I did not completed the process up to be a jury. What I experienced was worthy of the trip. It is not every day that I am invited to the courthouse. I can't talk about the sase itself but I think the outline of what happened could be told. I want to show that going inside of the courthouse isn't a curse.
First, there is the security point. My backpack with the content of my pockets did go through the scanner. Would had been nice to see how my bag and pocket content showed under the x-rays. I am curious by nature, so it would had been nice to see that. Otherwise, it was very fast to go throught this part. It was early in the morning. I probably had avoided the big rush.
I hit a closed door when going to the assigned room. After some wait, the doors unlocked. We enter and had to receive a paper with some information on it. There was some identification on it and I could use it to be reimbursed for my way there. Inside the room, time to sit and wait. There was a lot of people coming in. It took a long time to get every ones inside the room. The room was filled up, except the sides near the lawyers and the judge. The lawyers came too, for both side. Other personal of the courthouse came in.
After every ones was in and some further wait, the judge came in. She explained a few things and elaborated a bit more on some others. She also explained the case, aaming the accused ones and on what they had been charged. The witnesses and other people mandated to testified were enumerated. I knew none of them. If I knew someone on that list, I would had been excluded.
Finally, people were separated in two groups: those who could do jury duty and those who needed an excemption. Those whou could be on jury duty left their names and had to return the next day for the next step in the process.. Those who couldn't made it had to pass in front of the judge. It was done in a rectangular room, for privacy. The judge and lawyers where hearing the reasons why the person couldn't atted the trial. The judge was making the decision if the reasons were valid or not on the spot.
As I exited the courthouse, I found it a bit like a maze. I kind of lost track of my position even if the inside was more like a big box. Definitively not used to that place. I exited a bit before noon. This is not a place to be afraid of. The sicurity gaurd s were nice and helpful. I had a nice talk with a few others that were called too. The only downfall was the waiting, a lot of waiting. Maybe that next time, I will go a bit further on the process.
No comments:
Post a Comment