I had to call the night before. They said I should go in so I did. They sat us in a room and gave us stickers saying we’re jurors and referred to us by daily numbers and we watched an orientation video. Then we sat in that room for about an hour waiting for the court to get ready. Then once it was, they guided us upstairs and 14 of us were turned into a jury panel while the rest of us were the jury pool or something.
The judge gave us an overview of the case. Who the defendant was, their charges, and made it clear that these charges were not evidence and nor should they be considered as anything indicating guilt.
The judge asked the jury panel a few questions, and said that all of us in the jury pool should think about our answers. After the Judge’s questions, he can dismiss someone for cause, then pull someone out of the pool to replace them and continue questioning. Anyone dismissed was free to check out and leave.
Then the prosecutor asked questions. Stuff about the case, our experiences, what we look for when listening to witnesses and what we look for as evidence. What we consider “beyond a reasonable doubt” means. Then when he was done, he let the defense ask questions. He asked similar ones but while the prosecutor was looking at bias against the evidence or the kinds of witnesses (cops), the defendant looked more for bias in favor of those.
Once both were done, the judges can move to dismiss for cause if they have cause and they also had a number of free dismissals they could use for whatever reason. If they dismissed anyone, they called more people from the pool then questioning started with prosecution again and then the defense and so on.
Repeat until both council either choose not to dismiss anyone or presumably are out of dismissals, they then choose that jury panel as the final jury. Everyone else could check out while the jury stayed and presumably got some more detailed info.
I wasn’t part of it. We went down to the room we started in and checked out. They told us we had no further obligations during the rest of our serving time (which was stated on the summons) and we didn’t need to call in again or go in. If you needed a sheet to show you went for your employer, they would give you one.
Our payout was less than 20 bucks for that day. But it was above 20 for any subsequent day serving.
I’m a woman now.
Well 15 year old me, you’ll figure it out in about two years.