2010-05-14 My day of jury duty (not published)

(The Beacon editor chose not to publish this as it doesn't fit new guidelines for Valley Voices columns)

Some grumble at the inconvenience when they are called for jury duty, but not me. I was amazed that when DuPage County finally requested my presence, it was for a day I could attend without any conflicts other than work.

As instructed, I called the evening before, and the recording informed me that I was indeed expected to show up. I arrived at 9:30 the next morning with books and without my cell phone, because anything that can take photos is not allowed in the building.

The jury room was a pleasant surprise. It is a large, wide lounge with a curving wall of windows overlooking water, with couches, tables, and chairs throughout, lockers and restrooms, coffee and tea. I checked in and got comfortable. Shortly after 10 we were told what we could expect for the day as well as about the one day/one trial system of the 18th Judicial Circuit Court, in which any jurors not seated for a trial today would be discharged and not summoned again for at least one year. We were told that a number of courtrooms had trials going on today, but that only two might require a jury. We watched a brief video about being a juror.

It was fairly quiet being in a room sprinkled with people who were strangers to one another and who, for the most part, didn’t have cell phones with them. Returning jurors from a trial-in-progress from the previous day were called to report to the courtroom. Shortly after 11am twenty-four juror numbers were called, including mine. The 24 of us were lead up three flights to a courtroom. There we were seated and sworn in. The judge introduced us to himself, the court reporter, the court clerk, the defendant and her attorney, the two States Attorneys, and two security officers. He described to us the roles of the people in the room, the nature of the charges (drunk driving), the names of the witnesses expected to be called, the expected length of the trial (that afternoon and the next day, possibly going one additional day), and the expectations for jurors.

Six jurors and one alternate needed to be selected. Six juror numbers were called and those people were then questioned by the judge, sometimes as a group and sometimes as individuals. One of the prosecutors then asked questions of the jurors.

The jurors were asked several questions including whether they have ever had a drink and then driven a vehicle (with mention that it is legal in Illinois to drink some alcohol and then drive a vehicle), whether they are seen by others as a leader or a follower, whether they belong to Mothers Against Drunk Driving or similar organizations, what prior involvement they and close family members have had with the law, whether they have any objection to passing judgment on another person, whether they have ever been wrongfully accused of something based on apparent facts, whether they have ever wrongfully accused someone of something, whether they would be able to find the person guilty or not guilty on the basis of law as provided by the judge and not their own opinion, and whether they can work with a group of strangers to reach a verdict.

The judge referred to the jurors by number, but the attorneys made a point to refer to each separately by name. One of the potential jurors, who had previously been arrested for drunk driving herself, was excused and replaced. The new person then had to answer the same set of questions and once the prosecution was happy with these six, the defense attorney began his questioning. The questions from both sides appeared to be asked with expectations of certain answers. The prosecution objected to some of the leading questions asked of the jury pool. Eventually the six were agreed upon by both sides and dismissed for lunch. A similar but shorter set of questioning then went on for the alternate juror.

The rest of us were dismissed from the courtroom, and after lunch I read until we were told that the other court case had been resolved without the need for a jury and we were dismissed.

It was an interesting day even though I didn't wind up seated on a jury.