Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to court I go...

...for jury duty, that is.

Morning of March 13, 2006, I will be reporting to the San Diego Hall of Justice for the latest in what has been a long series of calls to jury duty. (I seem to get one about every two or three years.)

My first jury experience was at San Diego's United States District Court, during the 1980's. And that was the only time (so far) that I have actually been on a jury. I was alternate number 3 (of 4) for a trial of four defendants on marijuana smuggling and trafficking charges. Due to the number of defendants, it was a rather long trial and the first two alternates ended up being seated on the jury to replace members who had to drop out (for reasons I now do not recall). When the time came for deliberations to start, the judge told me and alternate 4 that in Federal court alternates do not sit in on deliberations, so we were sent home. I recall feeling rather frustrated about that!

A few years later I got my first notice for jury duty at San Diego County Superior Court, at the court's location in downtown San Diego city. That period and the next few times I received such notices, the jury services office and jury lounge were in the original downtown Central Courthouse, prior to the construction of the Hall of Justice immediately next door. At that time the Central Courthouse had both criminal and civil courts; the jury services office and jury lounge and a majority of the civil courts are now in the Hall of Justice.

I remember getting to the jury lounge and jury services office in the Courthouse was a bit of an adventure the first time I was there because they had somehow been placed between two floors of courtrooms. So, figuring out the needed sequence of stairs that first time was interesting! It's difficult to explain why this configuration was odd without going into long, rambling, detail, so I'll just have to say trust me that it was very odd. The point is that in the rest of the building there was nothing between those two floors of courts but the jury lounge / jury services office.

I was relieved to find with construction of the Hall of Justice the jury lounge for both that building and the Central Courthouse is on the first floor of the Hall of Justice and there is no mystery at all about finding it.

As I noted above, my experience in the United States District court has been the only time I have had any actual jury experience of any sort. During my visits to San Diego Superior Court, each and every time I have been sent with a panel of other prospective jurors to a court for the voir dire procedure, and am selected to actually be questioned for voir dire, I have been the very first person either the prosecutor or the defendant's attorney uses one of their peremptory challenges on, removing me from the panel.

I've never been able to figure out why the attorneys are so quick to remove me! But I decided the last time, a couple years ago, to stop worrying about it. But it will be interesting to see what happens this time.