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Posted by on Jun 23, 2009 in Current Events, Local |

Jury Duty

Monday I spent three hours at the Autauga County courthouse waiting to go onto a jury duty panel. Judge Sibley Reynolds told us that the jury selection process used to be “ten old men” who were selected to pick jury panels, and they placed names of potential jurors in a washing machine box.

Unfortunately, the slips of paper “were never fluffed up” or purged of old names, so they frequently had the same people in the panels.

Some surprises

  • the number of people who were called who either had excuses, were not qualified, or who were no-shows. If I recall correctly, 200 jurors were summoned and 89 were thereĀ  and qualified.
  • the number of lawyers milling around the courtroom that I knew.
  • the number of people in the jury pool I knew.

I guess I’ve lived in Prattville a long time. I was selected for a panel on Thursday, so on that morning I find out if I will be placed on a jury.