Jury Duty

To answer the hundreds of emails from the past two weeks to explain why I was MIA, I had back-to-back doctor's depositions and had to get them into my office before April 9, the dreaded day of Jury Duty. I believed I would go in on Monday and be excused for the rest of the week because I had sat in a courtroom for 20 years as a court stenographer and was married to a defense lawyer . . . but noooooo, I was picked for the first jury which was a personal injury case.  That case only lasted two days, so when I went in to be voir dired for the next jury, a criminal DUI case, it was a given that I would not be chosen.  Wrong again!  The solicitor kept giving me the eye and smiling at me, so I knew I was doomed to be a juror yet again.  Of course, I wanted to prove I was not State oriented and went into the jury room believing the "good looking" defendant was innocent.  The jury was divided equally, three men, three women.  The men walked into the jury room saying guilty, guilty, guilty.  No way we were not going to discuss all the facts.  Five hours later, we watched the police officer's video again.  I was starting to lean.  As time went on I started to convince myself and the two other women he was guilty, and we finally delivered that verdict.  It was actually a good experience, and a nice feeling to voice opinions the are being listened to and considered and to be able to actually convince another that your opinion is the right one.  Maybe if I didn't have an anesthesiologist and infectious disease doctor's depos on my mind, I might have enjoyed the experience more.  So today I have one day off before a job tomorrow and yet another doctor's depo on Friday to catch up on laundry and housework that has not been done for weeks!