HURRY UP AND WAIT

 

I hurried back from Wellington to get to jury service on Monday.

On Monday I left the house early to get to town, find a carpark and get to the court on time. Once there all 100 of the call-up pool were hurried along to the jury room to wait. And wait. And wait.

After a long wait an announcement was made of two upcoming trials - one for a duration of 3 weeks and one for 1 week. The details of these cases were made known and, eventually, names were called out for potential jurors for the first case. Many were rejected i.e. challenged by the defence and prosecuting lawyers or were excused by the judge on application. It took a long time.

The remaining pool was then, after a long break, hurried along to the second courtroom to .... wait while the court personnel got things ready, the accused brought in. the judge to arrive and for charges to be read out. The second ballot was then made with the accompanying challenges and excusals. 

The last of the pool was then hurried along to another waiting area to ... you guessed it ... to wait. After a while an usher told everyone to go home but to check on-line or phone in that evening to see if they were needed the next day. I went home and in the evening checked to see if I was needed the next day. I wasn't but had to phone in or check on-line to see if I would be needed for the rest of the week. No-one was and the remaining jury pool was thanked and excused.

The exercise was convoluted and in need of some streamlining but I guess that tradition is involved and the Justice Department is wary of making changes. I have no real complaints though as a large pool is needed in order to select good jury panels (12 each) after objections and excusals. To be honest, I was glad to have not been selected as both cases were sexual assault and rape cases which can be dire to sift through the evidence. The first, the three week one was the most dire involving hundreds of charges of rape, coercion, brutality and assault over many years. It's a high profile case and is being reported on in the media. The second case, the one week one involves sexual assault and rape of a minor along with illegal drug use and coercion. This one, also dire is likely to be a 'he said/she said' one that a dithering jury could fail to reach a verdict on. I'll watch this in the news.

I can 'watch this in the news' as I wasn't selected so wasn't sworn in which would mean I would not be allowed to read about it or to search the internet. I watched the selected jury stand and each were asked to swear an oath or make an affirmation. The ones who 'swore' had to hold a bible in their hand. About 9 of them did so with the others sensibly leaving the bible where it was and made an affirmation that they would uphold the truth, not look up the internet etc. It was interesting and I wonder how much longer this silly 'god stuff' can last in modern society.