a day in the justice system

[thedeadparrot]

I was called up for jury duty today, and unlike most people, I was actually selected (impaneled, in the common parlance) to serve on a jury.

We've already handed in the verdict, so it's not going to eat up more of my life, and I can actually talk about it now. I don't want to get into too many specifics in public (hit me up via e-mail, etc, if you want deets), but it was a criminal case, a small one. Since there wasn't a whole lot of evidence for us to deliberate on, it didn't take us too long to reach a verdict. It was a unanimous decision. I stand by it.

But it's a weighty thing we're asked to do. It still feels heavy on my back. I guess that's how it has to be, when the topic of justice, real justice, comes into play, and not just the court of popular opinion. I can't imagine what it must be like sit in a hugely involved case.

Comments

[zulu]

Huh, interesting! I was called for jury duty once but I mixed up my dates and missed it. I'd meant to go, honest! Which I called to tell them, and they sounded very skeptical about it. Um, oops?

[thedeadparrot]

I lucked out without getting called for about 6-7 years, so it probably makes sense that the first time I got called after that, I had to sit on a jury.

[merisunshine36]

You didn't get called for six years??? wow! I get called every year, but I've never actually made it to trial. At most I just sat in the jury pool room all day. This year's call was cancelled because of polar vortexing.

[thedeadparrot]

I don't know, man. Hooray for whatever random number generator they use, apparently.

But yeah, MA straight up says that if you get called -- even if you don't end up serving -- you shouldn't get called again for another 3 years, and if you accidentally get called, you can get out of it by showing documentation.