Jury Duty – in general

I started jury duty on November 7th. My last day was December 14th. Over the course of those 6 weeks I would have to go to the court 21 different days and spend 30 hours over the last 2 and a half days deliberating. While parts of it were interesting, and some parts were pretty intense, the majority of the time was filled with agonizing tedium.

I live in Astoria, so I went to the Queens County Court House in Kew Gardens – which took me about an hour to get to (and involved transferring from the N/W train by getting off the train and walking a block to the E train).

I didn’t think I would be selected for a jury. Last time I had jury duty I was eliminated very quickly and was sent home after 2 days. This time, about half way through the selection process I thought to myself “they are picking me” and I was right. A part of me didn’t mind. I am unemployed, and a few weeks on a case might be kind of interesting.

During the jury selection process the lawyers have about 20 minutes each to ask you questions. They can’t get into details about the case but they do give you a general idea. This case was a murder case (2nd degree) and involved two defendants (each with their own lawyer) neither of which actually killed anyone. But if you act in concert with someone you are as guilty as the person who actually did the killing. So this case was going to be attempting to prove that the defendant’s had no prior knowledge that the victim was going to be killed.

The jury selection process didn’t finish until Nov. 14th, so the case finally began on the 15th. That means a week had already gone by, and a majority of that time I sat in the jury room reading waiting for the lawyers to pick the rest of the juror’s.

When the case began we learned the exact accusation. I am not going to use names to limit google-ability of this entry, but I will keep the facts as accurate as I remember.

The victim showed up at an after-hours club around 2:30 am, but they were not open yet so he was sent away. After that the owner of the club (defendant #1) called in and was told that the victim had come by. A little later that night the owner showed up with the third man (not on trial). After the club opened (4 am) the victim returned. The owner talked to a bouncer (defendant #2) and the third man. The bouncer and the third man then took the victim outside the club, then down the street where the third man put the victim down on his knees, put a gun to his head and shot him.