I am currently serving my week of jury
duty. Of course I haven’t yet been
called to be on an actual jury. I went
in Monday for that treacherous first day.
There were no parking spaces available over behind the fire station
where I like to park, so I went to the lot across the street. As I approached the building I noticed the
line to enter was out the front door.
Not a good sign. It was moving
fairly quickly though. It just takes a
little time when all the men have to take off their belts and empty their
pockets and all the women have to run their purses through the metal
detector.
At least the initial check-in was easy for
me. I filled in my questionnaire on
line, and apparently so did most everyone else.
The few old-schoolers had to take one of those clipboards with the pen
attached. Like the kind they hand you at
the doctor’s office for your “records update.”
The room was almost full when I arrived.
That meant the only open seats were right up in the front. Kind of like at church on a Sunday
morning. I wasn’t scared, though. I went right to the front row. Once situated I skimmed through the little
booklet they gave us. Pretty basic
stuff. All about the qualifications for
a juror (Things like you have to be able to read and understand English), and
acceptable exemptions (Like if you are the sole caregiver of someone). I started working on a crossword puzzle. I brought along a book of them as well as a
novel I haven’t started yet. Ted Dekker’s
The Sanctuary. I was saving it to
read in the van on the way to camp when I’m not driving. I was kind of worried, because crossword
puzzles usually put me to sleep, but I figured I could probably hold out since I
had just woke up.
That plan worked well until they turned out
the lights. This was new since I was
last called. They showed us a movie
about being a juror. I expected the hype
about doing your duty and all, and that’s basically what the movie’s purpose
was, but it wasn’t all that bad. It had
clips from numerous movies with trials in them, like To Kill a Mockingbird and
that one with Jim Carey where he can’t tell a lie. It struck our history chord with a section
about the Magna Carta. My favorite was
when they mentioned how Americans AND TEXANS had fought for the right to trial
by jury. Somebody knew how to appeal to
our fierce Texas-based nationalism. We
also found out that it was somewhere around 1951 before a woman was allowed to
sit on a jury. I learned a new French
word: voire dire. Don’t know how to
pronounce it, but it means speak the truth.
Appropriate. The movie also
talked about juror qualifications and exemptions. Sounded vaguely familiar. Like something I just read.
After the movie a lady explained to us
about the juror information line we were to call each night this week if we didn’t
get picked, in case they needed somebody else.
She told us our pay scale ($6 first day, then $28 a day). Briefly mentioned the dress code. Warned us that the judge would be here any
minute, so we better turn off our cell phones.
And she went over the qualifications and exemptions of a juror. Wait.
Again?
About that time I noticed a high-pitched
sound constantly whining. I started
searching for its source when the judge walked in. That TV-like baliff voice commanded , “All
rise.” And we dutifully obeyed. While we were up anyway, we were sworn in all
at once. Typical, “raise your right hand
and say I do” kind of oath. The judge
herself was a nice lady. She introduced
herself and began to read to us … the qualifications and exemptions of a
juror. Yep. Again.
Finally the line began to form of those who wanted to speak to her
privately about why they couldn’t serve.
She let a few off. A few others
were assigned right then to a trial in Bacliff to start on Friday. And a few were told to tough it out. Whatever their excuse was wasn’t going to
fly. Sorry about that.
Finally the judge left and out other lady
returned. I was amazed. She didn’t read us the qualifications and
exemption of a juror. This time she
called the roll of those who would be called for a jury that day. Everybody said the same thing, “Here. Yes.
Present.” I was working on some
creative way to declare my presence when my name was called. It wasn’t.
The rest of us were reminded to call the jury information line every
night and follow the instructions given there.
And we were excused. That was
it. And so far that has been it. Haven’t been needed all week.
Oh, I forgot to mention. Kel had some fun
with this jury thing. See, we both got
the jury summons for this week. Not a
problem, right. Well, the thing is, they
didn’t include the “Jr.” on Kel’s name, so for all intents and purposes, they
had two Kelley Vaughan’s in the mix. Kel
asked the lady how we were supposed to know which one of us was being asked to
come if they said our name on the jury information line. Really threw them for a loop. They finally gave him a “special” number to
call. That’s my first born. Always did demand some special treatment. But every night around 5:30 I have received a
text that we are not needed. It’s great
to have connections.
Psalms 96:4 says, “For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared
above all gods.”
Father, thank you for our justice
system. So far the best human kind I have
run across. Of course I prefer the way
you do it. Lots of mercy there. Amen.
