Our time was definitely historic. It was only 15 weeks, but due to ever-evolving Covid rules the experience changed.
In mid-October I received the dreaded summons. My husband took one look at my letter told me to block out the time because I will be serving. At the time I was holding out a glimmer of hope that I would not be chosen, but it was the tiniest of glimmers. Back when Ashley was in middle school I received a similar summons, but they quickly choose the needed 23 people, and the other 50 or so (myself included) were sent home and told we were done for the next three years.
I just knew I wouldn't be that lucky this time.
For nearly two months I fretted about what this would mean. As luck would have it, a friend of a friend was serving on Grand Jury so she shared with me the logistics. She said she was apprehensive about serving, but in the end enjoyed it, or at least enjoyed learning about the process.
I've known people who have served on Grand Jury. Ashley's third grade teacher. A friend's husband. A co-worker. I even knew someone in my group of 23. Still didn't make it something I wanted to do.
Then there are the times I talked to people who thought they knew what Grand Jury was all about, but were wrong. The ones who insisted it would be virtual (it wasn't). Lots of misunderstandings.
Jury selection was online. We had to block out a day to play the "hurry up and wait game" waiting for them to check us all in, prove no one else was in the room with us (when we signed in), and wait. The first batch of 23 people (out of around 75) were chosen.
Whew! I wasn't in that bunch!
As people gave sob stories and were excused I knew my number was coming up.
And it did.
Selection was on a Thursday, but I served on a Friday. Husband's plan to have me block out the dates backfired when I then had to reschedule everything away from Fridays, staring the very next Friday.
We served one week in person in a large room usually used for petit jurors to hang out in. Then we had two weeks off for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. Then five weeks virtual (I think I liked these best). Then back to the large room. Then the last few weeks in the regular juror room, but with extra chairs -- this set up felt posh as we had our own break room.
We were allowed to miss up to 25% of the sessions. Since we had a 15 week session, we could miss three dates. I knew I had to miss the last couple because of gala planning, and other week because of the New Orleans trip. That meant committing to all of the other weeks.
While we did wear masks, and in the beginning had our temperatures checked before entering the hallways, there were no real Covid restrictions. Our seats were spaced 5 feet apart, but we were never asked to stay home if we felt ill, or what our vaccine status was.
There were weeks we went in at 9, and weeks we went in after lunch. There were weeks we had two cases at 9:30, then told to return at 2:30 to hear more cases. There was no consistency. Our orders mostly came in the form of a text the afternoon before, but sometimes it came in an email.
All this inconvenience for $5 a week -- less than it would cost to buy lunch in downtown Trenton.
The picture of me at the start of this post is of me smiling as I walked away from my last day of Jury Duty. May they misplace my contact information in the next three years, or may we move before they find me again.
PS: Meanwhile Don was called for petit jury. His number never came up.
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