Some people actually WANT to be on a jury......having been summoned 4 times in 10 years I really can’t wrap my mind around that. 😏
i’ve been on one.
So getting called for jury duty doesn't bother me. I always wanted to sit on an actual trial. I finally got my wish about 10 years ago, when I was put on a first degree murder trial. It was big enough of a trial that it got some local media coverage.
The trial lasted about 7 days and I was fascinated with the entire process, such as the opening statements, the examination and cross-examaination of witnesses, the subject matter experts, and then finally the closing arguments. We even got put on a bus with police escorts and visited the murder scene.
As the stakes were very high for the defendant, the defense attorney got very theatrical at times. We ended up convicting him in about three hours. There wasn't a single juror that was wavering but we asked to review some of the evidence so we could get a free lunch (true story) before rendering our early afternoon verdict of Guilty on all charges. The food provided us was pretty good, I must say.
It was one of those drug murders. Stupid all around. I also learned how easy it was for law enforcement to get cell phone data that put the defendant on the spot of the murder when it was going down.
I would definitely serve on a jury again if I got the opportunity. Good experience.
I also recommend bringing a good book to read as there is a lot of downtime in the juror room and the rest of the jurors were watching stupid shows on the TV.