A Whole Lotta Nuthin'

Jury duty went off without a hitch and was much as expected. Framingham District Court is very small, so there were only about 35 people in the pool. I was Juror Number 1. Before the process got started, a few prospective jurors were asking questions about the process and I answered. One man said "Wow, you must have a lot of experience being a juror!" I said "Actually, I used to be a trial lawyer. I've never been picked for a jury." A couple of people asked why and I said "No attorney in his right mind would want a former Commonwealth attorney from a law enforcement agency to serve on criminal jury."

After a while, we watched the dorky video about jury service with an introduction by Supreme Judicial Court Justice Margaret Marshall, whose Austrian? German? unknown accent, combined with her inability to say the word "r," made her sound a little bit like a foreign "Baba WaWa" from Saturday Night Live. The video, which I have seen before, is ridiculous. After Justice Marshall finishes her speech, the scene fades into a mock courtroom. There are two women who portray and attorney and a judge, both of whom discuss aspects of a typical trial. The other portion of the courtroom narrative is done by a 60ish man in a navy blue suit with Buddy Holly glasses. He tends to pose with his hands grasping his coat lapels, and he likes to punctuate the important points by putting on and taking off his glasses. People were actually snickering during his portion of the film (and during Justice Marshall's cwazy pwesentation). I felt a little humiliated to be represented as a lawyer by that movie, but what can you do?

After about 2 hours of sitting around, we were called upstairs. Just as I predicted, the case was a DUI with a female defendant. She was nicely dressed in a black sweater and red plaid wool pants. She looked to be my age or older. I was really curious to hear the circumstances that got her charged with a DUI, but before a jury is chosen, they don't give you any details. Since I was Number 1, I was the first person seated in the jury box. I was really excited because that meant I would most likely be chosen as the foreman.

As soon as they had the first 8 jurors in the box, the lawyers went to sidebar. The people at sidebar are supposed to be quiet, but I could hear the defense attorney saying "Number 1 should be dismissed for cause because she wrote here that she was an attorney for the Commonwealth." After a few more minutes, the judge called me over.

Judge: "Do you think you can be impartial even though you used to work for the Commonwealth?"

Me: "I think so."

J: "When you say 'think,' what does that mean?"

Me: "I would certainly hope that as an attorney I would be able to put all bias aside and consider the case on the facts."

J: "Do you think you would find the testimony of a police officer true solely because he was a police officer?"

Me: "Absolutely not. I would weigh the officer's credibility just like any other witness."

J: "I find that you can serve as a juror."

Me: (thinking to myself "Awesome!")

DA: "I have no problem with this juror."

Defense Attorney: "Can I be heard?" (Uh-oh...)

I had to step to the side while they argued. The judge made the defense attorney use up one of his 2 peremptory challenges to take me off the panel. I hoped he wouldn't think it was worth it, but I got dinged back to the waiting bench with everyone else. The man sitting next to me said "Wow, just like you predicted."

It was sad, really. I tried very hard to get on. The poor woman next to me, who really didn't want to serve, ended up getting selected. I think I would have made a good juror, too. Oh well. Maybe in 3 years!