Had jury duty this week, first time in my life. With that in mind, I joined 200 or so of my peers in a courthouse in Shelby County, Alabama to be divided into jury panels and be considered for inclusion on a jury that would decide whether someone was guilty or not guilty.
The only problem: The world doesn't think I have peers when it comes to Jury Duty. I don't mean that in a high and mighty way, either.
The world thinks I'm part of the unwashed masses when it comes to serving on a jury, an untouchable that can't be trusted to be impartial. You see, I'm a VP of HR. I've also got other things in my life that probably make me more toxic to a Defense Attorney than a FOX News reporter at an Obama White House Christmas party.
So Monday was the first day of Jury Duty. I reported to the courthouse and, through the luck of the draw, was segmented into a panel of 47 citizens from which a jury panel would be struck for this murder trial involving a former Pastor and his wife. First thing up? Tell us who you are and what you do:
Me: I'm Kris Dunn, I'm a VP of HR, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Defense and Prosection: (Silent. No follow up questions. I suspect one really liked that and one really didn't).
Next up, the prosecution asked their set of questions designed to help them figure out who to strike from the jury so they had their best shot at winning the trial. The Amercian system at its best. I didn't have to respond to any of their questions, because I didn't have any issues related to their questions that would cause me to be unable to be "fair and impartial".
After lunch, the Defense took the podium for the same purpose - to figure out who to strike to give them the best chance of winning the trial. It all started going to hell when this question came up:
Defense Attorney: Do any of you have members of your family who work in law enforcement?
Me: (raising hand and called upon) Yes. My wife's a former prosecutor for the DA's office in this building that's trying this case for the state, and she was in that role for 10 years.
Defense Attorney: I thought I recognized your name and her name when you said who you were married to! (writing notes and smiling..)
Defense Attorney: Thank you, Mr. Dunn. (noticeably absent: the follow-up question that everyone else got - whether, with that background, I could be fair and impartial and serve on the jury. He didn't care, because I was out...)
Later that afternoon, we were brought back in to watch the strike proceeding, in which the prosecution and defense take turns calling out the ID number of jurors to remove from consideration for the jury. They go back and forth until only 14 are left, which becomes your jury (12 + 2 alternates). I happened to figure out my overall number from a general count I made during role call when we were with the overall pool of 200 citizens, and I'm 99% certain that I was the first "strike" for the Defense.
Kind of like a fantasy football draft. But the stakes are much higher and you don't get to name a team "Belicheck Hoodies".
Good luck to the jurors who have to decide whether a shooting was an accident or murder. Makes an employment call as a VP of HR seem like small potatos, doesn't it?
