Jury Service Oddities

This week, I was summoned to attend jury service. Though I constantly got shortlisted to be empaneled for juries on some mornings, I was never selected to be a juror (though I have been a juror on two prior occasions, whilst still living in Dunedin).

With the ever colourful idiosyncrasies of human nature being what they are, here are some truly bizarre highlights from this week:

Monday: The lady of Asian origins who ended up being a juror, but could not actually understand what was happening. She had to be replaced after the jury of twelve had already selected their foreperson. The judge questioned how this could happen and she was not amused.

A juror who had difficulty hearing; - the judge arranged for a court official to purchase headphones from Dick Smith's electronics, so that she could actually hear the proceedings.

Wednesday: The de facto couple who were both selected to appear on the same jury. Surely, there was pillow talk during this trial, but hopefully no domestic disputes erupted when they deliberated for a verdict. Myself, and a former work colleague who was also partaking in the jury pool, can not believe how this could actually happen.

The woman who's name was balloted to enter the jury box: - she asked the judge to be excused from the trial, as she did not feel able to take part in this particular case. The judge declined her request. Luckily for her, the defense lawyer subsequently issued a challenge, and she was thus eliminated from that jury. A replacement juror's name then had to be drawn from the ballot box.

Today (Thursday), another woman already empaneled on a jury of twelve, decided that once their respective foreperson had also been selected, she'd announce to the judge that she did not want to take part in the case, as her spouse/partner is a policeman. The defense lawyer then offered to expend his remaining "challenge". The judge declined the lawyer's offer, and stood the would-be-juror aside instead, A replacement juror then had to be selected.

Surely, most people who struggle with hearing, comprehension, or harbour some form of prejudice, declare this sort of information to the court officials before embarking on this stage in the proceedings.

There were multi-lingual signs plastered all over the jury assembly rooms, advising people to notify court officials of such issues.

All of this comical court entertainment helped, to sporadically humour the otherwise dull authoritative proceedings for us punters, who were there ... just biding our time and making up the numbers.