My 6th day, I got to watch my first jury trial. Jury trials only happen in Superior court, so I headed up to the 4th floor and parked myself in room 401 with Judge Collins. I was with a law intern who was blind and his guide dog Howard. The lady plead not guilty, so they had to bring in 36 jurors and begin voir dire. Voir dire is the process of jury selection where they ask jury members questions in order to determine whether or not a juror will be neutral in the trial. Halfway through the trial, after vior dire the clerk looked up the defendant’s record state-wide. She found out that the lady had 3 outstanding warrants for arrest on her record, and so Judge Collins had her served for the warrants right then and there.
In the afternoon, I learned about the organization of the files and paperwork done by clerks. “Shucks”, or the folders they keep peoples’ trial paperwork in come in 4 different colors: gray, white, brown, and yellow. Grey is for a simple traffic infraction, white I for misdemeanors, brown is for major traffic infractions, and yellow is for DWI. 