| | CHANGED OUTLOOK | Jury duty changes Jamie McMurray's perspective | |
| | By Rea White / SceneDaily.com DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- Racing can broaden a driver's horizons and introduce him to a host of new experiences and challenges. But for Jamie McMurray, it was a recent stint of jury duty that has changed his thinking more this year than anything else.
The driver missed his appearance on the annual NASCAR media tour in January to serve on a jury in North Carolina. Now, as he prepares for the Daytona 500, the Roush Fenway Racing driver says that the experience was life-altering.
Introspective throughout career changes, McMurray has always seemed like the kind of driver that tried to understand the inner workings of decision-making. Serving on a jury seemed to only deepen that need to analyze and think about things.
He said that he got a dazed look from people when he first told people that the experience was "life-changing", but that he's still thinking about it.
"The case that I was on was very intense and I woke up this morning thinking about it because it was just an incredible case," he said. "It's incredible to me that they put 12 people in charge of someone's life or someone's future, but I was a part of that."
McMurray's case involved a man who was accused of assaulting a 10-year-old girl and was struck by the testimony.
"The testimony was, I don't know, touching," he said. "... It was super-intense."
He jokes that he was named foreman of the jury because there were 11 women on the jury and himself - and he let them use the men's room ahead of him. After that, he was named to the role.
Sharing the jury with people from a variety of backgrounds, including a first-grade school teacher, a truck driver and a dairy farmer was a somewhat surreal experience - and one McMurray says that he's glad he went through. But he's also glad it is over.
"You're actually in charge of someone's future," he said. "I wouldn't trade it, but I don't want to go back. If I ever get put back in that, I'll tell them I don't want to do it because I didn't realize how intense that was going to be."
McMurray also found that his racing career put him in an unusual position where the case was concerned. He said that people knew he was a race-car driver because when asked if he could be there for a certain period of days, he said that he would have to leave to go to the upcoming Las Vegas Motor Speedway test.
"So they found out I was a race-car driver and everyone kind of giggled in the courtroom," he said.
But then he had a more serious encounter. He was getting ready to head to lunch on the second day and was exiting the restroom when he was stopped - by the girl's father. He said that the man seemed to realize who McMurray was and then asked for an autograph.
"I'm thinking, 'I can't talk to you. You don't understand,'" McMurray said, so he told the man he didn't have a pen "because I really didn't."
McMurray said that he told the man he might be able to do it later. When he returned from lunch and was in the jury room, McMurray was summoned by the judge and asked if he had spoken with someone on the prosecution's side.
"And I'm like, 'Well, it wasn't really talking,' so I explained the whole story to her," he said.
The judge asked him if that would affect his decision and, once he told her no, the case proceeded.
Later, a couple of jurors brought him bottles of Crown Royal - his NASCAR Sprint Cup sponsor company - to sign. But for the most part, McMurray said he got to feel just like an average citizen.
"It was really neat, because I was in a room and I was a normal person," he said. "Even though they wanted me to sign stuff, I was a normal person and people didn't really talk about it. Yet, you're in a group of people that all have different occupations and it was nice to just sit there and listen to their stories and hear them talk about their families. It was a good experience."
While he admits it as nice to be just someone on the jury throughout this experience, McMurray also recognizes the things his career has granted him and likes the life he leads.
He is, however, now a huge proponent of civic duty as well.
"[I had] never been on a jury and I'm 31 now and I think it's good for people to go do that because it just makes you see how the world works," he said. "I never complain about taxes. I'm not a guy that ever complains about that, because I've been to Moscow and I've been to Mexico City and I've seen the way other countries are and we've got it pretty good here."
| | Posted February 10, 2008 , 12:03 am EST
Last Updated February 10, 2008 , 12:04 am EST | | | | | | |
