Many times before, when I would receive a jury summons, I'd pray that I would not be selected. I have never felt a great deal of confidence that I would be right for the job. This last Tuesday as I wait with the other 150-200 people in the jury room, I had hoped the bailiff would come in and announce, "All trials have settled out of court. You have completed your service and are now released to go!" So many times when I have been summonsed, that very thing would happen and the room would fill with cheers! But, that is not what happened this last Tuesday. I sat with a couple of young ladies I know from our church and chatted with them and worked on word puzzles while waiting. A bailiff appeared and announced that numbers would be called to go into courtroom number 4. I dislike very much the anticipation of having your number called (by the way, our judge told us that we are not called by name any longer since the O.J. Trial, we are now simply numbers)...one of the girls I mentioned had been called for courtroom 4, but the other girl and myself had not, and so I felt there was still a chance that the next bailiff to appear would let us go. But, no, and the other girl and I were called for courtroom number 3. We filed into the courtroom, and again, numbers were called to fill the juror box and 7 chairs in front of the juror box (21 seats in all)...whew! My number had not been called and again, I felt there still was a chance that I would be leaving the courtroom very soon. Prospective jurors were questioned, and questioned again and one by one were released for whatever reason. Either they had a good excuse or the attorneys were not convinced that they would be right for this trial. One thing I learned from this selection process, most everyone has some doubt that they would be good jurors and the judge remedied that by saying, "it's a natural feeling to have." And so, the number calling began again, and again, and again, I had not been called. Oh I was feeling pretty confident now, that the likelihood of being called was getting slimmer and the chairs would be filled (just two more). But that was not the case, and in fact, I was called, and asked if I could be impartial without bias serving on this case? I felt I could. So, with that, I was now an alternate juror in which I would be required to sit in the jury box for the entire trial with the other jurors. My job was to replace a juror if someone got sick (or other excusable reasons), and if I served without replacing anyone, my job would be over at the end of the trial and then would be released. That is what happened, and so doing the job of an alternate abruptly came to an end at the end of the trial without any knowledge of the deliberation. I had to give my phone numbers just in case a juror got sick during deliberation, and then I would be called to fill their place. The judge also told me and the other alternate that we could be contacted for the reading if we liked. So, I did requested to be contacted and was called 8:45 p.m. Friday night for the reading. I realize I have told you nothing about the trial or the outcome. Please stay tuned.
