Jury Duty

So, as should happen to everybody at least once in their life, I was summoned to jury duty this week.  After watching Law & Order I was all primed up to be grilled by the lawyers.  Had all my misleading answers ready to go so that I would make it on the jury for sure.  Only one problem:  we’re not part of the US yet.  In a couple of years yes, but not today.  So I was bound by Ontario law.  Here’s my story of my brief, yet mostly unexciting tenure on the jury panel for a trial being heard by the Supreme Court.

Day 1:  Arrived at courthouse with approximately 200 other ‘common and fair representation of society’ persons.  Did what other common, non-courthouse-visiting type people did….ask the first guy dressed in robes where that place wuz where we gotta go to get jurified.  His response:  follow the crowd.  Hmm.  Good advice in general whether in a commonwealth or in a republic. 

Sat down at 9:30 with the crowd and after looking about to get my bearings, proceeded to read my stack o’ magazines I brought to pass the time.  Without anybody to look at in the boxes and benches at the front, there wasn’t anything else to do.

10:00 am, apparently when the government starts its day, 2 speakers/officers/gophers/whatever of the court came in to commence the ‘role call’.  In alphabetical order each summoned individual’s name was called out and a ‘here’ or ‘present’ or ‘yo’ was required by the person.  Most people said ‘here’ (including me) but I counted 3 ‘presents’ and 1 barking-type acknowledgement that sounded kind of like “Kladdaghhhhhhhere”.  He was an older gentleman.

10:30 am, name cards are placed into a drum.  Lawyers enter room.  I notice there is an individual in the penalty box who must have crept in while I wasn’t noticing. 

10:45 am.  Have determined that defence lawyer is quite wet behind the ears and Crown attorney is sneaky.  But nobody has spoken yet since the judge hasn’t showed up.  Can just tell by their mannerisms.  Accused is young punk.  Analysis:  I probably wouldn’t be good for the jury since I’ve already decided he’s guilty of whatever crime he’s up for.  Just kidding.  I’m only kind of decided.

11:00 am.  Judge comes in, we bow after the hear-ye hear-ye and begin.  Jurly selection process is explained:  20 names drawn from the drum.  Name and jury number of each individual called out.  Must approach the front of room to the right in a line until all 20 have been called up.  Tension in the room noticeably cranked up.  Obviously to tell NOBODY wants to be on the jury.  Hmmm.  Nobody except me that is.  Oh ya, not allowed read or chew gum or make any noise from this point on.

11:10 am The list of indictments are read and the accused enters his plea on all counts.  I refrain from detailing any of the counts.  He pled not-guilty to all but one count.  The list of witnesses are presented. 

11:30 am Knowing the players involved the judge asks the panel for any specific reasons they should not be in the jury.  Bam! At least 40 people eagerly put their hands up and each one is heard their ‘reason’.  It broke down into either “illness”, “self-employed”, “business or prepaid vacation plans”, “can’t understand the language very well”, “hardship due to spouse”.  The judge was only accepting the self-employed or travel plans as acceptable.  illness or hardship required some sort of documented proof.  The language card was not even given a chance.  About 15 people were excused.  So you wonder:  were they telling the truth?  Well, from my days as a poker player, more often than not, a player is not bluffing even when you think they are.  I’ve been burnt many times in my early days thinking that everybody is a bluffer.  Especially with this being a court of law with serious ramifications, I’m certain all those excused were legit.

11:30 am.  Darn.  Not in the 1st 20.  Each candidate proceeds to stand in front of accused, they stare (or try to anyway) at each other and the accused can state “content” or “challenge”.  No questions are asked.  Challenge means you’re not in.  The crown also must state “content” or “challenge” as well.  2 “contents” required.  In the 1st 20, 6 of the 12 were selected.  A fair cross-section of the local society.  All are caucasian however.  Accused is non-caucasion.  There’s not much strategy that can be played with this process since no questions can be asked.  Basically profiling on age, sex, race and maybe some sort of feel from the demeanour and ‘aura’ of the individual.  But I did notice some moves in play.  Whenever the accused was first to content/challenge, he was pretty demonstrative in his approval of individuals.  The crown was quick to challenge anybody that appeared to get a positive response from the accused.  I think a little bit of a poker face may be useful but really wouldn’t amount to much anyway.

1 hr lunch

1:00 – 10 more called up.  Again, not in the mix.  3 more selected.  9 sitting on the jury.  All look very unhappy to be there.

1:30 – 10 more called up. The final person of this bunch becomes the final jurist.  A very plausible sigh of relief is heard amid the remaining members of the panel that will now apparently not be on the jury.  The judge states this fact and thanks us for the inconvenience.  Since there are no mory juries to be selected we are free to go.  Jumps and hoots of joy are heard and as I look over at the jury (and the accused) you can visibly see the daggers of jealousy being thrown towards the crowd.  I on the other hand am slightly saddened.

2:00 out of the courthouse and on my way home to do some work

3:00 telephone rings:  the courthouse leaves a message on my voicemail stating there were unforeseen circumstances and some of the members of the jury had to be excused.  I am ‘required’ to re-attend the panel the following day at 9:30 am.  Hmm, I wonder, did I actually receive this message or was there some glitch in the voicemail that caused the message to be erased without my knowlege?  Of course not!  I’d be happy to re-attend.

Day 2:  Arrive at courthouse 9:35 am knowing that being early really means squat when it comes to governmental proceedings.

9:50 am – Notice there are not as many people as there were left yesterday.  But impressed that there were this many.  Fear of penalty can work miracles.

10:00 am – role call – only 4 no-shows.  Not bad.

10:30 am – judge comes in, apologizes for the inconvenience.  Lost 3 members of the jury but did not reveal the reason.  But, need to stick around in ante-chamber while stuff goes on with a different trial.  Bummer – left my magazines in the other car. 

11:30 – as per yesterday 10 more candidate were called.  Looks like ole magic ‘1420’ isn’t going to be a part of this trial.  The 1st 3 were challenged by the accused.  Then, he ran out of challenges.  The crown challenged the next and then accepted the next 3.  The remaining 3 were asked to stick around as substitutes until the actual trial proceedings commenced.  I.e. after some rudimentary Q/A of the new jury members.  Hm, maybe they should have tacked on a few yesterday so we wouldn’t have had this same problem. 

The end of a very uneventful 2 days of jurdy duty.  I stuck around a bit afterwards to see what would go down but it looked like my jury days were over.