Jury Duty
Dear Garrett,
Congratulations on receiving your first Jury Duty Summons!
A Jury Summons is something that all registered voters may receive from time to time. You began voting when you were 18. Now, three years later you have received your first summons.
You are Juror number 385. Your summons notice says that you are to call the day prior to your summons date to see if you are still scheduled to appear. Sometimes a case is settled “out of court” which results in a cancellation of the scheduled trial. Sometimes a trial date is reset by a motion filed by one of the participating attorneys. If neither has occurred, you will be expected to be at the courthouse the morning of the appointed day.
Both attorneys will be looking at you to determine if you are a good candidate to administer a favorable ruling on behalf of their client. You will fill out a form which will provide the attorneys with some basic information about who you are as a person. The attorneys will look at this information and either release you from consideration as a juror of hold you at the courthouse for questioning. If they like your answers, you will become a juror. Simply relax and answer the questions truthfully.
You will be paid to serve as a juror. It won’t be very much — far less than you would make in a day at your job. Serving is not something we do to make money — it’s what we do to make and keep our society civilized and strong.
Serving as a juror is an important function. A jury is a group of people used to look for and determine truth in a legal matter either criminal or civil. A judge can actually decide a matter but often a person on trial would rather that case be decided by several persons rather that a single person.
As a juror, you will be looking for truth pursuant to the matter at hand. Evidence is important when seeking out truth. It is the job of the attorneys to present to you all the evidence they can provide the jurors with on behalf of their respective clients. Of the two clients present in the courtroom, one will be called a plaintiff and the other a defendant.
Truth does not always prevail in a courtroom though that is the intention. A courtroom is a good place for truth to be revealed though sometimes it is missed. I like your Confirmation Verse — the one given to you when you were in the seventh grade at Zion Lutheran School. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
While at Zion, you were taught that God gave us the Spirit of truth. It’s actually the presence of God’s presence inside us. It’s called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in everyone though some people listen to the voice/counsel of the Holy Spirit while others do not. You will be able to use the voice of the Holy Spirit within you to make important decisions in the courtroom as a juror. Some people there will be telling the truth about the case at hand while others will not tell what truly happened. When someone tells an un-truth, it is called a lie. A lie told in a courtroom is called perjury.
TBC…