Today, I woke up and didn't go to work. Instead, I decided to head to a local diner, eat a Southwest Breakfast Sandwich on a croissant, and drink some coffee. I then drove down the street a little bit, parked the car, left my cell phone and reading materials, and for a short period of time became a member of a Federal Grand Jury. I decided to dress up for the occasion, wearing my light blue J-Crew shirt, black pants from the Gap, black Bostonian shoes, red Italian cotton socks, and a pink with red and white striped Marshall Field's tie.
9:45 a.m. - I show up at court, go through security, and meet the Grand Jury Bouncer that finds my name on "the list" and allows me into the courtroom. The room is about 80 X 40 X 40 and has medium brown wood with blue paint on the walls and mostly white ornamented ceiling with light blue accents. Pictures of previous judges adorn the wall. As we are let into the courtroom, we are told where to sit by our juror numbers - I am #45. Already I can tell I won't be selected.
They only need 23 jurors.
10:10 - The last of the stragglers come in and a new security guard moves most of us around into a new order, taking attendance again.
10:15 - A court worker realizes that #16 has been excused prior to today so we all move one seat over. Attendance is taken again, this time we say how far away our drive was. We will be paid 44.5 cents per mile. Jurors respond 113, 62, 58, 74, 13 until I am called.
"A third," I say.
"A what?"
"One third."
"One third of what?"
"One third of one mile."
Everyone laughs.
"We'll count you as 2"
Great, so now I have an extra 89 cents, plus the $40 I will receive for coming in. I'm not sure if they'll take taxes out of that or not.
10:20 - We finish attendance and just wait. In the room, in this cross section of the district there are young and old., 41 whites and 1 Hispanic.
10:40 - The judge comes in and we all rise. She introduces herself as Judge Springman. We stand again and take an oath. She then tells us about the court and our duties which will last from June 2006 until January 2007, averaging one day per month of service.
10:50 - Juror 6 says she should be excused because she is getting married next month and moving out of the state. The judge asks some questions, the government doesn't object, and she is excused.
10:55 - I stand and say on June 3rd, I will be moving to Illinois. The judge asks if it is permanent. The asks if it is for employment. I respond 'yes' to the first question and 'professional and personal reasons' to the second. The government doesn't object to me being excused and I walk out; thus ending my service as a member of a grand jury.
