jury duty

September 14th, 2024

This week, I reported to the Brooklyn Supreme Courthouse for my first-ever jury duty assignment. Despite its reputation as an inconvenience, I felt unexpected excitement when my summons arrived. My mind immediately went to Jury Duty the television show, which had quietly shaped my understanding of how the court system worked. I realized then that my understanding of civic life had come almost entirely from television and film, so I was keen to see the details in real life.

I can’t say much about the case itself, but one unexpected but cool aspect of the whole experience was the strange familiarity that developed among people in the same juror pool. After hours together in the waiting area, we were called into the courtroom and roughly half of the group was summoned to the jury box for questioning. The judge asked each and every candidate a standardized set of questions, revealing details about their lives—name, occupation, length of NY residence, members of household, prior exposure to crime.

Taken altogether, the answers sketch a faint silhouette of each person’s life—just enough to make it difficult to think of them as complete strangers. The process is, of course, intentional: attorneys are looking to assemble a jury that appears fair and impartial. Still, there was something faintly intrusive about knowing these minute details. That someone had lived in Prospect Heights for fifteen years, owned a restaurant, or had two children in elementary school.

I was excused by the judge on the second day. The trial was slated to last two weeks, and while I felt mostly relieved, I left with a sense of having departed the party just as it was about to begin.