- Bradon Salm,
ISU junior comuputer science major
NORMAL – The courtroom was freezing and the lights were bright., which caused the atmosphere to borderline on discomfort. With every little movement the chair I sat in gave a tiny squeak that cut through the silence of the room. Watching the attorney’s of the two involved parties battle of words made me feel like I was watching “Law and Order.” But this wasn’t television. I, like many U.S. citizens, had to endure the task of jury duty.
The process started in January 2011. I had narrowly dodged the first letter the McClean County Judicial Court sent me because I was a student and there was no way I was going to miss the first day of the spring semester. The court rescheduled my next appearance for the summer and I figured I would get lost in the system and wouldn’t have to report back. Of course, I was wrong.
Residents of McClean County get paid $10 a day and reimbursed $0.35 for every mile driven to the courthouse. After generously rounding up, I would make, at most $12 a day. I had to miss work, where I easily made more than that. This jury duty business was already on my nerves and I didn’t even know if I would actually be on a jury yet.
I thought I would be the only student who got stuck with jury duty, but there were a few other ISU students in the group. In groups of 12, we were taken to the jury box and put under oath. Representatives from the state, who were put in charge of the plaintiff, and the lawyer for the defendant began questioning us.
“Where do you work?”
“Do you regularly read the news?”
“Are you associated with anyone in the room?”
“Do you know either the plaintiff or defendant?”
Having watched a lot of television, I knew they were looking for someone who could be impartial and not base their opinions on what they read in a newspaper. They knew I was a reporter for the Daily Vidette. They knew I was a communications major. Therefore I reasoned they would skip over me because I was more likely to read the paper and be, in general, well informed. The only thing I was right about during this daylong process was being asked about my affiliation with the media. I thought I had it in the bag. I wasn’t in danger of having to come back the next day.
I just hate being wrong.
I was back in court the next day along with the 11 other jurors who also were just shy of escaping. The only thing keeping me from hating the position I was in was getting the chance to experience what a court case was like and, boy, this was an interesting case. I had the luck of getting a case with two 20-something males who were in a fight.
After the two men gave their testimony, the parade of witnesses began. My afternoon was filled with a bunch of “he said, she said” back and forth on the stand. I was easily the youngest juror in the box and listening to the witnesses talk about jungle juice was hilarious. Maybe this whole jury duty thing wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.
My experience as a juror lasted three days since it took 10 minutes to come up with a verdict. Those three days were an interesting experience, but something I never want to experience again. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of jury duty, it can be short and boring or long and boring, but either way it’s a waste of time. I voted in the 2008 election in McClean County and that sealed my tomb. I have relatives who have lived in the area for years and have never even been asked to appear.
In a few months I’m going to graduate and move back home where I’ll have to reregister for my home county, which will put me back into the system. Soon enough, I’ll be put back into that cold courtroom with the blaring fluorescent lights. In the dead silence of the room I’ll be in my head thinking, “This isn’t as fun as ‘Law and Order.’”