Q4 2005 I received a court summons to appear for jury selection. I didn't have a legitimate excuse not to attend and I felt a sense of duty to appear and participate in the jury selection process. On the other hand, a month later, my father received a similar summons. His response? Book a flight to visit his ailing mother in southeast Asia and forward the itinerary to Jury Management. I guess that's kind of legitimate . . . but whatever. Jury selection took place today. The early procedure goes something like this:
- Names get drawn "randomly" from voter lists, phone directories and problem citizen lists (they probably found me here because I'm always at the courthouse for some reason)
- Basic elegibility: 18+, resident of Alberta, never been convicted of crime for which potential penalty is jail time of one year or more.
- Return a form . . . either with excuses or with your occupation and language profeciencies
- Appear on the designated day at the courthouse. In Edmonton, I believe that jury selection always happens in courtroom 317 in the Provincial Law Courts building, #1, Sir Winston Churchill Square
- Watch a corny video
Then it gets a bit more interesting.
- Some intro, cases presented one at a time including scheduled time period for trial, the crime, the defendant and, sometimes, the lawyers involved.
- Drawing of twenty names at a time from a metal bin by the court clerk.
- Those drawn walk up to the front and have an opportunity to explain why they may be unfit for the job
- Reasons include personal knowledge or involvement in the case or to witnesses, timing of case may adversely affect livelihood, medical condition, severe hearing impairment, or lack of proficiency in the language in which the procedings will take place
- Those remaining get called up one at a time and prosecution counsel and defense counsel each get a chance to accept ("content") or reject ("challenge") the juror candidate.
- Prosecution and defense each get one "challenge" veto per juror required (twelve plus two alternates for criminal trials, six plus one [I think] for civil trials). Counsels have access to each potential jurror's stated occupations and can see the potential juror
- Process repeats until each jury is filled
Today, five juries were being selected, all for criminal trials. Approximately three hundred fifteen potential jurors were present. The crimes, in order in which juries were filled and scheduled trial length in days, were first degree murder (15), manslaughter (10), sexual assault (5), sexual assault (4 . . . I guess this sexual assault wasn't as bad?), and aggravated assault causing bodily harm (4). My name was drawn for the first and second cases. As it turns out, a tenant of one of my family's buildings was prosecuting in the case of first degree murder and my friend was prosecuting in the case of manslaughter and I was excused from both for those reasons plus the fact that both trials would run right through Bridal Fantasy on January 22nd which I am doing a fair bit of large format printing for. The trials all commence on Monday, January 16, 2006 though for two of the trials, a jury was not required to convene until Tuesday.
My name didn't get drawn again. I hope that I get an opportunity to serve on a jury in the future.
