JerryKnight.com

So I got summoned to jury duty this week. In the past, I’ve been exempt due to being a student, but this time I was without excuse. I actually don’t think I would have loathed the experience, as most people do – in fact, it could have been quite interesting. After the usual waiting game, the judge and attorneys talked and talked and talked, searching for those in the jury panel who had some kind of bias. I consider myself too inexperienced to have formed any meaningful opinions, so I’m pretty sure I would not have been eliminated from the panel. After we left the room, they talked some more, deciding our fates, and once we came back into the room, they named off twelve people to be on the jury. Juror number 12 was the person sitting right next to me – talk about close! One more stricken juror and I would have been selected. Since I’m not actually on the jury, I never heard any actual evidence in the case, so I’m not prohibited from disclosing the details that were given during the jury selection process. Apparently, a 40-year-old mother of three tragically died 2 years ago. The grieving family planned her funeral, selecting a top-notch package from a local funeral home. Included in the plan was a vault (a cement box the casket goes in, required by the particular cemetary) and a “lowering” service, where the casket is lowered into the vault. For some reason (to be determined in the law suit), the lowering mechanism malfunctioned, and without going into unnecessary detail, panic ensued after the casket fell and broke. The law suit was filed by the family for mental anguish. Is that sort of unthinkable occurance worthy of a law suit against the funeral home and vault company? You be the judge, but I won’t be the jury.

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