Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Jury Duty

I have jury duty tomorrow. I am terrified I will fall asleep on the bench. That is my number one fear. Other fears:
2. I will starve to death between breakfast and lunch.
3. I will know the accused and be embarrassed for him/her.
4. I won't understand the trial.
5. They will explain it to me and I still won't understand the trial.
6. I will have to admit that I am a Yale graduate who doesn't understand the words of lawyers whose main communicating mission is to explain civil matters to folks who may or may not have graduated from eighth grade.
7. I will surreptitiously multitask while on the bench and get publicly scolded for it.
8. I will end up on a trial that takes 3 months and therefore go broke and miss HooteNanny and my writing groups.
9. Did I mention that I have to be there at 8 and not get to eat lunch till 1pm?
10. I will get there and the trial will sound absolutely fascinating--better than Dallas or West Wing or Friends or ER or Mad Men--but that I will be rejected for all the above reasons and regret it for the rest of my life.

3 comments:

tmarsik said...

I had jury duty when I was 4 months pregnant. I figured, being a pregnant engineer, there'd be no way I'd be selected. Well, I was selected and I am glad I was. The prosecuter thought he had a slam dunk case and (I felt) missed a few opportunities to hammer home some aspects of the case. Some of my fellow jurors had watched too much CSI and didn't trust the evidence. I was able to explain some things, and in the end the jury found the criminal (a drug dealer who was on a mission to kill a rival gang and ended up instead shooting a sheriff and shooting at another officer) guilty and the man was sentenced to 25 to 45 years. I was glad to perform my civic duty. It wasn't fun (obviously), but necessary.

Nerissa Nields said...

Thanks, Theresa! I just got out of the courthouse. They resolved all 6 cases by 10am, in large part, said the judge, because we were waiting in the wings. I did feel very proud to be of service. And grateful I was not called, but I can see how it could have been really interesting.

Unknown said...

::laughing:: I shall write your fears on my soul for the next time I am picking a jury, Nerissa.