Just pretend that you already know that I've had two unusual and highly stressful weeks prior to yesterday. Fast forward to yesterday: so, I'm sitting at work, enjoying dragging through the second 12 hour work day of the week, when I get a call on my cell phone. It's an unknown name and number, so as usual, I let it go to voicemail, especially since I'm at work. The little voicemail icon appears, and I promptly check it.
"Laura Piatt, we need you for jury duty tomorrow morning, Wednesday, April 14. Please report to the District Court Room by 8:15 AM..." CRAP.
I knew that there was a chance I would be called that day because I had received a letter in early March about the dates I would tentatively be needed. I had even frantically mailed off a letter that I would be unavailable on the first date, April 7 because I'd be in Florida. However, in the aforementioned "unusual and highly stressful" weeks, I had forgotten all about it. It's a good thing the lady called because I would probably have forgotten to call that night to find out if I was needed. It would really put a damper on my plans to work 12-14 hour days every day this week if I had to take 4-8 hours to serve on a jury panel.
New situations like this make me extremely nervous, oftentimes irrationally so. If you knew me on my first day of 9th grade, you might have been surprised to know that at the previous night's freshman orientation, my dad and I walked the halls of my high school mapping out where classrooms were and when I'd have time to go to my locker. It was drawn out so I could have it with me for my first few days of school. That's a little embarrassing to admit, but that is how irrationally nervous I get in new situations. Granted, it helps to know that I'd been in very small private schools up until high school. I mean, I was going from being in a class of 30 to a class of 900. The nervousness I felt when I walked into high school on my first day of 9th grade is EXACTLY how nervous I felt when I walked into the courthouse this morning, only I felt less prepared.
I made my way to the second floor, but upon seeing seemingly other jurors waiting in the hallway, I just sat and waited. WRONG. They weren't jurors, and I was supposed to have reported to the COURTROOM (as you can see in the above voicemail), but I had neglected to make a note of that. I eventually asked someone and made my way into the court room 20 minutes late (though I had been in the building all along). The orientation was already over, but they were very polite to me and gave me my juror handbook and signed me in. Since I had missed the orientation, I was even more nervous. I sat with about 24-30 other random people and waited for things to begin.
They explained the case to us, swore us in, and then proceeded to ask us questions about whether or not we felt fit to serve in this particular case. They randomly selected and called 6 (I always thought it was 12, but then I've only had a semester of Michigan Government) jurors to go sit on the panel. They asked more questions and excused jurors (for one reason or another). I was the second to last one called. As I walked up to sit in CHAIR 1 of the panel, I thought and almost smiled to myself, This WOULD happen. They asked me a few questions, like how to pronounce my last name and whether or not I had ever been involved with or had known anyone involved in an assault and battery case. Um, no. It was a definite no, but I didn't want to be over-dramatic. Apparently they liked me because they didn't dismiss me. Great. Just great.
The trial actually started at about 10:00, which means it took them almost two hours to give an orientation, select a jury, and explain the case. That seemed a bit ridiculous to me, but whatever. We are allowed to discuss the case (now that the verdict has been decided) so it is legally okay for me to blog about this, but don't worry, I'll spare you the details. This is how it went:
Basically, the case was the State of Michigan vs. the Defendant. This is because no one charged the Defendant with committing a crime. A police report had been filed the day of the incident, so they essentially had to bring it before a court of law to decide if what happened was really assault/battery or purely self-defense. The Defendant had hit his sister (actually half-sister who is 20 years older than he is) when she was in a vehicle and then had allegedly broken her car window (which was the second charge: malicious destruction of property under $200).
The trial continued, just like on Judge Judy with witnesses and evidence presented. They presented some pretty undeniable facts but there were A LOT of gray areas. He did punch her in the face. She was intoxicated. He was not intoxicated. All of those were facts agreed on by both parties. The last two were a huge deal (to us jurors)! I have never been drunk or ever been around anyone who I knew was drunk, but I've heard that people rarely can remember what they did while they were drunk. Her memory of the incident was probably pretty tainted, which left a whole lot of questions unanswered. They agreed that he hit her, though she said it was assault and he said it was self-defense (that she had him in a headlock).
There were two or three breaks during the proceedings, and we were always excused to the jury room to sit at a table, munch on doughnuts, and awkwardly stare at each other. We weren't allowed to talk about the case until we were sent to deliberate, and no one really had anything else to talk about. Twenty-five minutes sitting at a table with 5 complete strangers is worse than going to the dentist. Ugh.
They finally sent us to deliberate. We had to pick a foreperson, and thankfully that was not me. We picked a young married guy, probably 28 years old, who was in the Air Force Reserves. We talked for about 20 minutes, and it was pretty easy to see we all agreed. There were a lot of gray areas, stories untold, and details unknown. Sure he hit her and yes, he broke the window, but we were there to decide if he assaulted her with intent to inflict bodily harm. We came to the decision that there was just not enough evidence to prove that it was. As everyone knows, people are always innocent until proven guilty in the US, and there just wasn't enough proof.
We left the jury room, and the foreperson announced the famous words, "We the Jury find the Defendant not guilty..." The look of relief on the face of the Defendant and his buddy sitting behind him in the audience was unforgettable. He almost mouthed the words, "thank you," to me as I walked out of the court room. We had just decided his fate, though the potential punishment for his crime is still unknown to me. After I saw him, part of me wondered if maybe he really was guilty. But, I knew there hadn't been enough evidence to convict him, so I was confident in my - our - decision.
The overall experience was pretty fascinating. I left feeling pretty good about it all and proud that I had been involved in the execution of justice in our judicial system. I knew it would be a good learning experience, and it was, but why, oh why, did it have to be THIS WEEK?!?!
WOW that was quite a story! good life experience i guess hehe
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