Jury duty

At work yesterday (or was it the day before? Every single day this week I have thought it was Thursday, so let's go with "Thursday"), one of my coworkers was asking me how to get out of jury duty. I directed him to submit a request to be excused, and assured him that he wouldn't be forced to travel to Los Angeles for his jury summons.

A few years ago, I was listening to a podcast episode of This American Life, entitled "Duty Calls." The Prologue of this episode is maybe worth listening to for the purposes of this blog post (and it's only five minutes). Ira Glass interviews the people who summon jurors, and consequently hear all the excuses for reasons that people cannot serve on jurors. People say that their cat threw up on their jury summons so they couldn't read it. Other people send pictures of medical conditions instead of actual doctor's notes, expecting the reader to believe that it's actually the summoned individual. "Dear government official, I cannot be a juror because I am injured. Here is a picture of an injured person..."

I was telling my coworker friend that I have always wanted to be called for jury duty and have never been summoned. When I was in college, even if I had been summoned, it probably would have been from the State of North Carolina, so it's not like I could have realistically served anyway. Last year I would have chosen jury duty over my job almost every single day. After watching approximately 25 seasons of Law and Order in the past nine months, though, I think I would make an excellent juror, and I would be interested to see if any of the district attorneys are actually like Jack McCoy. (I'm going to just completely pass over the fact that most juries do not actually try homicide cases. Even the boring cases still need good jurors.)

Yesterday, when I got home after work, I was greeted by a stack of mail (Thanks, Courtney!). To my surprise, I was greeted by an envelope from the Superior Court of California, with the note "Official Jury Summons Enclosed" on the front. Best day ever. What a great way to start the year, by crossing something off my bucket list (or trying to, anyway).

Next: Get a motorcycle license. (Just kidding, Dad. I might not be kidding though. What if we take lessons together?")

I found an article called "How to get selected as a juror for a trial" that had some very helpful tips:

1. Be available.
2. Tell the truth.
3. Don't talk too much.
4. Look presentable.
5. Be attentive.
6. Be neutral.

All of these seem pretty easy, but I should probably start practicing for the jury selection process. According to the article's author, "Be attentive" means you have to stay awake for the whole thing, and that might be my biggest feat.