What the Heck in the World?

What are the chances of serving on a jury? For me it was 1 in 50. In fact my juror number was 1. I received a letter stating "Greetings from the Court. You are hereby summoned to appear for jury selection on. . . ." Great, now what? All I could think of was how to get out of it. What could I say that would excuse me from serving? When I got to the courthouse, along with 49 other prospective jurors, I thought, "what the heck, this could be fun." I was given a number and handed a questionnaire to fill out and then we were treated to a video about doing our civic duty and what it meant to serve on a jury. I was planning my afternoon while the lawyers and the judge were reviewing the questionnaires, thinking there is no way I will be selected! And then my name and number were called and I was asked to stand up and state my name. Yikes!

The trial was long, very emotional, interesting and eye-opening. It was a great experience and I actually learned a lot about the judicial process. After the trial was over and the verdict was read, the judge took a few minutes to talk to us and encouraged us to share with friends and family our experiences and anything we wanted to about the trial. And yes, I would probably like to do it again.