Well, I ended up spending only a total of two days involved in the jury duty and it breaks down like this…
Monday, September 24, 2007
I was summoned to the Forsyth County (GA) administration building to a meeting of the jury pool. I am not sure how many showed up, but there were quite a few. All of our names were called and we were split into groups of 12… Some groups went to Judge Dickinson’s court (where I went) and the others to the other judge’s court (I don’t remember name). I was in group 2. The others in group 1.
(We were then escorted to the courthouse…)
The procedure is to question each group:
- Group questions
- Individual questions
Since my group was second, we got to leave and come back after lunch… which meant we had 2.5 hours to wait. I ended up going to a Quizno’s to eat. I actually didn’t realize until it was too late that I had that long or else, I would have gone home… oh, well…
I got back to the courthouse at 1 and we were gathered and then escorted into the courtroom. We sat in the jury box and both the prosecution and the defense were to question us.
The first thing that we were told is what the case was (it was a felony drug case. possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute) and who was involved.
We were asked general questions about thing such as if we had any family members who were arrested, if we reguarly watch law shows, drug addictions in the family (since this is a drug-related case) and then the defense asked basically if we were racist (the defendant was black). And none of us responded.
Then, it was time for individual questions. These were based on the questionnaires that we were to fill out and mail back when we got our summons. Basically, in this trial, not much was too personal. After this, we (both groups) were reunited in the jury assembly room while the lawyers assembled the 13 person jury (12 jurors and 1 alternate).
I was actually selected to sit on the jury. My first summons. My first jury. This was not until about 4PM… We, then, were requested to meet back on Wednesday, September 26th at 9AM. This is an unusual circumstance, as the trial would normally begin the next day; however, since one member of the prosecution was to be elsewhere on Tuesday, we had “a day off.”
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Today, I arrived at the courthouse at about 8:30AM. We were all assembled at about 9AM. Seems as if everybody was on time… but there was some issues that were not disclosed to us and we were dismissed until 1Pm this afternoon (as I am writing this on Sept 26). We assembled at the correct time and finally got into the courtroom a short time after 1.
Finally, what we have been assigned to do. Hear the case. We were given our preliminary instructions by the judge and were re-read the indictment. Afterwards, the prosecution was able to make it’s opening statement. Which was objected to many times by the defense… And then the defense made it’s statement which was objected to many times.
Okay, now witnesses. We only got to hear one complete testimony before the trial ended on a mis-trial. The second witness made some statement as part of his testimony that caused the judge to have to call the lawyer to the bench and us, the jury, removed from the courtroom. And when we got to the jury deliberation room, somebody has written “James Dunn is my hero” on it. Turns out that James Dunn is the prosecuting attorney… These two factors caused the mis-trial… So, in the end, this was very anti-climatic. After all of the time spent waiting and days in between selection and the actual trial, this is how it ends…
While, I found the whole process enlightening, I can’t help but to feel … “ripped off” because I didn’t get the entire experience. If I were to have to sit on a jury, I wanted to go through the entire trial. But, I did not get that opportunity.
Here are a couple of pics I took of the jury deliberation room. I don’t see anything here that could get me in trouble, do you? (yes, that’s my coke zero and peanut m&m’s on the table…)
If I find an internet article on the trial, then I will post it. So far, I have not found anything.
