Jury Duty: Can this get more boring?

I have jury duty today. I hate to sound ungrateful for our legal system but really, I am not someone that anyone would want on their jury. I am an attorney. Worse than that, I am a CPA and my specialty is tax. My mind does not work like a normal person. I am well aware of that one. Just philosophically, my tendency is to want to punish someone and I think that the reasonable doubt I would need is much higher than the average person. However, I am against the death penalty.

Imagine how annoyed I was when, as a law student, I discovered that attorneys do not get an automatic pass for jury service. Where I live, you either get assigned to the criminal courts or the civil courts. This time, I got assigned to the criminal court building. It's not in a good neighborhood but there is protected parking. Fantastic. Previously, I always got assigned to the civil courts. Your chances of getting assigned to a case in civil court are less than getting struck by lightning. Most cases settle the day of court and usually right before voire dire. Usually, you just get stuck sitting in a room all day with a book.

I remember serving my one day when I was pregnant with my son. I was actually having contractions. I told the administrative person this and she told me that they could reschedule my jury service. No thanks overstuffed lady of the bureaucracy. I had already served from 9am-1pm. If I was having that baby there, at least I would be done with jury service. There was a hospital nearby if things started getting intense, right? I plead temporary insanity. They let my group go at 3:00pm. I had my son within two days of jury service so I guess I was not just being a whiny pregnant woman.

This time, I got assigned to the criminal court building, which was very annoying. My mother had been assigned to a two-day case when she was assigned to the criminal court building. Of course, she is a 68-year old administrative person, so I bet they loved that. I am hoping that they will just dump a 38-year old tax attorney right out of there as soon as possible. I have had enough of the legal system lately with the nonsense involving my poor daughter.

I have my book, several dollars in change for the vending machines and my summons. I never win raffles so I am hoping my lack of ever getting picked for anything holds out.

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In the Criminal Court Building

My group gets called second. What happened to my lucky streak of never getting picked? They shuttle us into a courtroom and start jury questioning. The judge explained that it was a first degree murder case but it was not a capital crime. Then she read of a gigantic list of possible witnesses. Great. A long trial. The judge claimed the trial would "only" be a week.

During the jury questioning, it was amazing how many people claimed they were the victim of a crime. Most stated they didn't call the police and no one said that the perpetrator had been caught. Hmm. Interesting. My turn and I gave them the spiel about my daughter and the town drunk hitting her and being convicted. The judge commented that I was the only one who actually had the perpetrator caught. Good police force huh?

Apparently, if your daughter had a court date 5 days prior for a battery, that is a very good reason that neither the state's attorney nor the defense attorney will want you on the jury. I collected my $17.20 and left.