIS you'll get the whole story. It was much more involved and much more serious of a crime then I expected.

Jury duty involves A LOT of waiting around. You spend tons of time in the jury room doing nothing. Just waiting to be called in. But when you're in the courtroom, you feel SO IMPORTANT. Everyone talks to you only, and they told us that once sworn in, we're looked at as people who are just as important/respected as the judge.

For me, the most fascinating part was when the first witness went up to the stand, a police detective who was one of the first on the scene after the incident took place. She had taken about 50 photographs on scene, and she had them all in binders for us to look at. These photos were evidence. We went through each photo one at a time, as she described what we were looking at. I have never seen so much blood that wasn't on TV or in a movie. The attack on the boyfriend was SO severe. The couch that he was sitting on when the beating took place was soaked in blood, and the wall behind the couch was splattered with it. There was blood all over the floor from when he was walking around afterwards. The kitchen sink was FULL of blood. The bathroom had tons of blood all over it. The front entrance way as well. Anyway, while it was quite gruesome, it was incredibly fascinating at the same time. The detective described what all the different types of blood spatter were, and what they all meant. Then we had to look at photos of the boyfriend after he had arrived at the hospital. Different angles of his face and head. Also extremely bloody and hard to look at. The difficult thing, is that while you're looking at these, you can't say a word, and you need to remain straight-faced. This makes you feel kinda closer to the 11 other jury members, because it's just the 12 of you going through this experience and seeing these things. I can't imagine having to look at evidence from a murder... Now that would be tough. At least we knew that the guy was still alive.

Then, much to my disappointment, THIS happened. At the time, we had been waiting around ALL DAY until they finally brought us into the courtroom and the judge told us that the accused had pled guilty to some of the charges and that we were no longer needed. They didn't tell us anything more. It felt SO anti-climatic! I actually only learned more about what had happened by reading that article. So at least that provided some closure. I really wish that I could have watched the whole thing pan out and given a verdict. I wish that my experience had not been cut short! But it was an adventure.

I would GLADLY do jury duty again. Although I cannot be picked for two years now, unfortunately. In my opinion, it's a wonderful experience and getting chosen for it is like winning the lottery. Oh, and just so you know, they said that after the trial was over, we are allowed to talk about it as much as we want. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask!