Juror #1

A little over 6 weeks ago I received a letter saying I was due for jury duty on May 6.  I unfortunately was going to be in Boston trying to find us a place to live.  After 2 days of calling I finally got through to someone who worked there and they told me I must come in early to sign up for a week of Jury Duty.  I went thinking surely they won't have a week before I move to Boston.  Oh...they had 3 different weeks I could sign up for.  So I picked June 6-10 for my week of Jury Duty.

I showed up Monday morning, June 6 with my laptop, Kindle, and lots of things to do thinking I would have a lot of time on my hands.  Instead, I was picked Juror #1 for one of the first cases.  There were 26 potential jurors on this case.  I answered the lawyers questions thinking they would never pick me but I was wrong...they picked me as Juror #1.

We spent 2 days listening to the lawyers, witnesses, expert Medical Examiner and then it was time for our deliberation time.  Again, I thought, I will be the juror that gets their name picked to not have to make a decision (there were 13 jurors during the case but only 12 vote).  Oh no...not only did I get to be a juror who decided, my fellow jurors voted me to be the Foreman.  I had to lead the other jurors in the decision making and then speak on behalf of all the jurors when it was time for the verdict.

To say this was an interesting few days is an understatement.  I went into it not wanting to do it at all but came out of it proud to be an American...proud to live in a country where rights to a trial and a jury are exercised.  It was difficult to make a decision...it took over 2 hours of discussing, arguing, not agreeing, thinking we had a hung case, to finally all agreeing.  In that Jury room were 13 very different people...different ages...different races...different nationalities...but one thing was the same...we wanted to make sure justice was met.

If you ever get summoned for jury duty...don't dread it...go and be confident that your eyes will be open and you will learn a lot.