Juror #5

Here has how the day played out.

I was at the courthouse by quarter till 9:00.

I met two new people. Life is strange that way. It is amazing the connections you can have with people if you just give it a chance.

My name was drawn out of the hat at quarter till 10:00.

After question/answer time - none of which pertained to me ( I couldn't even raise my hand to "Who watches CSI?") I was picked as juror #5.

At quarter till 12:00 we were dismissed for lunch.

We were all settled in the jury room by 1:00 sharp.

The bailiff told us the fridge was stocked with water bottles and pop. She offered to make us fresh coffee. I found it hard to believe that nobody was interested in that offer but me. That is when it occurred to me that I had no caffeine the entire morning. My head immediately started pounding.

We waited. And waited. We talked about McDonald's. (weird) We waited. We wondered if this was a repeat of the morning wait.

AND THEN! The Judge came into our room. With no robe. Which I found odd. Everything had been so formal up to this point. What the heck was going on.

He said that he had bad news and good news. The bad news was that there would be no trial. The defendant had decided to plead "guilty." The good news was that we all got to go home.

He said it is rare that the defendant pleads after the jury has been picked. He reassured us that we had done our job. The defendant must have gotten scared after seeing the reality of the jury.

I have to say that, after I was picked, I was looking forward to my spot in the jury box.

When it was all said and done I'm really bummed about the way the day turned out.