Order in the Court

Okay, so I left you hanging regarding my jury service (they no longer call it "duty" because they would prefer you look at it as a service [positive] to the system rather than a duty [negative]). Let me say, first, that Mecklenburg County has a beautiful court building. The facilities are state of the art! At 8 a.m. I reported to the 5th floor and was signed in. The area where we signed in -- all 119 of us-- was the jury assembly room. This was the "holding" area until we were called in by groups of 30-45 to be interviewed by the court lawyers and judge. There were 3 large seating areas with 42" plasma TVs, a mezzanine with pinball machines and pool tables, and a cafe area with snack/soda machines, popcorn machine, and tables to sit at. This was the area I mostly spent my time until the group was "called to attention" when more names were chosen to be interviewed. I met a very nice young lady, Genea, and we talked and talked, played cards, went to lunch together....this really helped pass the time! There was one calling in the morning (I was not called), one at 2 pm in the afternoon (I was not called...by this time thinking I was off the hook), and then the last calling at 4 pm. Guess what....I got called! Thirty of us were lined up out in the hall and roll call was taken. Made me think I was back in school! We were then marched off to one of the courtrooms. We were all seated on bench seats in the audience section of the courtroom. The court clerk then called 12 names and they were assigned seating in the jury section. They were interviewed in front of the rest of us. The case being tried was for DUI. One by one, the selected jurors were interviewed ... were they or any of their family been arrested for DUI...was anyone in an accident caused by a DUI driver...was anyone associated with MADD or SADD....etc, etc. As individuals were eliminated, more from our seats were called to replace them. By 5:30 pm, the jury had been selected and there were 6 of us remaining on the bench seats, of which I was one of them. So, the 6 of us had fulfilled our "service" for the next 2 years (before we could be selected to serve again) and the selected jurors had to report back to court the next morning! This was fine by me because at work we were trying to get all paperwork done for end of year reporting! But I did make a friend out of it, and we plan to get together soon! All in all, it was a very interesting procedure...one that I had always wondered about and wished I had been called for.