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I've been away from the net for a few days for a several reasons.
a) My old computer decided to retire to its death bed. It still works for a few minutes at a time. But I know the signs and I'm typing this on a new computer I just installed. This new keyboard is going to take some getting used to.
b) My car decided after umpty years to spring a leak that will need fixing soon. I know what the problem is. It can wait for a little bit, but not long.
c) I had jury duty starting late last week.
As disturbing as the first two have been the last one has been a doozy. They have built an entirely new courthouse since the last time I had jury duty here. They now have free juror parking, but it's more than half a mile away from the courthouse. So they also have a free shuttle bus for the jurors which doesn't come by very often. I guess we're supposed to be used to waiting around outside in 105F degree weather.
I was lucky. I was in the third panel called. It was a big panel, 97 prospective jurors. This should have suggested it was expected to be a long trial, but I had no idea till we went into the courtroom and sat down. We were warned in the hallway not to show any emotion. But again I had no idea.
The judge greeted us after we were seated and gave us a summary of the charges. As Janice from Friends would say, "OH...MY...GOD!" I kept the lower part of my face still, but my eyebrows involuntarily shot up. A young adult woman was accusing her father of a number of horrible crimes, the *least* of which was having sex with her multiple times when she was underage, resulting in her having a child. The rest of it wasn't as clearly spelled out in these preliminaries, but it was clear the defendant could be facing spending most of the rest of his life in prison.
The next little surprise was that the defendant is going to act as his own attorney. I know it is fashionable for people waiting in jail to study law to pass the time, but considering the seriousness of the charges, this was nuts. Maybe he didn't qualify for a public defender, and the cost of a private attorney might well ruin him. But without proper representation he likely is ruined anyway, whether or not he's guilty.
Looking at the schedule, we learned the trial may last a couple months starting in October. When they started interviewing the jury panel, people were using any excuse they could think up to be released, and I really don't blame them. I wanted an excuse to get out, but I wasn't going to lie, either. You would be shocked how many people out of a random 97 claimed they were going to be out of the country during the trial dates. And they let them go, these people and people who pleaded other problems. It was obvious they didn't want any jury members who couldn't stand being there. It got to the point, they were dismissing so many people, I felt it was my duty to stick around.
They got to the end of the preliminaries and the judge told us to return late in the afternoon yesterday. As I guessed, yesterday morning they brought in more potential jurors to go through, 45 this time. I guess this group wasn't as desperate to head for the exits as most of them were still left when those of us from last week arrived. We gave our individual statements about job, family, and jury experience, and very soon the judge released the last dozen numbers of yesterday's jurors. They spent a half hour picking the jury from the rest of us. When they announced the jury, I was so pleased that I'd been skipped I couldn't help smiling. It ended with another big surprise. It was a difficult jury to pick and a long trial should be ahead... But *no* alternates were selected. Heck, there was an alternate on the jury I served on that only lasted three days. I suspect they knew something, and I'm guessing that trial will never take place.
The wheels of justice, yikes!
a) My old computer decided to retire to its death bed. It still works for a few minutes at a time. But I know the signs and I'm typing this on a new computer I just installed. This new keyboard is going to take some getting used to.
b) My car decided after umpty years to spring a leak that will need fixing soon. I know what the problem is. It can wait for a little bit, but not long.
c) I had jury duty starting late last week.
As disturbing as the first two have been the last one has been a doozy. They have built an entirely new courthouse since the last time I had jury duty here. They now have free juror parking, but it's more than half a mile away from the courthouse. So they also have a free shuttle bus for the jurors which doesn't come by very often. I guess we're supposed to be used to waiting around outside in 105F degree weather.
I was lucky. I was in the third panel called. It was a big panel, 97 prospective jurors. This should have suggested it was expected to be a long trial, but I had no idea till we went into the courtroom and sat down. We were warned in the hallway not to show any emotion. But again I had no idea.
The judge greeted us after we were seated and gave us a summary of the charges. As Janice from Friends would say, "OH...MY...GOD!" I kept the lower part of my face still, but my eyebrows involuntarily shot up. A young adult woman was accusing her father of a number of horrible crimes, the *least* of which was having sex with her multiple times when she was underage, resulting in her having a child. The rest of it wasn't as clearly spelled out in these preliminaries, but it was clear the defendant could be facing spending most of the rest of his life in prison.
The next little surprise was that the defendant is going to act as his own attorney. I know it is fashionable for people waiting in jail to study law to pass the time, but considering the seriousness of the charges, this was nuts. Maybe he didn't qualify for a public defender, and the cost of a private attorney might well ruin him. But without proper representation he likely is ruined anyway, whether or not he's guilty.
Looking at the schedule, we learned the trial may last a couple months starting in October. When they started interviewing the jury panel, people were using any excuse they could think up to be released, and I really don't blame them. I wanted an excuse to get out, but I wasn't going to lie, either. You would be shocked how many people out of a random 97 claimed they were going to be out of the country during the trial dates. And they let them go, these people and people who pleaded other problems. It was obvious they didn't want any jury members who couldn't stand being there. It got to the point, they were dismissing so many people, I felt it was my duty to stick around.
They got to the end of the preliminaries and the judge told us to return late in the afternoon yesterday. As I guessed, yesterday morning they brought in more potential jurors to go through, 45 this time. I guess this group wasn't as desperate to head for the exits as most of them were still left when those of us from last week arrived. We gave our individual statements about job, family, and jury experience, and very soon the judge released the last dozen numbers of yesterday's jurors. They spent a half hour picking the jury from the rest of us. When they announced the jury, I was so pleased that I'd been skipped I couldn't help smiling. It ended with another big surprise. It was a difficult jury to pick and a long trial should be ahead... But *no* alternates were selected. Heck, there was an alternate on the jury I served on that only lasted three days. I suspect they knew something, and I'm guessing that trial will never take place.
The wheels of justice, yikes!