Jury duty: one boring responsibility

The Kyo Protocol

By: Sarah Kyo

Posted: 1/23/08

As people get older, they encounter milestones along the way. They're signs of the increasing amount of benefits and responsibilities that come with adulthood and being part of the community.

I had such an experience during the winter break. On a dark and rainy Thursday morning, I waited at a bus stop in my hometown for a 7 a.m. bus that would take me and others to downtown Sacramento.

While most of the other people on the bus were probably commuting to their workplaces, I was on my way for a possible day at court.

While attending San Jose State University late last fall, I found out that my parents had received a letter in the mail, summoning me to court to possibly be selected to become part of a jury. I postponed my participation until I could return home.

For weeks, up until that time, I kept wondering whether I would become a juror, what kind of trial would it be and, more importantly, how many days, weeks or even months the trial would last.

Another thought that came to mind was what it would be like to serve on a jury. The film "12 Angry Men" sprang to mind.

My "Law & Order" moment, though, was far from dramatic.

I arrived at the courthouse by 7:45 a.m. and waited in line to check in with one of the workers. After filling out some paperwork and figuring out how to insert my name tag into the plastic sleeve, I took a seat, waiting to see if I'd be one of the chosen ones.

After a brief orientation, waiting made up much of the day. One group of potential jurors was called at 9 a.m., while another was called in after 10:30 a.m. In the meantime, the rest of us found different ways to pass the time. A few slept, while others read anything from a free alternative weekly publication to a "Harry Potter" book. I had brought along my copy of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility."

We were also shown one PG-rated flick after another. First came "RV" with Robin Williams. Then a couple of hours later, it was "Night at the Museum," featuring Ben Stiller and, yet again, Robin Williams.

At around 11:30 a.m., we went on a lunch break, temporarily free to leave the room - or, in some cases, the hallway, due to the overflow of prospects - and get some fresh air.

One-and-a-half hours later, I returned to finished up the movie. Apparently, the courthouse employees were waiting to hear if six cases needed more pools of potential jurors, so that meant another movie: "Elf," starring Will Ferrell but not Williams.

By the end of my stint at the courthouse, I learned a few things:

• How the Munro family survived its RV trip to the Colorado Rockies;

• How the exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History come to life each night;

• That the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

I was on my way to find out how Napoleon Dynamite tries to help his friend Pedro become elected as student body president when one of the workers announced at about 3:30 p.m. that we were no longer needed.

And then it was over.

An audible, collective sigh of relief could be heard in the room. I was a little dazed, thinking to myself, that was it? My civic duty consisted of all this?

Jury duty seems to have negative connotations for some people. I remember overhearing comments from nearby people throughout the day, exchanging stories of their ordeals and displeasure of spending their Thursday there. I'll admit that as a college student who is starting her final semester at a Bay Area university, I was worried about the possible inconvenience.

Now that I can take a step back and have more time to ponder it, I think jury duty, including the selection process, shouldn't be thought of as a "bad" thing.

Trial by jury was so important to the Founding Fathers more than two centuries ago that it is part of the U.S. Bill of Rights and part of the American legal system to this day.

The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires the accused in criminal cases to be given the right to "a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury."

Sure, the process to select jurors may not be speedy, but jury duty is an important responsibility of being an American adult - even if you have to watch kiddie films along the way.