Into the Courtroom

(Photo Credit: Flickr User Tidewater Muse)

About 10 or 15 minutes after the video, Microphone Man called the first group of jurors to a courtroom. Mine was the 3rd or 4th name read and I went down the hall toward courtroom 222. As walked inside, I noticed that all the parties were standing for the jury as they filed in. I always wonder why they stand for the jury. Is it out of some kind of respect or is it just tradition at that point? If so, where did the custom come from? They do this every time we enter and depart.

Oh yeah, nothing gets by a jury – I noticed throughout the day the prosecutor was incredibly diligent about remaining standing until each and every juror was in the room. The defense was a little more relaxed about it and would sometimes sit if 90% of the potential jurors had entered the room. I wondered if he had a little less respect for jurors in general or was he just not as worried about making a good impression or something else? I didn’t hold it against him or form an opinion about it, I was just more curious than anything. There was one person at the prosecutor’s table and three at the defense table. They turned out to be the defense attorney, the defendant and his interpreter.

The courtroom is small and somewhat round. After all the seats in audience were filled, they asked people to sit in the jury box as well as 12 numbered seats that were set up in front of the jury box. Once all the jurors had made it into the courtroom, the clerk phoned the judge to let her know. A few minutes later the bailiff/sheriff said loudly, “All rise, department 222 is now in session, the honorable Judge Smith is now presiding” and we all stood for the judge. (Note :I have changed the name of the judge and the courtroom.) She had a warm, friendly demeanor that I immediately liked. She introduced herself and thanked us for coming into to do our jury service. She introduced all the parties and they passed out a calendar showing which days we would be in session and how long the trial was supposed to last. It was going to on for at least 4 weeks and there would be no sessions on Fridays.

The judge started off with dealing with hardships. One woman was on crutches. She stood, stated her name and explained that she had injured herself the week prior and was on pain medication. The judge thanked her and excused her. A man stood up and said he would be happy to serve, but he had a very important business meeting that could not be put off. The judge questioned him about this a little bit, asking if the meeting could be postponed or rescheduled. He explained that the meeting had already been postponed and it was extremely important. He also said stated that he would be more than happy to come back in a few weeks once the meeting was finished. This seemed to satisfy her and she let him off too, telling him to go to the jury room and set another date for a few weeks hence. A woman stood up and stated she had an important oral surgery appointment that would overlap with one of the trial dates. She had some kind of paperwork, which I assume was a note from the oral surgeon. She was released but also asked to reschedule her jury service for a date after the oral surgery. A woman stood up and said she had back problems and may not be able to sit for extended periods of time. The judge questioned her, asking if she were able to stand at times or when necessary, would that work for her? The woman stated that it might, so the judge kept her.

Next, four or five people stood up and declared they had trouble understanding English, including the proud new citizen. When the judge questioned her, it was obvious that she had no idea what the judge was asking. She just smiled, nodded and answered, “yes” to each and every question. She was excused and then back sat down, not understanding that she could leave. The judge indicated again that she was excused and it finally got through to her. She smiled and said, “thank you, thank you” as she left. The judge asked questions such as how long they had been in the country, what language they spoke at home and what difficulty they had with English. After questioning each of the non-English speakers thoroughly, the judge let excuse some and kept some. I could see that the judge was trying to be fair. She didn’t immediately release someone just because they were difficult to understand when they spoke. Her questions were gentle and she did not seem the slightest bit hesitant to ask them to repeat themselves if she didn’t quite understand what they said. She kept those who seemed to be able to understand her and answer the questions. As it turns out they too were eventually released, but I was glad she kept some of them to see how they did during voir dire.

I think at that point we went on a break. Upon returning from break, they read off the first 24 names from the random list and we all played musical chairs until those seats were filled. I was not one of the first 24 names called. These were the people who were going to be questioned first. The judge explained that we would now be answering some questions to determine if we were to serve on the jury and explained that if we were released from the jury it was nothing personal, it did not have any reflection on our competence and we shouldn’t take it personally. It was simply because it was important to find the right jurors for this case. She said that even if we were not the right jurors for this particular case, it’s very possible that we would be right for another case.

She then read the charges against the defendant. There were 21 charges in total and I believe there are 10 of one kind of charge, 11 of the other, but I could be wrong about the exact split. She couldn’t just read the charge and say, “there are 10 of those” or something like that, rather each one had to be read in its entirety. It took at least 20 minutes to read them. The mood has been light and curious before she read the charges and as she read them, the mood got dark and there was heaviness in the atmosphere that settled in the courtroom. I watched as people glanced at each other uneasily and remember thinking, “This is going to be a tough case.”