And the gory details: I got there in great time this morning, and with coffee. Since our arrival was supposed to be a bit later (9:30 as opposed to 9 sharp) the parking garage was a bit more full, but no trouble finding a spot. I settled down in my seat in the main jury hall at just a couple of minutes past 9, and in doing so avoided the bulk of the security line.

Attendance was taken by scanning the barcode on “Part C” of the summons-y thing got in the mail, AKA the Juror Identification Card. Yay, this was computerized. Pretty much the only part of the process that was. Everyone still sort of pushed and shoved to be first to scan in, proving that you can automate but never change people’s behavior, heh.

Around 11AM I was part of the second or third new group called (some previous cases had reconvened already by that time). The 50 or so of us crammed into elevators in a couple of batches and headed up to the third floor, escorted by a court officer. At all points during this selection process there was a lot of herding and directing. I guess it really throws off their organization if someone steps the wrong way. Either that or they hire way too many personnel and they have to give them something to do?

In any case, the courtroom was beautiful and modern. Shout out to Gary for the “In God We Trust” on the wall behind the judge (and “…so help me God” in the oath we agreed to) bothering me so much. At least the saying was posted in pretty, silver, sans-serif letters? We were escorted into the benches normally reserved for observers of the proceedings and began the screening process after oral attendance was taken. I cannot say too much since this case will actually be going to trial (without me!) but I think I can outline some of the process.

It was a criminal case. The judge gave a speech telling us some of the specifics of the case (charges, geographic area in which the alleged crime occurred, etc.) and some general things about serving jury duty. He followed this with a series of questions, something like:

• Do you think you know any of the people involved (defendant, lawyers, assistant D.A., witnesses)?
• Do you have any connection to the place which the incident allegedly occurred?
• Do you have any close friends or family who have been victims of, witnesses to, or convicted of a crime?

I think there were a couple more of these, but this is what I remember. The last question I found particularly generic, but I suppose they have to be thorough. After all the questions were asked, anyone who had a “yes” answer to any one of them was to raise their hand and get in a line to speak with the lawyers and judge in private. It looked like about 2/3 of the group of 50 did this, myself included. Inside the private room I explained which question I answered yes to, and was asked if that would factor in to my being able to come to a fair decision. I didn’t think it would and answered accordingly. Each interview went pretty fast.

Once we got through all of the “yes” people, about 30 were excused, leaving 20 of us. We then moved in to the jury box (with overflow sitting in the first row for observers) and prepared for the next round of questioning. In this round the judge explained some basic legal principles such as:

• The defendant is presumed innocent.
• Guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt/the burden rests on the prosecution.
• Every witness, including police officers, are assumed to have the same amount of credibility (as in, don’t necessarily believe the police officer because he/she is an officer).

After each, he asked if we could accept these and use them in our decision. Nods all around. The next round of screening began in which we were handed a typewritten (wow), xeroxed list of questions. They were something like:

• What neighborhood do you live in?
• What do you do for work?
• Are you married, if so, what does your spouse do for work?
• Do you have children, if so, what do they do for work?
• Have you served on a criminal case/civil case/grand jury before?
• Do you have relatives/friends in law enforcement (defined broadly)?
• Again, do you have relatives/friends who have been victims of, witnesses to, or convicted of a crime?
• What do you do in your spare time?

(Wow, good memory me). We went around the room and answered one at a time. I felt things got pretty interesting here. Not only did I observe the diversity (neighborhoods, accents, professions) of my fellow jurors, but some curious crowd behavior. Certain ways of reading the questions – whether people answered in full sentences, for instance “No I do not have any children” vs. “No” or how they read the numbers off “Question 1,” “Number 1″ were sometimes picked up by others when a precedent was set by one, as well as some of the answers themselves. Half the crowd must have said they do “reading” in their spare time after the first woman did. Most people answered the question about previously serving on a jury with “That does not apply to me” (incorrectly phrased!) instead of “No” once a precedent was set. I also noticed here that some had a much better grasp than others of the judge’s instructions about answering and the actual wording of the questions. Some of this may have had to do with the language barrier experienced by many in the room.

To almost everyone the judge would ask a follow-up question to a yes or no answer – usually along the lines of “will your experience with or background in that affect your judgment in this case?” -  that sort of thing. About halfway through the twenty peoples’ interviews it was time for lunch. We had an hour and 15 minutes this time. I ate healthy again, chatted with Warlock, charged my phone a little, and was told not to sit on the ledge in the main lobby.

At about 2:30 we were called back in from the jury hall to the courtroom to resume our interviews. More communication problems ensued. After completing that round, the prosecution and defense lawyers were allowed to question us. This part felt very “led” like they wanted a certain answer. Almost grade school-esque. More details were asked for about people’s potential identification to the topic of the case. Hypotheticals were posed, also tricky for the weaker English speakers. Most copped out and answered questions with a broken, “well I would have to see what the evidence was,” not a real answer at all. The defense pulled out the old “don’t judge a book by its cover” right off the bat. We could sort of see where this case was going. After being spot-questioned as a group by both lawyers it was time for them to trim the pile of jurors again.

We recessed, the judge said for 15-20 minutes. Everyone was out in the hallway. I observed patterns of who struck up conversations with who. I thought for sure I’d be picked. I chatted with Warlock and Gary. After about 45 minutes (more?) we went back in. Names of people to be sworn in as jurors for the case were to be read. I expected a list of twelve. Four were read, not me. The 16 not read were told we were DONE done, we would not have to return the next day and we would receive our statements of completed service in the mail.

I was so excited! I’m done! While it would have been interesting and provided more blogging fodder to serve on a case, I’d rather be back to my usual (and not not spending $13 a day on parking). So that’s that! If this ever actually comes up in a search result, o random visitors, feel free to ask questions in the comments.

On to our topic at hand. I got called for jury duty! I’m one of these people who hates uncertainty. The minimal amount of information provided on the mailed summons along with the fact that everyone knows there’s no way to determine how many days, what case you’ll be assigned, etc., just drove me crazy going into it. Therefor I decided to take meticulous notes about my experience in case there’s another like me out there, nervous for jury duty in the Bronx, New York.

For those who’d rather the digest version: day 1. Did not get assigned to a case. Boring as predicted. Going back tomorrow for more of the same.

And for those who want the detailed version, here we go. If you’re about to embark on this, I might suggest you read the meager information on the official New York State Juror page for the Bronx. I won’t cover that stuff again below, and you can get a sense of what I knew going into it.

The drive was about 30 minutes from Riverdale, which was not surprising since I took 87. Discounted parking is in the Central Parking Systems lot for the indoor/outdoor mall across from the Bronx Hall of Justice. Jurors are supposed to park on level G1, but I did G2 and no one minded. I think you’re just not supposed to park on the surface level in favor of one of the underground ones. You park yourself, not valet, so this means you can visit the car during the day if you need to. That’s nice. Then you walk through a passageway that takes you through part of the mall to get out. Don’t be one of those people who walks up the “no pedestrians” ramp!

Since my summons was blue, I had duty in the shiny, new, glassy Bronx Hall of Justice. Folks with red summonses went down the street to the more traditional looking Bronx County Courthouse. The first thing when you walk in, of course, is the security check. There are two lines, one for the public and one just for jurors to the right. It’s like the airport but you can keep your shoes and coat on through the metal detector. The line was long but moving, although sometimes got a little stopped up when multiple people in a row beeped going through the metal detector. Here I learned things you can and cannot bring:

• Jury can bring lunch, or any food they want really. Even take-out drinks that don’t go through the xray machines are okay. I was relieved, no fast food for me, whew!
• You can bring your cell phone even if it has a camera, even though the summons says not to. Like the security guy said, “it’s unavoidable these days.”
• Do not bring glass containers. Is this a sporting event?
• I did not encounter the laptop question, but to be safe I might leave it at home.
• People definitely had iPods, as expected.

Once through security we were directed into the hall of jurors, a big, auditorium-style room. There are rows of seats which are sometimes hard to get out of (climbing over people) and have arms so not good for the structurally wide folks. Benches also line the perimeter. There’s a vending machine lounge to the left and a reading room, complete with a handful of books, on the right. Restrooms to the rear. I couldn’t decide if the contemporary architecture and interior design was a relief from the neoclassic and 70′s sterile institutional buildings one usually sees, or if it was straight out of a big brother-type scifi film.

When all was said and done there were definitely 200 or more people in the room (I am bad at estimating crowds). The racial makeup looked about like the Bronx as a whole from what I could tell, and people seemed fairly evenly divided among different ages. There were definitely people in tee shirts, hoodies, jeans.

Nothing happened for a long time, as potential jurors were still going through security. We had to be there at 9, and the first preliminary announcements were made at 9:25. Just some general things determining if people were in the right place. At 9:38 the real deal started. Lots of things were announced, including valid reasons to request not to be there:

• Supposed to be in class during the day (not currently on winter break)
• Not a US citizen
• Felon
• Can prove no longer a resident of the Bronx
• Extenuating child care issue
• Doctor’s note saying specifically must not serve on a jury

Those folks were sent down the road to make their “case” at the courthouse. The rest, we were told, would have to stay. Even people who:

• Claimed not to speak English – apparently a lot of people said this to get out of jury duty. The court would then call their employer, call their house at random, and all sorts of other methods to try to determine if they actually spoke English. They reported that 90% of the people did and were lying, so decided not to waste the time and now this is no longer an excuse. This means, interestingly, that some cases will have actual non-English speakers as jurors. Hmm.
• Have a note from their employer
• Are in school but on break

We followed the instructions on filling out and separating parts of our summons and turned in the relevant parts in baskets at the front. Parking tickets were stamped for a discount. For those wondering, the cheesy introduction video was not shown  even though there were a couple of nice LCD screens in the room. I’m sad, I heard so much about it!

After this there was a lot of waiting. Please, anyone who has jury duty, bring a book or newspaper, your knitting or anything. You are going to be so bored otherwise.

Three cases that were continuing from last week were called before anything else. The first new potential panel was assembled at 11:40. See, lots of waiting! Maybe 6-8 other groups were assembled during the day. I was not one of them. 50 people were called at once. Each time a subgroup of jurors were returned to the pool after a period of questioning (I read about that). Some were called, came back, and got called again later. The guys up in the front calling the names remind me of the banker on Deal or No Deal – the fact that they know the news first and their seriousness.

Lunch was from 12:30-2. I get the feeling that lunch is 1-2, but if they’re fairly sure nothing interesting will happen between 12:30 and 1 we get to leave for lunch early. I ate my healthy-ish food in the main lobby of the building and went for a walk. It was cold, and there were no stores I particularly wanted to visit. The line was long going back into the building.

More groups were assembled in the afternoon, up until a bit after 3. We, those who were not called, were dismissed at 3:30. My guess is that they don’t want to start anything that late in the day. I got about 70 pages of reading done, not bad considering the interruptions. Yay, I don’t read enough usually!

Parking was $13 with the discount, a little steep. They take credit cards, but the attendant I had did not have a pen for me to sign. A bit of a rocky ride home on 87, traffic is always bad because of the GW Bridge.

So, we’re to return tomorrow by 9:30! This time I will be bringing:

• My book
• Lunch (plus a napkin, forgot today)
• My phone and its charger (I did spot some outlets, and knowing how much I’ll want to play on the phone I’ll need that)
• Coffeeeeee!

Come back tomorrow for more tales of jury duty! And some further reading, other people’s experiences: tale of a one-day trial and this more comedic one.