Asklemmy

I've gotten called multiple times and picked to sit on three. First two times I was picked the trial blew up and they scrapped things the first day. A lost VHS juror training tape (someone had moved it from the VCR... this was after VHS was a rarity) and a Juror that lied and claimed they didn't know one of the witnesses and had contaminated the jury, the judge was pissed. Threatened to hold them in contempt really throw the book at the juror who lied and wasted everyone's time and tried to pervert the legal system.

Third time got paid nothing (I believe pay kicks in after a certain amount of time? possibly 2 weeks I haven't looked in years? and uh it isn't much) disruptive to the schedule for a week but ones civic duty and I sure wouldn't want jurors who are aren't paying attention etc. if I was ever on trial. So of course multiple days into the case a witness takes the stand and I recognize them. Hadn't recognized the name was an undergrad in my graduate department years prior. I'm freaking out and wait for their testimony to finish then raise my hand and am asked to approach the judges bench. They call over the various lawyers for prosecution and defense. In hushed whispers I explain the situation. They all interrogated me about the nature of our relationship and agreed to continue the trial. We lost one person along the way from the jurors and then the final day another person failed to appear. This meant both alternates got to serve on the jury as opposed to having to sit through the entire trial and not get to decide in deliberations. Have two for that exact reason. So it was a disruptive week I got a story out of. One of my fellow jurors claimed to have once served on a 6 month trial where they got sequestered in a hotel with no outside news... a rarity but it can happen.

USA