Jury Duty

Today I was summoned to the Butte County Courthouse in Oroville for jury duty. I was told to report at 8 am, which I did. After finding a park in an already very full parking lot, I lined up with the rest of the poor souls who had been summoned as well. We had to go through a security check that was more stringent than what you go through at the airport, and the bummer was we weren't going to end up at some wonderful vacation spot after being screened! I was overwhelmed with the number of potential jurors. Has Butte County seen a sudden surge in crime that I haven't heard about requiring such large numbers of jurors? I checked in and was lucky enough to find one of the few remaining seats on the hard benches that lined the hallway. The jury assembly room was completely full and the hallways, that were the length of about 2/3 of a football field, were completely packed. We sat there until 10 am (that 2 hours of waiting), before a gentleman came out and made a general announcement regarding how the day was going to proceed. Basically when your group number was called you were to go into the courtroom. About 1/2 later, 10:30 am they came out and gave the first round of group numbers. My number was not called. By this time my butt was really beginning to become uncomfortable. Thank goodness I had my 1200 page Diana Gabaldon book with me, because it was starting to look like I might just finish it before my group number was called. Well, we sat and we sat and we sat, and we sat some more and before you knew it, it was 12 noon and still no more groups were called. We had been told that our lunch would be from 12 - 1:30, but we couldn't leave until we were given permission. Let me say that I was not the only one beginning to feel quite testy. Everyone was becoming quite verbal in their disgust regarding how their time was being wasted. At 12:10 pm the gentleman who calls out the group numbers appeared and everyone believed that he was showing up to give us permission to go to lunch. My stomach was ready and making its need know quite loudly. But no, he doesn't excuse us, he calls all the remaining group numbers. I would say there were approximate 100 of us. We were instructed to pile into one of the courtrooms. The entire courtroom was filled with standing room only with all the remaining potential jurors. In the center stood a man in a pair of khaki pants and plaid short sleeved shirt. He proceeded to introduce himself as the judge and apologized for his casual dress (like any of us cared!), but he wasn't scheduled to hold court today. He then proceeded to tell us that there were three cases that they needed jurors for today. The first case had an enpaneled jury derived from the first group numbers that were called earlier. The remaining two cases were homocide cases, yes murder, pictures of dead bodies who have died probably a violent death. I immediately looked for the nearest exit as I tried to construct a reasonable excuse for not being able to serve. He then told us that for one of the cases, the person charged had gone a little crazy and was currently being restrained in the jail and he had changed his mind and wanted trial by judge. Okay, one down, one more to go. He then proceeded to explain that the reason why so many people were summoned because with murder trials it takes more people to find jurors who can serve on a murder trial.. He then proceeds to tell us that at the minimum the trial would last 2 - 3 weeks and at the maximum it would take 3 months. Yikes! I've got kids starting back to school in 3 weeks and my work starts shortly thereafter. I'm beginning to really worry. Then this a**h**e, after giving us all these details and making us believe that we were the jury pool for this murder trial, then said that the deputy district attorney had taken sick and was in the hospital and that we were all free to go and that we would be called again in a year. It took everything in me not to jump over the little half wall that separated me and him and strangle him!!!!!! Why couldn't they have sent the group number guy out to the hallway and simply thanked us for our time and sent us on our way at noon? Jury duty sucks and I'll never do it again. Dan said that he will gladly pay any fines if we get summoned again. It seems to me that it would make so much more sense if they would have groups show up at staggered times throughout the day. Why have everyone show up at 8 am and have over 100 people sitting on their rear ends on hard benches for 4 hours and 10 minutes! Typical government bureaucracy. They screw everything up and we want to elect people to congress and the presidency that want to increase government intrusion into our private lives. We are slowly becoming a country that is completely bereft of any common sense.