12 Angry Men

I got summoned for jury duty! Of course, I'm a freak of nature and was totally excited with the idea where the norm is to dread being called for jury duty. The only issues I had were, I had to get up and leave earlier than usual, and top that with the three inches of snow we had gotten in the wee morning hours (it was also still snowing when I got there).
I get to Frank Murphy Courthouse at 8AM (which was miraculous because of rush hour traffic and the wintery conditions outside) and proceed to the metal detectors. Apparently, I do not look like a happy person, because the only people that ever talk to me always have the same comment, "you need to smile more, it's not that bad". So I just chuckle when the deputy says this to me as I drop my coat on the little xray thingy and ask if the jury room is to the left. I check in and the room is packed already (wow lots of other people actually show up on time too) I find a seat in the very back corner tucked away and begin to read 'New Moon'. As it turns out even though I dreaded reading the second installment of the Twilight books, because all I had heard was that the second was the worst of the bunch, I LOVED it and read 400 pages during my wait. At about 8:45 a lady comes out and begins to tell us the process, letting us know things like: approximately 400 people show up for the jury pool everyday, parking: you WILL be ticketed if you are not in a paid lot, no cell phones are allowed in the building, the pay phones probably do NOT work, so just ask them and you can go use one of the court phones, there is no cafeteria but it's encouraged to head to Greektown for lunch, but remember to take off your 'Juror' badge. She also lets us know she is bad with names and she will likely mess yours up but she apologizes and will apologize for doing this often. We are then dismissed for our first break, I go grab a snack and settle back into my chair and they play Mousehunt on the TVs in the room and they begin to call off names 30 at a time. At about 11AM my name is called (and pronounced correctly), eeep!!! Have I mentioned my excitement? I head out with the 29 other people and go stand outside the courtroom. A deputy comes out a few times looking for the defense attorney. After about 20 minutes of waiting, he puts us in an empty courtroom to wait some more. He's a friendly gentlemen who seems like he was trying to make it a little easier on us by making small talk. We wait, and wait, and wait some more, finally he comes in around 12:30 and lets us know we can break for lunch and to be back by 1:30. He warns us that the judge is strict and will put a warrant on you for skipping out (later my husband confirmed that this judge will also do the same to officers). Despite the 4-5 inches of fresh snow on the ground, it's not a bad day out to be walking. Groups of people that have made friends go to lunch with each other, I lag behind and decided I'll just go where ever my feet take me. I end up at a little hole in the wall restaurant. Looking at this place I was kinda leery of eating at the establishment haha, and after entering I wasn't put at ease either, but the food ending up being wonderful and huge portions (and it was super close to the courthouse). I return only to notice, I still have 30 minutes left. Oh boy, I continue to read my book to pass the time and the rest of my group eventually trickle in. Finally, we enter the courtroom, and while I coulda done without the 20 minute lesson on the court system and how in Quebec still only men are allowed on the jury, I was still happy to be there. After the history lesson, the judge tells us what the case is about, breaking and entering home invasion. He says, that the trial will probably last the rest of the day and go into the next day and then asks if anyone was going to have conflicts they felt that were worthy enough to be excused. I swear at least 10 people raise their hands, I giggled. The first gentleman lets the judge know he has to babysit and work and won't be able to make it, judge says too bad (diplomatically of course). The second lady lets the judge know, that while she realizes she has the same predicament as the first gentleman, she is a hairdresser and she has scheduled clients. The judge says, call your clients and cancel, she sits stomps her feet down muttering under her breath and pouts (I laughed, this girl was sitting right next to me, I was probably out of line laughing, but I couldn't help it). There are then a couple of other reasons given nothing I think the judge thought worthy enough to miss court for. We are then randomly picked out of a bowl (think bingo) and 12 of us are placed in the jury box. My stomach starts to do flips and I get hot. Seriously, maybe I'll get picked, eeeek!!! On each chair is a yellow paper with about 10 questions about our background. You have to out loud pretty much give a short biography of yourself and your family, damnit here is comes. I answered every one of the questions wrong lol. I'm married to a police officer in the city the defendant was charged in, I have taken law classes before, I have both family and friends that are either in law enforcement or do something in the legal field, I have had crimes commited against me, and we own guns. The judge asks the prosecuting attorney and the defense attorney if they'd like to dismiss anyone and the defense attorney says no, the prosecuting attorney lets two out of the box and two more get randomly drawn and tell their life stories. Then here it comes, the defense attorney dismisses me, juror number 9, boo. It's 2:30 in the afternoon and my excitement for the day is over, no court for me. I go turn in my juror card and get my juror letter for my employer and hope to one day be selected again, but I don't get my hopes up too high.