The Duties of the Citizen

So I have to tell you the truth....I never expected to get called for Jury Duty. I feel like I was called on the worst day too. Amanda is here to visit me for a week, and I was called for Jury Duty today, the second day Amanda is in town. But I have no excuse, so I sat in the courtroom for 4 hours while the judge and the attourneys questioned us so that they could find the most fair and impartial jurors for the case.
So I have never been called for Jury Duty, I'm a first timer. So I head to the court building, they tell us not to park in the 2 hour parking spots or we will be towed because we will be there longer for 2 hours. They tell us we can park where the court structure is but we have to pay. So I'm driving down there and all of the parking spots are 2 hour parking! Where do they expect me to park? So I park about 3 blocks away from the building in a neighborhood.
Then I get into the building but of course this is my first time and I have no idea where to go so I ask the guard for directions and he tells me where the jurors assemble. When we get to the assembly room I had to fill out a form and then take a juror badge. We sat in a room for about half an hour before the Jury Commissioner came into to welcome us. It was very brief and then she turned on a video. So for about an hour we watched a video about how to be the best juror and what our duties were. The movie was interesting I must admit, and in a way helpful in understanding my role as a juror.

After the video we sat in the room for another half an hour, finally the bailiff came in and walked us to the court room. The courtroom wasn't really what I expected, it was a lot smaller, but I guess that's hollywood for you, it continually disappoints you. We all piled in on the benches in the back of the courtroom where prospectors could sit. They explained to us that they would call us up in groups and ask us questions to determine who would be on the jury. Before we seperated into groups they asked the whole group if any of us felt that we could not be on the jury. So many people lined up. Apparently everyone felt they couldn't be there. I stayed sitting down cause there was no point. For an hour and a half each person in line had to present their reasons to the judge and attornies. Only about half of them were legitimately excused.

Finally the first group was called to the jury box and the judge and attorney took turns asking us all questions. It took about two hours with a 15 minute break included. There were a lot of questions they asked us. It wasn't too bad. I found it kind of interesting.

Again they asked us if we would be willing to be on the jury and then they told us this court case would last up to 4 days. That's 4 week days from 8am to 5pm in a boring courtroom! Ridiculous! All the case was was a car accident. silly. I hoped that I wouldn't be called on the jury or poor Amanda would be bored and lonely!
After the hours of questioning, they called my name and told me I would not be on the jury because my stepmom worked for the company that was suing. Thank goodness! I was very grateful to not have to stay there. However, I think that if Amanda had not been in town I would have wanted to stay and provide my civic duties, it was actually pretty interesting and a good experience.