This is about the fourth time I've been called in Dallas. Once was a DWI case, and I was excluded (likely because I mentioned my involvement in a hot and run years earlier by a driver I believe to have been intoxicated). Last time I was called I was still practicing in Dallas (now I work very little in Texas) and I had cases against one of the attorneys, so after wasting an entire day waiting for the panel to be selected, I was finally dismissed. In reality, 4 times in 12-13 years doesn't seem unreasonable to me, but my father mentioned that he has been called twice in over 30 years, and everyone he polled when we were on the phone was exactly the same -- almost exactly once every 15 years.
Jury service is very important of course, but it's nonsense for someone like me who won't be seated to do all this. If it were a criminal case of course, no complaints. Civil tort cases, waste of time for me. Ugh. I hate this kind of inefficiency.
But even in criminal courts, where I absolutely feel I could be seated, there's so much inefficiency in the jury process. Why can't they send a list of the parties, attorneys and key witnesses involved in advance, and if you swear in an information return that you know someone involved, why waste the entire day waiting to be excused?
Anyway, today it's my turn. I was supposed to report at 8:30, and here is how it's unfolded so far.
8:25 get in line in freezing cold outside to wait in security line
8:30 line for security still, but now I've moved forward enough to be indoors
8:37 into central jury room, taking a seat with the general public
8:45 sworn in en masse by a judge, lectured about how it is one of three important contributions you can make (military, voting, jury), call for exclusions ( under 18, felons, deferred adjudication, non citizens, no English, not resident of Dallas County)
8:50 still a huge line of non-English speakers being excused
9:00 call for people who didn't complete questionnaire
9:05 video, former jurors talk about their experiences, explaining who is ineligible and who can elect not to serve, you know, going over the info mailed to us and then read off by the judge, wasting time in case the first two times this info was presented didn't make sense
9:27 video over
9:28 another call of names who didn't do questionnaire
9:44 still just all sitting here wasting time, no jurors called yet, just all wasting time, argh, I hate this
9:48 pointless announcements about numbers being printed, they will be calling in order (glad I have a low number, I didn't last time)
9:51 lots of people who can't read directions and went to wrong court, all being called up to get new juror numbers assigned
9:53 I'm thinking about whether all these people are idiots or are they all illiterate? Lazy? Do they just assume there's only one place to go? Crazy how difficult it seems to be for people to follow such basic directions
9:56 I'm in the first batch if numbers called. They make a big show of telling you to write down the floor and court before you leave the room, you know, in case you're stupid and can't remember two numbers for about 60 seconds, it's just the lowest common denominator. This could have been done well in advance and instead of showing up at 8:30, I could have gone directly to this court at 10
9:57 going to my assigned district court on 7th floor on a crowded elevator
9:59 Waiting in hall outside the courtroom, got a seat on the bench since I got up here quickly
10:14 someone calling names to pass out juror questionnaires specifically for this case I guess
10:17 still calling names, only on number 35, about 100 more before they get to me
10:20 I'm called, guess they renumbered us
10:24 working on my questionnaire, it's a criminal case, no longer feels like a waste of time even being here, but still so inefficient
10:27 collecting completed questionnaires
10:29 still collecting
10:30 turned mine in, probably thinking I'll be excluded
10:31 turning in all the questionnaires, we will be seated in order, I'm in the 40s, so pretty unlikely I'll be picked
10:38 announcing a mistake in where a couple dozen jurors were sent, it is apparently very difficult to call numbers and courtrooms, or to order how many jurors you need, who knows where the mistake was, more inefficiency
10:39 kind of have to pee but don't want to give up my seat
10:41 now more than two hours spent here doing absolutely nothing other than security screening that could not have been done well in advance. Massive inefficiency
10:54 still just sitting here waiting. If I'd been given the case-specific form in advance, they could have now avoided 2.5 hours of wasting my time, no wonder people view this as such a burden, who doesn't have something better to do for 2.5 hours on a Tuesday morning?
I'm clearly pissy today. Oh well. Will have to update later. First, adding a random slew of pictures from my wasted 2.5 hours. Hitting publish.
11:01 Big announcement that plea deal reached in court behind us, capital miser case plead out, so all those people just wasted half of their days. They didn't even do questionnaires. Just came here and spent 2.5 hours doing nothing except missing work, paying to park, etc. Huge waste.
11:03 calling us by name to go into courtroom. Wait, instead of typing, I should be counting.
11:08 still calling names and they've passed 45, so I think I'm out.
11:09 nope, just got called in. This should have happened 2 hours and 40 minutes ago
11:14 judge asks us to be patient as they go in search of a missing panel member
11:17 judge will start anyway, can't wait all day, asking us if we watched video, repeating some of it again (but mostly relatively new info for non-attorneys), first 12 not struck will be seated, sworn in again, qualifications again, FOURTH time now about age, residency, citizenship, literacy, etc. Major waste of time.
11:21 found missing juror, my row just got more crowded
11:22 going over exemptions again, age, caretaker, student, why oh why do we have to go through all this again? Almost three hours wasted if you don't count driving down here
11:24 felony criminal case, wow!
11:27 introductions
11:30 prosecution begins speaking, intro, 3 hours after we had to show up, expects to go 1-1.5 hours, ugh, so late lunch apparently, thanking us for our service
11:38 rights of defendants posted on screens, explaining criminal process, for nonlawyers who haven't watched much Law and Order, probably very interesting
11:48 prosecution discourse continues, about Fifth Amendment right, presumptions, subpoenas
11:49 charge is aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury. Interesting!!!
11:51 elements if crime, intentional or knowing or reckless, Dallas County, serious bodily injury, using deadly weapon, during assault, and defendant has or had a dating relationship with the person or was a member of the person's family or household. I didn't know about the relationship element! First degree assault against a family member is apparently the exact charge.
12:05 recess until 1:30 for lunch
12:15 miserable choices in the cafeteria. I went with frilled cheese, baked potato and side salad. Not good. Yuck. Now trying to boot up my laptop to at least do some work from my archived email.
1:30 going back into courtroom, juror spilled coffee all over my shoes and hallway and didn't do anything about hallway. Just left the spill there, no effort to clean up or alert anyone. Someone could slip and fall there and try to strike it rich, which is undoubtedly occurring in multiple other courtrooms right now.
1:35 questioning of several indiv jurors based on questionnaires
1:43 called me out to see if I'd ever practiced criminal law.
1:44 dating relationship is or was continuing relationship of romantic or intimate relationship. Look at length, nature of relationship, frequency and type of interaction. Wonder if that football player's fake online girlfriend would count
1:55 I may have secured my exclusion, raised my hand on a question about witness credibility, answered it, believe I'm going to be struck when it comes down to it
2:08 prosecution still going, talking about conflicts in testimony and burden of proof. Given it's flu season, I'm surprised I'm the sickest one in here. Have been worried for a few days that I'm getting bronchitis or something. I'm coughing a lot. Not to get too graphic, but they're "productive" coughs. Yuck. But no one else here is hacking away like I am.
2:20 prosecutor asking each person now about incidents of personal family violence. Interesting. People then being asked if their experience means they're not sure they can be fair.
2:27 surprising how many people who said they personally believed they couldn't be fair in a case of family violence, wonder if some people just want to get out of it. I said I could be fair. I've never really been a victim of family violence (setting aside a one-time thing in college with a guy I was dating back home, not serious medically, not even very scary, but across the line and the end of that relationship), but I have seen a lot of it earlier in some pro bono work. But I could be fair about it. If he didn't do it, I could accept that.
2:28 talking about sentencing now, penalty is 5-99 years and up to $10k fine, probation if eligible and sentence of 10 years or less and jury agrees it's right punishment.
2:49 15 minute break, defense about to start questioning
3:09 back in for defense questions, promises to be shorter; much better speaker. I think it's paid counsel, total of three attorneys I think (maybe two) (and 2-3 prosecutors). But way better than I'd expect for a public defender.
3:26 something the defense attorney said to me makes me think I'll be struck. But he's still going back through the elements and the presumption of innocence, trying to get people to say things to be struck for cause, not electively.
3:57 defense just put up a slide explaining what self-defense is. Very interesting in a domestic violence case. Wouldn't have expected that but I guess it makes sense.
4:06 crazy ringing noise in courtroom. Coming from the defendant. He goes into his pocket and pulls something out but it keeps ringing. He talks to a court officer and then something to one of his attorneys not doing the questioning. The attorney doing the questioning clarifies that it was not a cell phone and he wants us to know that so no one thinks his client isn't taking this case seriously. But I really wonder what it was! Something from a jail for monitoring where he is? Hmm...
4:20 defense attorney is reading a list of witness names to see if we know any of them. We must be almost done, right?
4:28 finally done with the witness list. Now he's done.
4:29 judge letting us out, but to stay close for any necessary individual questioning.
4:57 a few people have been called in and I ate a bag of Cheetos, had a call with my boss and had a call with the attorney I want to hire to replace the one I want to fire (yikes, scary, new first at this job). Otherwise, just waiting.
5:26 called back in
5:27 calling names. Seating 12 and one alternate. Up to 5 and they haven't called me.
5:29 up to ten and not me.
5:30 all clear! Now I get to fight rush hour traffic to go home. I miss my running commute today...
A photo of all the people who couldn't follow directions on their summons and report to the assigned courthouse:
Milling about in the hallway waiting for instructions:
The judge swearing in the hundreds or thousands who were there first thing in the morning:
A guy doing a questionnaire (part of the reason I knew my seat would be taken if I'd gotten up to use the restroom):
The huge non-English speaking line (or non-residents, under 18, etc., but I could hear the judge and for at least 80% of them, he was just confirming they didn't speak English):
Chilly line to enter the courthouse:
The defense attorney, haha, not a good picture, he turned around just before I took it:
The pretty sunset I got to see, probably the brightest point of the day:
Ugh, the traffic heading home. All brake-lights:
If you look on the shoulder the direction I'm driving, you will see not one, but TWO separate police cars responding to separate incidents, ugh:
One of the prosecutors:
View of Big D from the Courthouse:
For the record, this sign should say 5-6 minutes. I really missed having my running commute:
My husband is a permanent resident with a green card. He is ineligible to serve jury duty yet has been called 3 times in the last 10 years. You would think that information should exclude him from even appearing on a list of potential jurors. Inefficiency is everywhere. I find it very difficult to tolerate, but I have learned to hold my tongue because it gets me nowhere. I think it is one of the reasons I love my iPhone so much because now I can busy myself while waiting for the bureaucracy at hand to get its shit together. It's unbelievable how something that should take one person to handle takes 10 and something that should take 10 minutes takes 2 hours.
ReplyDeleteI got selected to serve on a jury while working full time and going to nursing school full time. I know that's no excuse, but I was really anxious about losing pay and missing important class and clinical work. During the first hour of the trial it dawned on me that the defense attorney handled a car accident case for my mother. My mother had been hit and the impact forced her to hit the car in front of her and that driver was suing her. My mother lost the case. I verified the lawyers name on our lunch break and then informed someone who let me speak to the judge. I was released immediately.