I'm halfway through a grand jury stint right now (Alabama), two different weeks M-F plus a Wednesday follow-up for each. Only $10 a day plus mileage, which is about a quarter of what I'd thought it was.
Grand jury's different because you're just screening cases to decide whether they're fit to see trial -- and the COVID backlog is absolutely massive. Every day there's a parade of cops outside who come in one at a time to run down the details of their case(s) -- maybe 1-2 minutes per case, 10 tops. We've worked about 24 hours so far and already heard close to 500 cases. I've got a legal pad jammed with abbreviated notes, one or two lines per case.
Most of them are pretty open-and-shut: confessions, video evidence, extensive paper trails. More than enough to stand trial, at least. We vote in a batch at the end of each day, and by then most jurors are so antsy to leave that there's very little debate.
By far the worst thing is that, while the process has basically been a rubber stamp for drug cases and assaults, the ~5 or so cases that weren't approved for trial on the most recent days all involved dismissing claims by vulnerable victims in abusive situations. Two women who claimed their boyfriends coerced them into sex while blackout drunk, and not one, not two, but three minor children who accused guardians of molestation. Two of whom were trans. It was especially disgusting because the investigator describing these cases (all were from the same guy) sounded overtly skeptical of the charges and obviously colored the outlook of the jury, which literally none of the other testifiers did. He made especially sure to mention the trans aspect, which was hardly relevant to the cases.
I did my best, y'all, arguing that with such serious charges I wouldn't be comfortable dismissing anything based on a few minutes of hearsay and that I'd want to hear from the victims and defendants directly instead of assuming they're lying and potentially sending a victim back home to their abuser. But grand juries only need 12 of 18 to reach a decision, and I could only get 4 to agree with me. So OP, pray you get regular duty so that if you do end up judging a serious case, you can actually have a decisive say instead of feeling like a helpless bystander.
