I got my first summons for jury duty about a month ago and had to report today. Coincidentally, just before receiving the summons I was part of a conversation about the jury rooms in several nearby counties. After seeing the one I get to sit in… I’m a bit jealous of those in other counties. I heard that Somerset’s recently renovated jury room is in an old church. There’s a TV in one corner, plenty of reading material, coffee/refreshments, and comfy chairs. My memory of this may be a bit skewed as I think of what would be really nice for a jury room.. that was not present in ours.

I was in a white walled room with several square pillars and one big round one. The chairs were at least comfortable, but similar to those in airports. Four vending machines were available (do they let you go out for lunch?? I don’t know, no one explained that). And I didn’t have time to eat breakfast. Swell.

Once we sat around for an hour and a half, the judge came in to talk to us. Finally it started getting interesting. I figured if nothing else there would be a ‘Welcome, this is how the day is going to work’ message within the first 20-30 minutes, but no.

Today we all were there for jury selection for a specific trial (rather than the 1 day or 1 trial verbage). We listened to the charges, then filled out a (long) questionnaire. The involved parties, attorneys and who-not, will use those questionnaires to excuse some people. Those who are excused will get a phone call telling them so. Everyone else has to go back on Monday when they will call us in to question us in person about our views, backgrounds, experiences.

From the information we were given, I can’t see any reason I’d be excused based on my questionnaire. We’ll see if I get a call. If not, then Monday they narrow down to 16 (12 + 4 alternates) to serve for the estimated 2.5 week trial.

Of course I can’t discuss the case itself, but the charges sounded like the synopsis for an evening drama.