Has anyone here been on a jury?

[Kristin]

Hi All~

 I've been on jury duty these past two weeks and I was wondering if 
anyone here has ever been on a jury themselves and what they thought 
of it. Also wondering if they have jury duty in other countries. 

So far my experience has been interesting. I sat on a trail that 
ended yesterday but I didn't get to participate in the diliberations 
because I was the alternate. Of course you don't know that when the 
trail is on going. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I 
found some of the cross examination to be amusing. I wasn't the only 
one, the judge and at least one of the cops was trying not to giggle 
from time to time. 

For those of you who might be horrified at giggling in court let me 
explain. This is Metro Court which is a combo of magistrate and 
county court. My mom calls it training court. Most of the lawyers are 
fairly inexperienced, and in the prosecution's case they had a 3rd 
year law student interning and was doing some of the cross 
examination. Needless to say he's not very skilled in questioning 
witnesses. This coupled with the crotchety and slightly eccentric 
defense lawyer's objections made it a bit humurous at times.

Anyway now I'm back in the jury pool and could be picked for another 
trail again on Thursday or Friday so I may have more adventures in 
court.

Cheers,
       Kristin