Post Florida is Literally Murder
by Steve West on May 23, 2025
After Brenda and I spent a wonderful week in Sarasota with Scott and Kelly, I, a little regretfully, returned to Maryland, I made a little scrapbook with pictures of our trip, and sent it to Florida. Good times I'll cherish. BTW, I'm now addicted to Peach Crush.
Catching up on mail, I called the number for a jury summons shortly after our return and learned I had to report for duty the next day. So, for the last week I've been a juror in a murder trial. This was the fourth time I've been summoned for jury duty, but the first time actually called to serve as a juror. For this case, they called for ninety prospective jurors, and I was assigned number "42". After several people were eliminated through the process of voir dire, 16 people were selected ending with juror number "44". I seemed to be in the group of alternates. One juror misunderstood the stated potential length of the trial (at least four days, not the 1 day he was expecting) and claimed hardship and was therefore dismissed. 16 became 15. One other juror requested dismissal because of hardship as he was the only parent who could drive his children to school (his wife didn't drive, and no friends could substitute for him). The judge granted his request for dismissal and15 became 14 for the duration of the trial.
To be continued...
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