when someone's future is in your hands.

Thank goodness jury duty is over. As the first week of February approached, I didn't dread the thought of calling after 5pm every Monday for eight weeks. Maybe I'll get called, I thought, and I can miss a day of work. I thought this even though I play catch up at work every day and have to play harder when I miss a day.

I did get called. Twice. And I got picked to be on the jury both times. What is it about my face that says "FAIR AND BALANCED WEIGHING OF THE TESTIMONY" rather than "ROOMMATE IS A COP"?

In the first case (aka Team Old White Man Jury), the charges were abduction and attempted robbery. From my point of view, and the point of view of most of my fellow jurors, this was a case of misunderstanding. Was the defendant trying to abduct the girl? We thought not. Was he trying to rob her? 10 of us thought not, and 2 wondered "Why else would he approach her at 8 am in the way he did?" Sure, he approached her inappropriately. Sure, I would have been scared, too. Based on what I know about 20 year old males, I'm quite confident that the only reason he approached her was to try to get her number. He had money. He was drunk. He did a lot wrong that day, but trying to abduct and rob the girl wasn't part of it.

In the second case (aka Actually Reflective of the Population of the City of Hampton Jury), the charge was possession of cocaine. Oh, I thought when the judge read the charges, this one is easy. He either had it or he didn't. Not so much. Five of the members of this jury had been on a jury before this term. We all knew what the deal was: there was just too much reasonable doubt. Why would he have the drugs, if he knew he would be tested for drugs soon? Why wouldn't the prosecutor present evidence of past drug use, after 10 years of random drug testing? Why didn't they check the crack stem for DNA the same way they tested the dollar bill? Was the sun up, or wasn't it? We were left with too many questions to say definitively one way or the other and by law and the instructions given to us by the judge, that means we couldn't say he was guilty. Assumed innocent, and all that. Don't feel bad, HotCop told me after she played 100 Questions about Erika's second jury experience, if he really is a crack head, he'll get caught one way or the other. Yeah, thanks. Are you trying to make me doubt myself?

I'm glad I had the experiences as I've always been fascinated by courtroom drama and it was interesting to experience firsthand. But it's stressful as hell to think about your view of things having that much influence on their future. I don't recommend jury duty if you can help it.