I was called for jury duty maybe 8 times, and actually served twice. In the first case, I was an alternate on a murder trial. The two guys got into a fight over $10, one guy ran into his house, came back with a gun, shot the other guy in the eye and killed him. I thought it was interesting, especially since the court had a translator for several of the witnesses because they were speaking ghetto English. I learned what a hoopty was.
The second trial was a civil suit, and I was foreman. (I wasn’t elected, but by virtue of being picked first and seated in chair 1.) It had something to do with a woman who answered a newspaper ad placed by a shady insurance company. The woman won the trial, but we didn’t give her as much as she wanted. This trial was great because the judge had retired, but was brought back by the city on a part-time basis to help clear the docket. He had lunch engagements every day, so we often had a 2 or 3 hour lunch break. We were walking distance from the [Baltimore] Inner Harbor, and there was a great used book store near the courthouse; it was almost like being on vacation. I stretched the deliberations out as long as I could.