Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Jury Duty Part 2

Well, I was home from Jury Duty by 11:30.

When you first get to jury duty, they show you a 12 minute video about the process, and what will happen. It's pretty funny, it talks about how in the Declaration of Independence, it talks about trial by jury. How proud we should be to have the opportunity to be on the jury, blah, blah...

Then, we're told to wait until the bailef (sp?) comes to get us to take us into the court room. I sat in the back of the huge room, and talked to my mom on the phone for a bit. She's been out of town, and I hadn't talked to her in awhile. After about an hour, a judge walks in. He tells us the story:

The trial that morning was a felony charge for a man who broke into office buildings and stole things - he did so on 5 different occasions. Well, this morning, the key witness disappeared and couldn't be found. So, the prosecuter cut the guy a deal. Apparently he'd been waiting 16 months for this trial. So, they had him plead guilty, time served, and sent him back to Nevada. (Sorry Erin, he's on his way to you!) So, no need for jurors. The jury clerk told everyone to have a good day, and she doesn't report the time you leave the courtroom to anyone, so to have a GREAT day. I did stop at pictureline on my way home, but other than that, I had to pick up kids.

I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. I've wanted to see how the system works. I have felt that all walks of life should have their opportunity to be on a jury, as inconvenient as it is, I feel like even stay at home mom's should have the opportunity. So, I am exempt from being on a jury for 2 years.

Well, now I'm sitting at home, listening to Jake and Kristin arguing. Kristin's freaking out, she had to get up too early this morning, and now I've got to calm her down enough to get food down her throat and take a nap, Jake's doing everything in his power to pester her more, Haley just wants to be held, and cries whenever I put her down...hmmm...wish I had jury duty about now...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Ha! I wish I had jury duty with you! I have been called to jury duty 3 times...all right after I have had a baby and so breastfeeding has gotten me out of it!! I expect to get my next summons for jury duty any day now... :)

Erin Fonnesbeck said...

yeah....sometimes jury duty can be somewhat of a vacation for us stay at home moms. I never would have guessed.

Pricilla said...

Sounds kind of interesting. I haven't ever had jury duty for some reason. I think i would take jury duty over moments like that with the kids too. Why is it that they all have hard days on the same day?