Jury Duty

Not for me. Thankfully. Not right now at least. One of the secretaries at my job got picked for jury duty and is on some trial that is expected to last 20 weeks! That's 5 months! That's so crazy. I would be bored out of my mind.

I remember when I got called for Jury Duty in Philly. I really didn't want to go, so I delayed it for 3 months hoping by the time my name got drawn again I would be married and living in Alabama. Wrong. They summoned me and there was nothing I could do to get out of it. I was so worried. I had watched about a million episodes of Law and Order by this point so I was expecting the worst! Tom told me to quit being a baby, I was probably going to get called for a parking ticket case or something and to get over it. Me being me, I continued to stress out about it until the day finally arrived.

I went to the court house in center city Philly with a book in hand and waited to be called. My name finally got called and I went and sat in this little room with about 40 other people. Then, they called us into the courtroom. I was one of the "lucky" ones who got to sit in the actual jury box and everyone else lined up in the front row.

By this time, I had a pretty good story worked out in case they asked me why I couldn't do jury duty. I was a physical therapist at CHOP and I cared for critically ill children and taught them how to walk and function again. I was ready.

So when we all got settled in the courtroom, the judge said that we would be trying a homicide case and he expected it to last about a week. MEANWHILE the MURDERER was sitting right there in the defense seat in the courtroom!!!!! *heart racing* The judge then asked if anyone did not think they would be able to fulfill these obligations, please stand up now. You bet your ass I stood up! I was soooo nervous and ready to tell my sob story if he asked. But he just dismissed those of us who were standing back to the "waiting room" and our names were recycled to be picked for another case. I sat there for about an hour and then they came in and said all of the cases were filled for today!

Wooooooooohooooooooooooo! I narrowly escaped witnessing a murder trial first hand. I think I'll stick to the tv show drama.