While away at school this last year, I got called for jury duty. Rather than just calling one of the other MILLIONS of registered voters and drivers in the state, the Ramsey County court system decided that my civic duty was not to be ignored, but rather postponed. So this week, instead of going to work, I have a new way of helping people avoid the criminal justice system (hopefully).
What I have discovered about jury duty thus far:
1. It is INCREDIBLY boring. You sit in a basement room with the other 114 potential jurors and twiddle your thumbs, waiting to be called into a courtroom. It is even worse if you had to leave at the crack of dawn to take the bus downtown.
2. Many people will not even get questioned during the week (including myself). While a group may be called into a courtroom, only some of those will be questioned to see if they would be suitable jurors and even fewer of them (12) will be chosen as jurors.
3. People actually try to get out of jury duty. I didn’t hear anyone say they were racist/sexist, but many claimed that they could not be impartial in order to escape that potential jury.
4. The judge/attorneys ask some really intimate questions regarding each juror’s life, family, friends, and beliefs. I know way more about that random selection of people than I need to.
5. TAKE THE OPTIONAL TOUR
My jury duty diet. It tasted as bad as it looks.
These were the second-fastest elevators in the world when they were built with the courthouse in 1932.
City Council meeting room (from my tour of the courthouse)
The Peace Pipe statue that dominates the courthouse lobby. It is full of Native American symbolism, yet most of it not native to local populations and tribes. This might have something to do with the fact that the artist was a Swede and knew nothing about American Indians…
July 21, 2014: 302 more days as an official Ramsey County resident transplant
365 Images: A Year in the Life 