Yesterday, I did my part as an American and served on jury duty.
I'm not sure how it goes where you guys live, but here was my experience:
I was asked to report to the civil court building in Jamaica, NY at 8:30 a.m. That's half an hour earlier than I get to work and getting there takes twice as long as getting to work. Thus, I woke up an hour earlier than I usually do.
So, I leave my house at the time when I usually wake up and head to the subway to make my way to one of the shittiest neighborhoods in NYC. Jamaica, Queens is where 50 Cent is from, among other rappers.
I get to the courthouse and I'm actually surprised about what I see. When I last did jury duty 9 years ago in Manahattan, the waiting room was just this big gigantic room with uncomfortable wooden benches, minimal windows and that's it. The room I was in yesterday was newly constructed, with an entire wall made of glass so we could see outside and get sunlight (although it was overcast most of the day). There were cushioned seats with armrests, flatscreen tvs, computers with Internet access, a bookshelf with books and magazines to read, tables to eat or read the newspaper on, and vending machines. This was a far cry from my previous jury duty, which had been excuricatingly uncomfortable.
So, at 8:30 the police officer there starts making announcements and giving us a bunch of directions for things we have to do, and a form we have to fill out, and what to do with our summons and so on. At 10:00, a judge came in and gave us a brief talk. After that, they put a movie on for us. It was "The Goonies". I was not aware that Josh Brolin (from the movies "No Country for Old Men" and "W") was in that movie.
Then, at 10:30, they read off a list of 30 names to go up to a room for possible jury selection. Unfortunately, I was one of those people.
So, I go up to the room, and the two lawyers there start to tell us about the case. It's a medical malpractice case, and that's all they can tell us at this time.
At this point, they asked if anybody felt they could not serve on this case. 15 people raised their hands, not including me. They took each of these 15 people outside, 1 at a time, and discussed the conflicts/biases with them.
I probably could have gotten out of it this way, but then a brilliant idea struck me. I was probably going to get dismissed anyway, because of circumstances that I will explain shortly. If I had gone up and spoke to them now, my name would be placed back into the pool of potential jurors, and I would possibly get called for another case. So, I decided to stick it out as long as I could, to prevent being put back into the pool of potential jurors.
So, by the time the lawyers got through the one-on-one meetings, it was noon. Now, they started getting into the details of the case.
What happened was a 61-year old man needed a heart bypass surgery, and during the procedure, the doctors accidentally restricted the blood flow in the artery that brings blood to the eyes. Thus, the patient's eyes were deprived of blood, and he went blind 2 days after the procedure.
So, of the remaining 15 people in the room, they randomly selected 6 of us to come up to the front row and be asked questions by the lawyers. I was the first person selected. They asked me if, after hearing details of the case, I could be impartial. I told them I could not. They said "Don't say anything more, we'll move on to the other people then come back to you".
So, I sat there until we broke for lunch at 12:45. I was thrilled. Lunch ended at 2 p.m., and I doubted they would call anyone in for jury selection past 3 o clock. So, I knew all I had to do was kill an hour after lunch, and I'd be fine.
I got back to the jury selection room at 2, but it took the lawyers another 15 minutes to get back. Perfect. They said "Before we move on, Tom mentioned he had a potential bias. Tom, can you please step outside twith us?"
So, I went outside with them, and I explained that my father had several heart procedures in his life, including a heart transplant which he believed was a result of shoddy work on an earlier operation. I also explained that my fiancee works in a hospital. Thus, I could not give 100% assurance that I would be unbiased. They said "Thanks for being honest with us", and sent me back to the waiting room.
At this point, it was past 2:30. I'm almost home-free. So, I decided to stop int he bathroom and take a dump. That wasted another 20 minutes. So, I get back into the waiting room at just about 3. I do a little reading and shortly thereafter (about 3:45 or so) they start reading off names. My name is called. They say "The names we have just read are people who have fulfilled their jury duty service. You may leave, and you do not have to come back here tomorrow. You will not be summoned for another 6 years".
And with that, I headed home, proud of the fact that I served the state of New York and the United States of America by fulfilling my jury duty obligation.
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