Last Monday was my day to go in for jury duty, and as luck would have it, I was hacking-up-a-lung, get-thee-to-the-doctor sick. (THIS IS THE LAST TIME I'LL MENTION IT I SWEAR!)
Both my dad and Matt have had jury duty up in the Dallas area before, and they said that when you are released without being assigned to a jury, you are given $6 for your time. Immediately outside the doors of the courthouse in that area, there's a Subway restaurant. They agreed that it was the perfect location, and the perfect way to blow your six buckaroos.
But apparently in our county, they mail you a check for your six dollars, so I didn't get any free lunch. Bummer! Instead I just went home and ate a bowl of Caramel Turtle Cheesecake ice cream (sorry Bluebell, this one wasn't your best) and drank some more Diet Sprite.
But even without lunch, it was an interesting experience. I was juror number 20-something in line (out of about 30) for a minor drug case, and since they only needed six jurors, I wasn't really at much risk of being selected. I didn't make it a point to be very vocal about anything, but when asked questions directly I gave my honest opinion.
My biggest takeaway from my experience at the courthouse was that, if you are ever in a position where you are a defendant in court, GET A LAWYER. Hopefully none of us will ever wind up in that situation, but if you do, defending yourself is a baaaaaad idea, unless of course you are a lawyer yourself. Because not-lawyers are not typically skilled in asking good questions to get potential jurors to state opinions. And instead you might ask a whole bunch of rhetorical questions that no one can really answer, which is not helpful in selecting the people who will be deciding your fate.
But luckily I was dismissed around lunchtime, so I didn't have to listen to the defense ramble for a few more hours, though it definitely would have made for an interesting trial!
Have you ever been selected to serve on a jury? (Had I felt better, I probably would have liked to see the whole thing go down!)
