My Life as a Juror - Part 2

After being led to the jury room and shown lunch - chicken patty in tomato sauce, noodles, broccoli.  The first jurors pretty much picked the broccoli clean except for the stems.  I had the chicken and veggie - skipped the noodles.

We were told that we could call our work to let them know we were chosen but were threatened with death if we dared called anyone else.  The thing is that the bailiff then left the room, closing the door behind her. I left a message with my boss and talked to some of my shop volunteers. Since there was no mention of texting, I quickly texted James and turned off my phone in fear that somehow they were watching us.

The room was very small.  The table wasn't even big enough to fit all 14 or even just the 12 "normal" jurors.  Eventually some of the silence was broken as people began to panic.  One gentleman was starting a new job on Wednesday.  One woman had to find a private area to pump in.  That's when I realized that there was truly no opportunity for any of us to give a valid excuse as to why we should be excused.

Opening statements and the first witness started on Day 1. The State led with "Ladies and Gentleman you will be getting a front row seat on gang life in Chicago. "  Oh goody.

Please insert here the exact moment where my cold went from I have the sniffles to full blown nose blowing, eyes watering cold.  Perfect.

I cannot remember if this was part of their opening or during the questioning of the first witness but a video was shown of the defendant in custody in a small, white room with a steel bench and 2 chairs.  The first witness, at the time an Assistant State's Attorney (I think!), interviewed the defendant and pretty much secured a confession.  The defendant talked about what happened that day, how he got the gun, and exactly how he reached out the van and shot the gun at people - not once but twice.

Hearing that confession really made me wonder if this was going to be an open and closed case but as I was going to discover in the days ahead, it was actually anything but clear.

It was truly interesting watching an actual real trial in progress. On TV, the only source of legal info that I have, the lawyers are so polished and smooth.  In actuality, there is a lot of stopping, checking notes, mispronunciations, forgetting names, etc.  Best yet, was the back and forth between the two legal parties.  The eye rolling and sighs were very obvious and helped me stay very amused during a serious case. 

I believe we were dismissed around 6:30pm and were told to report back at 10am in a new court room.  All 14 of us were escorted out of the building by security and walked to the parking garage.  Then, we were on our own.  So really, if anyone were waiting to kill us, all they had to do was hang out in the garage and wait.  That was super comforting.