Jury Duty

Last May I received a summons to report for jury duty, something which I've never had happen to me before (but apparently is a fairly common experience for people living in Toronto). I couldn't make it then and was asked to choose a week in early 2023 when I could be available for jury duty. In the week after Easter and the semester ends, I'm not particularly motivated to do much of anything, so it seemed a good week to make myself available for something very different.

Leading up to the experience, I was hoping to get out of jury duty. After all, if I did, I'd then have the rest of the week free to catch up on all the odds and ends leftover from the semester! But the evening before, as I watched the recommended video about jury duty, God convicted me enough to help me be open to serving God and others in this way, recognizing that such an openness to serve is how I want to live my life, even if jury duty wasn't entirely my ideal for doing that. 

 

Monday morning I showed up at the Toronto District court at 8:30 and then I waited in a room with about a hundred other people. Around 9:30, they explained the process, and around 11:30 all of us received a questionnaire that let us know about the trial - it named those involved as well as the nature of the case (sexual assault) - and asked us for our connection to either, as well as asking about whether we had any hardships that would prevent us from being able to serve for 7 days on the jury, the anticipated length of the trial. (Note: Court is held from 10-4:30 each day, and the jury goes home at the end of each day, except at the end of the trial if they are still deliberating after the day ends). 

Around 12:30 we moved upstairs to the courtroom, the accused pleaded not guilty, and the judge addressed the potential jurors, explaining the whole process to us. The judge reminded us that though serving on jury would be likely be a hardship in some way for all of us, that this is a way we could serve our country (and there weren't many other ways that we were asked to do so). It felt a bit like being lectured by a teacher (with a bit of a parental guilt trip mixed in), but it was also part of the process of helping me to be open to serving God in this way. 

Potential jurors would be slected to appear before the judge in a random order of selection. As each potential juror appeared before the judge, the judge would look through their questionnaire to see if there was any significant reason they should not be involved in the case (the more detail we provided in the questionnaire, the fewer questions the judge would need to ask which would then be public to the lawyers and accused). If the judge thought they were fit to serve, the person would be asked a series of questions by the judge (to check for bias) and then each of the lawyers had the opportunity to choose to reject or accept the juror. This would continue until 12 people were chosen for the jury (along with 2 alternates).  

After convening for lunch, we returned to select the order in which people would appear before the judge for selection. People's juror numbers were chosen randomly. When the person came forward to get in line, their profession was announced (I was the only pastor in the first 60 people chosen). I was chosen 46, so I figured my chances of being chosen were about 20 percent. 

I spent the afternoon waiting again in a small courtroom with about 30 others (and wondered a bit about the inefficiency of the system). About 40 potential jurors went before the judge before finding enough people to serve. Those of us not chosen were then released around 4:30 and could go home, free from being called to jury duty for the next 3 years. 

I left, mostly thankful at being released, as it would have been an emotionally exhausting experience. But it was also a bit disconcerting and tiring: after a day of waiting and uncertainty and trying to open oneself up to the possibility of having to serve in this way, I had to let go of all those emotions and possibilities and return to regular life.