By Haley Haman
It took four long days of lawyers questioning 90 Pinellas County citizens to decide that I would not be a good juror.
On the first day, the judge explained the jury selection process and the rules about not sharing any information until the trial is over. We, the potential jurors, knew little to nothing about the case, but based on the attorneys sitting in front of us, could assume that a family was suing three doctors.
There was no evidence or facts presented at this point. The lawyers took turns each day asking a variety of questions.
“Number 32, Mr. … uh, Mr. Jones, do you think you could leave your feelings at the door and make a decision based only on the facts we provide?” asked one attorney.
Mr. Jones then took 10 minutes to describe his life story about how his daughter was sick and how they could have sued the doctor for misdiagnosing, but they didn’t and for that reason, he didn’t know if he could be neutral.
Mr. Jones got to leave the next day because he leaned toward the plaintiffs.
The hard part about the questionnaire is that you’re supposed to answer as honestly as possible while remaining as neutral as possible.
The attorneys had questions prepared before they stood in front of us. I was there for 4 days, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., before I was dismissed.
The 90 jurors eventually turned into 18 after questioning was done and the attorneys made their selections.
One question that really stuck out to me was the following: “This case is involving an award of millions of dollars, would you feel comfortable awarding that much money to a family?”
I was stuck on this for a while and found it hard to say “yes” or “no” because we didn’t know any facts about the case.
We didn’t know the injury that the daughter had. We knew nothing.
I also found it hard to believe that the three defendants’ jobs were on the line. I didn’t think it was my place to ruin someone’s career.
I spoke up about this because I didn’t want to end up being chosen and then have to make a life-altering decision.
Unfortunately, my time to serve isn’t now due to school and work. I hope to someday be called again to be a juror and fulfill my role as a citizen of this country.
Header photo courtesy of Robert Couse-Baker
