Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:my spouse was on DC petit jury for 5 weeks, 3 days a week. it was a major burden on his work schedule.
That sounds more like a grand jury schedule--if it really was one trial, why did they do it that way?
Likely to reduce the burden in the jury and court. If it was a trial with children implicated facts and perhaps a lot of technical expert testimony, they might choose to spread it out rather than have a jury miss work for three straight weeks. Still very burdensome but allows people to not get too far behind (and allows people who work hourly jobs without leave to still fill a couple shifts.
A trial like that can also often have a lot of hearings regarding which evidence to allow or not and doing 3 days a week allows the court to have those hearings on days the jury isn't there anyway, rather than keeping them cooling their heels in the jury room waiting for that stuff to end so the trial can resume.
It would be unusual but I can see why a judge might choose that schedule under certain circumstances.