Jury Duty Redeemed

For those of you have been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember a particularly triggering experience I had during jury duty a few years ago. If not, please take a moment to read this post: My Civic Duty.  The cliff note version is that I was summoned to serve on a jury involving domestic abuse. In the course of the voir dire process, where lawyers question potential jurors in order to uncover potential biases, I had to give very personal details of my prior abusive relationship and rape in front of a room full of strangers. I was excused, but left the courtroom feeling very triggered and angry.

Fast forward to last week.

My Civic Duty

I am one of the many rape survivors who chose not to report her rapist.  I never went through the process of going to the police, testifying at a trial, and (hopefully) watching my rapist go to jail for his crime.  There are times when I deeply regret that decision.

Yesterday was not one of them.

I was summoned to my local circuit court for jury duty.  Ugh…I know.  Never have I seen an unhappier lot of people parading across the busy streets of my city and marching up the stairs of the courthouse.  At 7:30 in the morning.  Apparently, “well-rested” is not a quality we want in our jurors.

But I didn’t mind this time.  It came at a good time in the school year.  I had no meetings scheduled.  It wasn’t the first/last week of school.  I have a good class that behaves well for substitutes.  It was a sunny day and I had a brand new Louise Penny mystery in tow to while away the hours while I sat trapped in a large room with 250 strangers listening for my name to be called.