My Jury Duty Experience

Have you ever wondered what jury duty was like?  This past October, I had the opportunity to serve on Euclid’s Municipal Court providing me with a unique perspective on the experience overall, our community and the processes of our justice system.

Sometime in September, I received a summons from the court system informing me that I was required to serve on Euclid’s Municipal Court.  Having never served, I was interested to learn that I would be required to be available for jury duty for four Mondays.  (In most cases, these are consecutive Mondays.  In my case, one of the days fell on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, so I skipped one week and the time period covered five weeks.)  Every Thursday, potential jurors were instructed to call the Court to see if they were needed the following Monday.

In speaking with other people, the experience and time commitment is different depending on which court you are serving.

After three weeks of not being needed, the potential service day had me and 19 other potential jurors all coming to Euclid’s Municipal Court at 9 AM Monday morning.  Immediately upon entering and signing in, I was assigned a random number.  All of my fellow jurors then sat in a room awaiting further instructions.

Interestingly, I learned how small of a city Euclid really is as I knew several other jurors.  My children’s former principal was there, as was one of their classmate’s father.  A city council person was within the group of 20, as was the daughter of the law director.  I may have known one other person in passing. 

Shortly after 9 AM, we were called into the courtroom in order as the first group of jurors were seated in the jury booth with the rest of us watching for the time being from the benches.  I am the forth alternate.  Enter Judge Debra LeBarron who resides over Euclid Municipal Court.  After some thorough instructions, the prosecutor and the lawyer for the defendant begin their work.

They begin by asking each juror a series of questions to determine if they should be excluded from the jury pool.  The attorneys are looking for bias, personal knowledge of the case or anything that may indicate to them that the interest of their case is best served with another juror.  After some interviewing, one-by-one, three jurors are dismissed for various reasons.  (I enjoyed guessing who I would have kicked off the jury.)

At that point, my number is called and I am invited into the jury box.  Apparently, they need an alternate in case any of the other members can’t make it through the entire proceedings.  Once I pass the quizzing process from both attorneys, Judge LeBarron then excuses all the other jurors and thanks them for their service.  Lucky me, I’m slated to spend my day listening to all the details of the case.

Our case involved a child endangerment charge against a mother of two young children.  The convoluted case included confusion all around as one of the main witnesses, the boy’s father, gave conflicting, confusing and argumentative testimony that left the prosecutor frustrated as he tried to find the truth.  The defense attorney, who seemed overmatched in this case as she fumbled through questions often repeating herself, wisely did not put her client on the stand.  If there was one thing I learned from this experience it was that not testifying is not only everyone’s right, but in a case like this, may be in the best interest of the client as everyone is not good at telling their story without looking like they are lying.

It seems that this entire case was the result of pent-up frustration between the parents of the children.  The testimony provided a window into another world, where care for young children falls upon a patchwork of relationships, including single parents who don’t live together at all times, grandparents, aunts and anyone who can help.  As a juror I found myself feeling sorry for the children, hoping the parents could straighten out their confused lives so that these young boys could grow up with some normalcy.

After several hours, including a one-hour lunch break, the attorneys presented their closing arguments.  After that, Judge LeBarron asked all the jurors if they were able to effectively reach a decision.  With a positive response from all the jurors, I received the surprise of the day – I was excused.

All day in a juror’s box, paying close attention to every detail of the case.  Running through every scenario in my mind.  I even had thoughts put together regarding how I would vote – guilty or innocent.  Yet now I was being dismissed.  While I was disappointed, wondering how my fellow jurors would vote on this case, I left the courtroom with the understanding that I had done my civic duty.  I also enjoyed learning about the process of being a juror, how a courtroom really works, and developed an appreciation for those who must sit through dozens of these cases in their profession.  While some may think a local municipal court is for small offenses, the importance of the issues they address are in many ways more salient to everyday life than the high-profile cases we hear about in the media.

In my case, the attorneys, judge and jurors were deciding what actions should be taken that would be in the best interest of justice and two nice young boys.  I hope my fellow jurors chose wisely.