It’s been 2 months since I was called for federal criminal jury duty, but since so much happened because of my experiences there that it bears retelling, now that I can spill the beans. One of the harder parts of the trial was not telling anyone the details of the case, which is hard to do on two fronts. One is not being able to tell your spouse/friend/significant other about the day’s events. The more frustrating part is not being able to talk to your fellow jurors about the case, as we all had a million thoughts and questions running through our heads. It’s the reason I had to take sleeping pills, which I hardly ever use, every night because I could not fall asleep with all the facts of the case running around in my head at 300 mph.

This whole ordeal began 4 months earlier when I was summoned for grand jury duty. Keep in mind I am not against jury duty and consider it one of the good things our justice system uses, and I have no problem with serving time on a case within reason. That being said, I have no earthly idea how the government assumes a normal, working citizen could fulfill their obligations without having serious issues at work. It differs by state, but in Georgia if you are picked for grand jury service, you serve on that jury 3 to 4 days per month for EIGHTEEN MONTHS. Besides retired and unemployed people, who could afford to live like that, since all you get is a meager $40 a day plus mileage? They pick 23 people (the courts require 16 grand jurors present for a valid rendering of a verdict) and there were maybe 50 people in the screening room. I, along with about half the room, file a “financial hardship” form asking to be excused from serving. I was very fortunate that I did not get chosen and went home relieved. My relief was short-lived as I received a notice in the mail the next week that my request for a deferral had been accepted and that I would be called back in 4 months. I yelled at the notice (because we all know that yelling at a piece of paper solves all our problems) that I had requested a dismissal, not a deferral (you actually had these 2 choices on the application sheet).

As sure as the sun rises and sets daily, my notice to appear back in court came. This time it was for federal court. I sighed a breath of relief since this was not an eighteen month obligation. I figured I was on the hook for a week at most. When our group of about 80 potential jurors entered the court, I noticed there were five defendants and five lawyers. This did not play into my planning on “one week and out” if I got picked. Sure enough, the judge informed us that the case before us would be at least 2 weeks long. FUCK. I found out later after the trial that the case was so large they actually broke up the cases into 5 or 6 different trials. It was a Mexican drug trafficking and money laundering case. What’s my first thought running through my head when we’re told the case is about drugs? Retribution. There’s no way I want to be on this trial because you never know if you or your family could be the victims of retribution of a ruthless drug cartel. That might sound paranoid but now that I have 2 other ladies in my life who I like to fancy that I take care of, their safety is paramount to me.

Back to the jury selection, we all have to introduce ourselves, where we live, family info, and occupation. Since there are 80 of us, this takes quite some time. We all can sense that there’s not a chance in hell that we’ll be finishing up anytime soon. In fact, it takes a day and a half for the attorneys to choose a jury panel, so even the people who weren’t selected waste 2 work days and can still be called back the following week since they are all “on call” for a 2 week period. Some of the questions the attorneys (both defense and prosecution) seem to be routine in weeding out the obvious people who would not qualify, but there were some oddball questions the defense attorneys asked people that seemed to make no sense and I couldn’t tell if the questions were red herrings or if they were legitimate questions. They didn’t drill into me too much except for my occupation (internet banking software tester). One of the defense attorneys dug deeper about what it is exactly that I do.

For those who haven’t been part of this process, it’s called “voir dire” and means something close to “tell the truth”. I had all the intentions of trying to get out of this case, but something in me made me be truthful in all the questions I answered. In fact, I thought for sure that one of my answers would surely disqualify me from the prosecuting attorney’s side. Since my brother-in-law is Mexican, I would have thought there’s no way they’d want me on the jury panel since (at least in their eyes) I might be sympathetic to the Mexicans being prosecuted. I also mentioned that my company wouldn’t pay me past 5 days of jury duty.

There were some very somber moments as people retold their stories of being victims of crimes. One lady recounted a time when she and her husband were held hostage in their home for several hours under gunpoint. She came close to breaking down at several points and the proverbial “you could hear a pin drop” was in effect. Another guy had a brother who was currently being prosecuted for alleged child molestation. The guy took the stance of “he’s innocent until proven guilty, but if he’s found guilty then I want nothing to do with him”.

Day Two continues with more of the same and by 11:30 the attorneys all group together with the judge and they begin their jury selection negotiations. This takes about 30 minutes and our entire group is on edge, as no one obviously wants to be picked. Then the moment of truth arrives. The judge says “Will the following people please take your belongings and sit in the jury seats”. What is the FIRST freakin’ name that is announced? “JAMES JOSEPH KIRKPATRICK”. I was in an absolute daze. I don’t remember them calling the names after me. While I sat down in the juror box, I thought to myself “In a drug prosecution case, why couldn’t they just have called me ‘Juror #1’ instead of my full name?” Yeah, I’m on high paranoia alert about right now.

More details of the case to be continued tomorrow……