Jury Duty

There is a list and I am on it. I get called for jury duty every two years or so. No one on my side of our family goes to jury duty, but I married a man who thinks attending jury duty is one of our most important civic duties. So to avoid any strife in my marriage I have gone along with this ideal and attend jury duty with the exception of when I got called after just giving birth to our son.

My husband attends jury duty, but has never been called back into the inner sanctum to be screened for a jury. Yesterday was the third time I had been called back to go through the screening process and for the first time I got to sit in the "box".

We get a tad bit of information about the case and then the judge asks a bunch of weed out questions for the jurors. The case is interesting, but not nearly as intriguing as what comes out of potential jurors mouths. Some of them may be trying to get out of jury duty, but the disclosure of indiscretions and biases can be shocking. So I wasn't completely surprised when I wasn't excused when I said I may not have childcare arrangements beyond that day of service.

About half of the people yesterday admitted to having DUI's. One woman was arrested in New Jersey for playing the music too loud at a party. (Completely forgivable given I would have had the same thing happen last fall at hubby's 40th birthday party had I been at the house when the police arrived instead of picking up the kids.) Several knew or were related to someone who was a felon or in jail. A lot of people claimed to have a prejudice either for or against law enforcement based on their previous experience. And there were a couple of sad tales and just really bad luck that made me count my blessings.

The time before this one woman in the group came from a family with a laundry list of felonies. Her husband also had a felony (or three) but she wasn't sure what they were for because it happened before she met him. I am still dumbfounded as to how you can date someone and not be smart enough or have enough self preservation to ask them about their priors. Especially if her family had a similar colorful past- you just think it would come up in at least one conversation.

I was not selected for the jury and having completed my civic duty for the next 18 months I will crawl back into my sheltered life and try not to think of the fact that some of these people have reproduced and their children may be in my children's dating pool some day.