Jury Duty Class
JURY DUTY CLASS – July 15, 2024 – Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
The federal courthouse looked abandoned when Lexie Greene arrived early in the parking lot. She had seen the building many times from the outside but never been inside. She exited her car and followed a sidewalk toward the elaborate front entrance. A groundskeeper trimming bushes stopped her.
“You here for jury duty?”
“I sure am.”
“You go through the side entrance,” the groundskeeper said, pointing to an easily overlooked door. “Right down the hallway to the security check. I wish they would give you folks clearer directions.”
Lexie thanked him and found the long, dimly lit corridor leading to a station with a metal detector and X-ray scanner. A tired looking security guard suspiciously examined her large handbag.
“You have any phones, computers, or recording devices in here?”
“Oh no. I read the instructions carefully and left my phone behind.” Lexie reached in the bag and pulled out a large book filled with children’s stories. “But I didn’t see any restrictions on books so I brought this. I’m a third-grade teacher and I like reading out loud to my class. If there’s time today, I’m hoping to find some new stories they’ll enjoy.”
The guard ignored the book and replied, “I’m only here to check on weapons and electronics.”
Lexie made it past the inspection and walked into a meeting room filled with around fifty wooden chairs. One side of the room held a table filled with packaged snacks and bottles of juice. Two people were already sitting down. A third stood at the front of the room and introduced herself as Maria.
“Grab a snack if you’d like and pick your favorite chair,” Maria said to Lexie. “I’ll be your tour guide for today.” Maria had short hair and wore a skirt. She was not very tall but Lexie could tell from her commanding voice that she was used to ordering people around.
Lexie selected a bag of mini-cookies and nibbled as she watched more people arrive. After another twenty minutes, the room was packed with a perfect cross section of the local population. Lexie noted every possible age and race demographic. Maria’s voice grew louder as the room filled up. When she looked satisfied that everyone was present, she made some general announcements.
“I call my myself the jury wrangler. If you need to ask a question, you ask me. Don’t talk to anyone else you’ll see in the courtroom, including the judge, the lawyers, the defendant, or the defendant’s family. Be on your best behavior. You do not want a contempt of court charge.”
When Maria finished frightening the room, she played a video on a large TV screen. The video showed a Supreme Court justice thanking them for their service and reminding them that impartial peer juries kept the country fair and free. And everyone had an obligation to serve, no matter what else they might rather be doing. The video ended and Maria handed out slips of paper containing numbers. Lexie became potential juror number fifteen.
Maria ordered everyone to follow her in an orderly line into the courtroom. They arrived to find a judge sitting on a raised wooden platform and sets of lawyers around floor-level tables. Wood paneling covered all four of the room’s walls. The place was deathly quiet and intimidating.
The jury candidates filed into hard wooden chairs with Lexie somewhere in the middle of the collection. She strained to see a man wearing a poorly fitting gray suit, whom she assumed was the defendant, huddled next to two lawyers. Two women sat rigidly behind him. The judge finally spoke when everyone from the jury pool was seated and the door into the courtroom closed.
“I remind you not to discuss the particulars of this case while the trial proceeds. Today we will conduct jury selection. If you are one of the fourteen jurors selected, I anticipate you serving another ten days. Today’s selection process should finish up by 1 pm if everything goes smoothly. Now, I’d like for each of you to stand and introduce yourself. Tell us where you’re from and what you do for a living. You can add any other short detail you think is important. Let’s begin with number one.”
None of the prospective jurors said much when they stood. Lexie learned that the person sitting to her left, Garth Sanderson, was some type of high-powered vice president. He introduced himself with arrogant confidence. Sitting on Lexie’s right was a girl named Kimmie Dirac. She wore dark makeup and claimed to be a combination hair stylist and aesthetician. On the other side of Kimmie, underdressed in a muscle shirt, sat Lance Valhala. When it was his turn to speak, he shifted nervously as if he was on trial and explained that he was between jobs.
When Lexie introduced herself as a third-grade teacher, she thought she saw both of her nearest neighbors smirk like they were not surprised or impressed. Maybe Lexie felt overly sensitive, but those smirks seemed to imply she was not very interesting or fun to be around.
With everyone introduced, the judge made them hold up their right hands and swear to be fair and follow the law. Then the judge and lawyers abruptly stood and left the courtroom through a side door. It was Maria’s turn to take over.
“You’ll go, one by one, into a conference room where you’ll be asked some questions,” Maria explained. “Only speak when spoken to and we should get through this phase quickly. Juror number one, you’re up.”
The first candidate apprehensively followed Maria toward the conference room. Everyone else was left wondering how long they would be sitting there.
“I don’t have time for this,” Garth muttered to himself on Lexie’s left. “I’ve got million-dollar decisions to make. I better be outta here by 1 pm.”
“There’s no way I can be on this jury,” Kimmie whispered on Lexie’s right. “Was that judge serious about it taking ten days? I’ve got concert tickets for next week that I bought almost a year ago.”
Kimmie was not speaking to anyone in particular, but when Lance overheard, he wanted to know about the concert. They talked for a minute and then their conversation died away in the oppressively serious surroundings.
Garth adjusted in his chair, first sitting up straight and then slouching. He removed his watch and fiddled with the dials. “It’s moronic we can’t bring phones in here. At least then I could get something done,” he said in a voice louder than a whisper. He closed his eyes as if he might fall into a nap, but they quickly popped back open and he stared blankly into the space in front of him. On the other side of Lexie, Kimmie wore a similar expression.
“I almost forget,” Lexie said quietly. “I brought something to read.” She reached into her handbag and pulled out the heavy collection of children’s stories. She tilted it left and right to show both of her neighbors. “I’m happy to let you borrow it. We could take turns.”
“Is that a book for kids?” Garth asked cynically. “I’m probably a little too old.”
“I don’t mind reading stories as long as they’re true crime,” Kimmie added. “Or something a little more adult, if you know what I mean.”
“Let me know if you change your mind,” Lexie replied. She opened the book with a smile. A few minutes later, she giggled over the story in front of her.
Garth pretended not to notice. To pass the time, he pulled the shoestring from one of his shoes and threaded it back into the holes. Kimmie picked at the nail polish covering her thumb.
“Juror number two, they’re ready for you!” Maria announced from across the courtroom.
“They’re only on number two?” Garth asked in agony. “This is gonna take forever.” He tried slumping in his chair again and stared at the ceiling. Kimmie moaned and cried, “I think I’m gonna kill myself.”
Garth remained motionless for five minutes before leaning toward Lexie. “You know, maybe I wouldn’t mind a story.”
Kimmie overheard and added, “Me too.”
Lexie turned to Garth and said, “Since you asked first, I guess you get the book first.”
“I was kind of thinking you could read it out loud,” Garth replied. “Then we wouldn’t have to pass it back and forth.”
“Out loud? I suppose I could,” Lexie replied with a chuckle. “I do this kind of thing all the time in my classroom.”
Lexie turned a page and said in a soothing voice, “Okay, this one is about a rabbit, a fox, and a bear. You’d call it more of a fable than a story.”
As she began her narration, Lance leaned over and said, “Can you make it a little louder? I can’t hear.”
Lexie increased her volume a touch. All conversations closest to her stopped as people strained to listen. The fable ended with the rabbit outsmarting the fox and the bear. Garth nodded his head, chuckled slightly, and said, “That was pretty good. How about another one?”
Lexie smiled at the compliment. “It looks like the next story’s about a girl trying to make her school’s basketball team. When I read these kinds of stories in class, I try to do different voices so I’ll try some of that here.”
The prospective jurors sitting behind Lexie scooted their chairs forward and those in front scooted backward. “Can you read a little louder?” called someone five chairs away.
Lexie cleared her throat and began. Garth closed his eyes and his mouth curved into a grin as he listened. Kimmie barely blinked as she stared at Lexie’s moving mouth.
“Another one!” they cried at the end of each story.
By the time juror number ten was summoned to the conference room, someone seated near the edge of the chairs asked Maria if they could be rearranged in a circle with Lexie sitting in the middle. Maria took a look around the room like the request must be some kind of joke. When all she saw in return was pleading faces, she shrugged her shoulders and gave permission, as long as things did not get rowdy. Lexie stood up and her fellow jurors scrambled to rearrange the chairs. Gordon and Kimmie insisted they stay closest to the storyteller.
The confined audience was twice the size Lexie normally entertained and much older. But she pretended she was back in a classroom and facing the same kind of attentive faces. She read non-stop until Maria called her number.
“Here, you keep reading,” Lexie said, handing the story book to Kimmie.
“I can’t do the voices,” Kimmie protested.
“Just try your best.”
Every set of eyes in the room followed Lexie to the side door. She found the judge and lawyers looking tense inside the narrow conference room. They asked her about her taxes and debts she owed. Was she good with money? Had she ever been ensnared in a fraudulent phone or online scheme?
Lexie’s heart raced as she answered the questions. It was over before she expected and with relief she returned to the courtroom.
“It’s about time!” Garth called as Lexie shuffled to her chair. “You’ve got to take over again. Kimmie’s horrible.
“I told you I couldn’t do the voices,” Kimmie protested.
“It’s not about the voices. You pause in all the wrong places. Sometimes you’re too fast and then you’re too slow.”
“Well, excuuuuse me!” Kimmie cried.
“I’m happy to keep reading, but my mouth is so dry, I’m afraid I need a drink,” Lexie said.
Garth, Lance, and two other jurors hurried out of the room without worrying about contempt of court charges. They returned with a bottle of water, despite the no eating and drinking sign, and Lexie took her place in the reading chair after chugging the water. She read until Maria arrived to announced they were all being released for an hour-long lunch break.
“So much for being done by one o’clock. Looks like we’ll be here the rest of the day,” Garth said, but without the same disgust in his voice he used in his earlier complaints. He and several other jurors bought Lexie a sandwich and drink at a shop across the street from the courthouse and continued asking if they could get her anything else.
“How’s your throat? Well rested? Can you last the rest of the afternoon?”
No one thought to buy a book or magazine for themselves from the drugstore at the end of the block. Lexie returned to the center of attention inside the courtroom and put all her energy into storytelling. Jurors left the room one by one for interviews and the afternoon passed more quickly than the morning. Around 5 pm, Maria announced that the judge and lawyers were returning to the courtroom and all the chairs should be rearranged into neat rows.
“They’ll announce the fourteen of you who will be on the trial jury and the rest of you will be dismissed,” Maria added.
Kimmie turned to Lexie and said, “If I have to be on this jury, you better be on it too or I’ll pitch a fit.”
Lance, who addressed Lexie as Ms. Greene, declared that he would rather spend time in jail than be on a jury without her.
The judge and lawyers traipsed to their spots in front of the room and mumbled back and forth to each other. Then the judge began reading numbers for jurors who were dismissed and would not need to sit through the long trial. Lexie thought to herself that she might not mind sticking around. She enjoyed the celebrity status brought by her storytelling and could not remember a time she had been treated so respectfully by a group of adults. Her mindset about the trial had changed dramatically since the judge had first announced it would take ten days.
As the judge slowly called numbers, relieved candidates stood and shuffled toward the courtroom’s exit. Many of them paused to shake Lexie’s hand before disappearing. When the judge read Lexie’s number, a collective groan rose from the remaining jurors. It was so loud, an outside observer might have expected the judge to bang his gavel and shout, “Order in the court!” Instead, the judge and lawyers simply gawked at Lexie in confusion as she stood and politely made her way down her row of chairs.
Suddenly, Lexie stopped and returned to where Garth sat. She pulled the heavy story book from her handbag and handed it to him. “If you aren’t picked for the jury, maybe you can pass this along to someone who is. I figure they’ll need it a lot more than me.”
Garth smirked and nodded as he clutched the book. “Thanks Ms. Greene.”
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