Jury Duty

After years of postponing jury duty due to small children I was summoned again.  This time I had no excuse so I drove into Seattle for Jury Duty.  It was a sunny day and as I crossed the I-90 bridge I was reminded of what a beautiful place I live. 

 I love how the tunnel says Seattle Portal to the Pacific.

I had printed out driving directions to the courthouse and I made it there easily.  I even found safe parking nearby.  The courthouse is the tall one with the green roof.  It was built in 2004 and was really nice.

 This is what the courtyard in front of the courthouse looked like.  I found this picture online--I was not there at night.

Upon entering the building I went through security screening and then to the jury office and lounge.  There were 31 of us that reported on Monday.  After a 30 minute video informing us of our responsibilities and how selection takes place we broke for an  hour lunch.  Seriously, couldn't we all have just eaten before we got there and then started one hour later.  I didn't mind the break though since I had some good reading material.  After the lunch break we were given juror numbers randomly and we went to the 14th floor courtroom.

This is what the inside of the courtroom looked like.  The jurors with the lower numbers sat in the jury stand on the left and those of us that couldn't fit sat in the audience rows.  The cushions were very soft. We need soft bench cushions like these at church. :)  We were asked several questions as a group by the judge and both sets of lawyers and if they applied to us we were to raise our number in the air.  Then they would come back to each of us and hear how it related to us. 

Questions were like:

 Have you ever been a juror before, what kind of case was it and did you reach a verdict?

Have you ever been to court before and about what?

Do you know any of the people or lawyers involved in this case?

Have you ever been wrongly accused for a crime you did not commit? 

Then all the jurors were sent out of the courtroom to this waiting area on the 14th floor for about 20 minutes.  Pretty cool but not enough seating  for all 31 of us.  I had to sit on the ground.

 This was our view out the window.

Then we were invited back into the courtroom so they could tell us which jurors had been selected to participate in the case.  Because my assigned number was so high I wasn't selected but it sure was an interesting day for me.  I will definitely say positive things about jury duty to my friends in the future.  It is nothing to be afraid of.