Thanks to one and all for standing guard outside my little shithouse this week.
I was called to jury duty again, and this time they actually required me to do something other than show up and wish I were elsewhere, running or riding a bike.
The judge sprung us Thursday afternoon, and though yesterday was my last official day in the three-week-long jury-selection barrel, I knew I would not get hauled in again. So I went for a leisurely 5K run. Today I’ll ride a bike.
And sometime later I will have some thoughts about my four days as a juror. Though Roy Blount Jr. beat me to a few of them in his essay “I Always Plead Guilty,” from the collection “What Men Don’t Tell Women.”
Especially when he wrote: “Fucking up also comes from doing things that deep down inside you know better than.”
So were you actually a juror on a trial? Or just in one of those interminable jury pools waiting to find out?
Yup, caught myself a trial. Only the second time I’ve been selected and seated; in the first, back in Bibleburg circa 2010, a cop’s error caused a continuance and we jurors were cut loose.
No such luck this time. Judge guessed we’d be in the shit from Monday through Thursday and she was spot on.
The open thread was interesting, so you’re welcome. I didn’t hold my nose at all.
I was on a jury for a domestic violence case where both people involved were dumber than a brick. I took notes, submitted questions, and listened carefully. When it was time for deliberations, the judge picked me as an alternate juror, at random, and excused me unless I was summoned. I still felt slighted as if my duty was somehow lacking. Now I am over 75 and can request excusal ’cause I’m an old fart. I intend to do just that if summoned again. Good on you for doing your duty.
Sounds like you did the bizniz there, Paddy me boyo. I’m glad to have finally participated … can’t say I was thrilled to get called, but I found the whole mind-numbing experience educational, occasionally exasperating, and frequently fascinating.
I did draw a broad red line when we were sent into the jury room to begin deliberations and a couple people started pointing at me, saying maybe Your Humble Narrator should be the foreperson.
“No, thank you,” I sez to them I sez. “I’m labor, not management.”
The last time I was called up for jury duty, I wanted to be chosen for the case. But the law is funny that way and it seems that those who want to exercise their citizenry rights, are booted out the door to freedom. Don’t call us, we’ll call you. But the next time I’m deep into an important project, I’ll probably get called and chosen for that case of unintelligent bricks.
I’m glad POG, that you are free from legal duty for a time and can now enjoy those tasks that the home boss has picked out for you. And a little riding and jogging too.
Plenty of people resist the call, for sure. A court staffer explaining the initial selection process said names are pulled from voter-registration rolls, driver’s-license info, and income-tax records.
“We used to only use voter registration,” she added, “but everyone quit voting so they wouldn’t have to do jury duty.”
Jaysis H., etc.
My last jury duty was a bad faith case against a propane provider. Three (3) days of testimony only to see a settlement had been reached. No lunches, damn little thanks,
next, I refused to drive 100 miles for federal jury duty and no marshal showed up to drag my carcass to court. So far so good in Albuquerque no summons to waste ,my time.
Y’know, now that you mention it, I seem to recall going through voir dire once in some civil dispute only to see it settled before there was any actual action. I can’t find any confirmation of it in the blog, so it could be a case of an old L-S-Dizzy episode making shit up again.
I suppose though, that when leaving a courthouse where a settlement has been reached while the jury was dribbling, a juror could excercise their free speech rights and scream loudly, “Settlement! I thought the scoundrel was as guilty as the judge that stunk up the courthouse restroom after lunch. Ipso facto.”
Last time I was called for jury duty was on a domestic violence case. That was back in Hawaii and like Pat’s trial, both parties seemed like they would be challenged to pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel.
In that one, I tried to get myself voir dired off the case because for quite a few years, both my parents were textbook examples of how to turn a marriage into trench warfare, so I tried to claim PTSD. But neither lawyer booted me and the judge almost accused me of being a wanker for trying to dodge the trial.
Well, I did end up being jury foreman. And we acquitted.
I’ve sat on two juries. Both were educational. One was a drug case and the other was just plain weird. The guy was suing his ex-wife for lost wages after she got him fired from a job (I think). She was illiterate and he was delusional. Very eye opening. He was supposedly a black ops guy or CIA operative or some crazy thing. We agreed with him however and awarded him some lost wages that she was somehow supposed to pay.
The drug case was an undercover cop buying drugs. The video that they had didn’t actually show the drug deal going down. However if you looked closely enough you could see the deal go down in a reflection on the windshield of the car.
I’m exempt from jury duty now as I’m taking care of my demented mother.