Well yesterday was the day. I spent all day in the courtroom on a hard cold bench. The morning started off with 300 potential jurors and we were called in groups of 50-60. If you were not picked from the 50-60 then you had to go back down to the Jury pool and wait to be called again. I was called for a crimal trial. The judge spent a couple hours explaining what the trial was about and our responsiblities as jurors. The a paper was passed around and we had to answer these 10 questions:
1. What town do you live in
2. How long
3. Working/not working
4. Where working
5. Married/single/divorced
6. What does spouse do
7. Any grown children
8. What do they do
9. Do you know anyone here
10. Are you registered to vote in FL
After having to answer all those in front of the accused and then answering multiple questions from the judge the jury was then brought down to 30. Then we broke for and hour and a half for lunch.
When we returned we went under a battery of questions by the prosecuter and defense attorneys. I felt like I was the one on trial. After a few hours of that they decided upon the 7 jurors. I was not one of them.
The case was Burgery, battery, kidnapping and carjacking with a dangerous weapon. The accused was young (maybe 19-22 year old) black male. He was very clean cut and well dressed at this jury selection. He did make me feel a little uncomfortable because when certain jury members were talking he would stand up and look at them. There were 2 people there to support him. Another young black male and young black female. Although the accused was well dressed and clean cut, his supports were not. The male had on baggy jeans, a long tee-shirt, several gold chains and a baseball cap. He also walked with that sway (like one leg is numb or goes out). The female had on skin tight capri jeans, a tee-shirt and a hoodie. I just thought to myself that if this is how his friends/family shows up to support him, he obviously dresses and acts the same...so why bother putting on a suit? If it were me, I would have told my supporters to make sure they were well dressed when appearing.
The crime was obviously serious due to the charges, but they (the attorneys) wanted to know who was familiar with forensics, DNA testing, they wanted to know who was familiar with the Omni product and GPS. They also wanted to know if we believe that all cops tell the truth and that they don't lie under oath. Pffft ummm no.