Jury Panel Selection - Part 2

So, as usual, I was very concerned with being prepared for the day of selection. I looked up a lot of info about the courthouse, parking, etc. I found this page from the BC AG office with some basic info. Not much else I could find about specifics, so I decided to a) Skytrain since it seemed the easiest for parking and b) to get there early.

Neither of my concerns turned out to be relevant (as usual...) as I think parking would have been fine, and being early didn't seem to be a requirement at all. When I arrived, the officer at the main door directed me to the second floor landing where there is a large waiting area for potential jurors to wait until selection begins. I was the second person there.... a little early to say the least. Good thing I brought a book, as there is not much to do. While I waited, more and more people arrived until finally the large waiting area was quite full. That is one benefit of being early, you get a good seat. The vast majority of people were there for jury selection, although there were a couple of small groups that were apparently currently on a jury as they seemed to know each other a bit and exited together.

A while later, a couple of Sheriff's officers brought out a small desk. They didn't really announce anything, but people slowly and sporadically started lining up in front of the desk. The line moved relatively quickly, and it turns out that this was the 'sign in' line. Once at the front, they ask for your name and the jury summons sheet with your juror # on it, they cross your name off, and you go back and sit down. It took a while for everyone to be checked in, and again, in the meantime, I read.

Finally, when the line was done, the one officer finally spoke. First he asked that anyone that hadn't already been signed in, please do so. When no one else came forward, he mentioned that originally there was to be four juries selected from our group; however, that number had dwindled to two juries - and that one of those two may be dropped still. I believe he also mentioned that we were a smaller group than usual (about 75 iirc) due to the low number of possible juries. He then went on to explain in detail about what the process would be once we were in the court room. Finally, he said there would be a slight delay as we waited to hear whether the second jury selection would take place.

After another delay, the Sheriff returned and indicated that there would only be one jury selected today. Once the applause died down ;-) and we had another short delay, we were finally led into the court room.

More to come...