This morning I had the pleasure of sitting through a jury panel selection. I was fortunate and was dismissed, though, the trial was slated to last for only a couple of hours due to the nature of the case. The whole experience was kind of interesting though.
When we arrived at the courthouse, all of us potential jurors were ushered up to a courtroom and then sat through an orientation video telling us how lucky we were to have been chosen for this civic duty. While the video had some good points, we were already there, so they didn't really need to keep telling us about how wonderful jury duty was.
Next came the voir dire, or "interrogation" by the attorneys. This particular case involved DWI, and the comments made by potential jurors were interesting. Many stated that they would not be able to make an unbiased judgement as the result of having served time themselves for DWI and thought that if you made the "stupid judgement error" you should serve time for it, because even if nothing happened this time, it might in the future so it is best to learn the lesson right away. Some had had family members killed by drunk drivers. Many educators and parents stated that they thought that in order to set an example they would need to find the party in question guilty. Some opposed due to religious beliefs. Others simply stated that they felt that it was not their role to place judgement upon others (though they very blatantly made judging statements at other points when they were trying oh so hard to get dismissed). Throughout all of this I sat quietly, kept to myself, and tried to remain unnoticed.
In the end, my technique worked. I was not called to sit on the trial. However, each individual that was chosen to serve had spoken up at some point during the voir dire. I suppose what I learned was that when all else fails, pretend that you aren't there and maybe the attorneys will forget about you in their selection.
