Dodged a Bullet

Today, I had my first brush with the legal system.

Technically, I suppose it actually began about a month ago with a short questionnaire, but today was the summons. To be more specific, and to begin yet another sentence with a parenthetical, I had jury duty today.

It wasn't too bad. There were two cases on the docket at the county circuit court. The first was a civil case, and only seven people (six jurors and an alternate) were empanelled. My call-in number was high enough that I didn't even come close to having to serve on that one. The other case was settled before voir dire. We then had to wait to see if the district court needed an "instant jury," which they didn't, and at 3PM we were dismissed.

At the beginning of the day (8:30AM), and later at 11AM, a number of returning jurors arrived. The woman running the juror's lounge and coordinating the orientation and selection process announced that they were dismissed, which was met with cheers. She chided them for cheering, joking that it was making a bad impression on us first-day jurors.

They had just been dismissed as potential jurors for the trial of John Allen Muhammad.