Just finished Jury service all the way through for the first time.

For the last few weeks, I've been experiencing firsthand the process of jury selection, empanelment, and trial, as a juror who was selected to hear a case and render a verdict. Now that it's finished, I thought it might be worth documenting for anyone else who is curious.

The process, in the United States, starts by making random selections from a database composed of persons who have driver licenses, identity cards, voter registrations, or other documents that indicate they are of age to serve as jurors in a case. A "speedy and public" jury trial is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in all cases where a jury trial is warranted or guaranteed. Which often means a lot of trials, and subsequently, a lot of persons will be called for jury service over the course of any given calendar year, for trials that can be at any level of jurisdiction of the court. Generally, courts attempt to have the trial in the smallest court level that has appropriate jurisdiction for the offenses charged against the defendant (or of the complaint made by one party against the other), so while it is rare that a person may be called for jury service at the federal jurisdiction level, it is not rare that a person will be called for jury service.

( And the process begins! )

I hope this was informative as a look about the jury process in the United States, from the perspective of someone called to jury service, empaneled, and then sworn to a jury in a trial. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.