Jay Kersting's Blog

First off, thank you to Dean Morgan for filling in as I went to perform my civic duty yesterday.  Now the details......

I arrived at the Cole County Courthouse before 8:00am so that I could sign in.  Then we got to stand or sit around and wait while the sign in sheet was processed.  At around 8:40, we were called out to the hallway and given numbers as 55 people were called in to the courtroom.

I was number 13.  Some would view this as unlucky.  I looked at it as sharing a number with Wilt Chamberlain, Dan Marino and Alex Rodriguez.  OK, OK...rationalized it.

So, 55 of us are in the courtroom getting the voir dire process explained to us.  It is NOT like what you see on TV and in the movies.  It is a series of questions asked to the entire pool of 55.  When someone raises their hand in the affirmative, each person then must answer a series of procedural questions.  The process is designed to ferret out any biases that may exist. 

I raised my hand once.  It was a question about witnessing crime and police reports.  I had to recount a story from the time I worked as a Security Officer/Manager-On-Duty at a resort.  I caught a guy loading his car with towels and linens DIRECTLY from a maid's cart.  I grabbed his car keys and called for law enforcement to file a report.  The deputy sheriff was helpful and he kindly requested that I look through the car further.  I guess their might have been some washcloths hidden somewhere.

Never found any washcloths.  I did find three gallon bags of what appeared to be, and later tested as, marijuana.  Simply put, the officer thought their could be drugs, but he did not have probable cause.  I could, as a private citizen, search in an effort to recover resort property.  There was never a verbal exchange between my and the officer indicating that is what he wanted me to do, but I sort of figured it out.

Anyhow, when the panel of 55 was sent out on break, the conventional wisdom was that anybody who spoke would be dismissed.

We were wrong.

And because I was number 13, and they did go in numerical order, I was IN!!

We finally got a break for lunch at 11:20, which is late for me since my day starts at 4am, and 8 or 9 of the 13 jurors (12 plus an alternate) went to lunch together.  We did not talk about the case because that was against the rules, something that we were all acutely aware.  However, we did talk about the process. 

Boy did we talk about the process.  I have seen at least 75 percent of all varieties of Law & Order.  That does NOT make me qualified to be a juror.  But it does leave me blinded by how the process REALLY works.

In all honesty, it was an interesting experience.  This case was actually an interesing case, but getting through the evidence was a long and tedious process.  I think the jury understood why things had to be presented the way that it was, but it did not prevent yawns from time to time in the jury box.   

ANYHOW, it was a long day and we did not get out to deliberate until 7pm.  The first act of a jury when deliberating is to pick a foreman.  Not in our case.  They got us pizza so our first act was to eat.  While doing so, I was reading over the jury instructions.  Someone noted that and asked if I wanted to be foreman.  I said, not really, but if no one else does I would.

So, I was picked as foreman.  As I worded it while wearing my Tennessee polo shirt, "I guess I'll Volunteer, I am wearing the shirt."

I will not go in to details, but if you want to know, just ask.