jury duty

And not the fun little witty movie starring Pauly Shore. Today I did my first round with the infamous Jury Duty. My husband, beforehand, assured me that the first day is really just the morning. No...got there at 8:45. Assigned to jury panel that met at 10:00. spend the next 30 minutes waiting to get in the courtroom with 47 other people. Then spent the next hour and half listening to prosecutor explain certain laws and interrogate people who don't understand the concept of hypothetical questions. If someone says...the punishment for this crime is 2 - 20 years...would it be possible for you to consider that punishment, can you think of any possible set of circumstances where you could consider a punishment within that range, you can't say...I don't know I'd need to know all the facts first.

"No ma'am...we're not asking if you think this particular crime deserves a 20 year sentence, we're asking if you'd be open-minded about considering a 2-20 year sentence should the defendent be found guilty...could you consider it?"

"I'm not sure, I'd really have to have the evidence to determine that."

Am I the only one that understands that these people aren't getting it? I know it doesn't sound like much but after a grand total of 3 and half hours of people responding to questions like that, I wanted to gouge my eyes out. at about 3:20(we did stop for lunch), the judge asks us to take a 15 minute break then wait in the hallway and people would be called in one by one to speak with them. at 4:40 we were finally all asked to come back in. At which point we were told by the judge that after the break the attornies approached him to work out a plea bargain. A jury would not be needed after all. (sigh)...he explained to us that our answers and discussions that day had helped in determining the specifics in the plea bargain and the decision to do it at all. We had all provided a great service that day. I'm so glad.