So, like a good law abiding citizen, I showed up to the court house and listened to the instructions which, by and large, let me know that the state of California didn't give a damn what my circumstances were, and that quite frankly, none could be dire enough to avoid my responsibilities. Touche.
The next week, I reported for the jury selection process, which began by amputating a good two dozen people from the proceedings due to the limited space in the courthouse. What was left were a hundred fifty or so folks, all of whom shared my fate: spend the next four days going through the arduous task of randomly selecting, and by some measure, randomly eliminating prospective jurors. What began as a somewhat interesting interviewing operation slowly devolved into a civic case of Groundhog's Day, with the same remedial questions asked over and over again to each passing victim.
By midweek, lottery chanced upon my name, and I was called to answer the same set of questions I had heard in the previous days' testimonies. After a relatively short back and forth with the attorneys, it seemed like my fate was pretty much sealed. While counsel would revisit other candidates over the next few days, I was left untouched after the first round of questioning, and before I knew it, with the courthouse dwindled to less than a third of the original pool of candidates, I was sworn in among 11 other jurors.
The catch? The trial lasts a month, including said week. All in all though, I'm pretty thrilled. I get a chance to observe an extremely interesting process unfold while doing my "civic duty", not to mention a handful of other perks. For one, this will be the first time in my adult life that I have what anyone would call a "normal" schedule. That is, I go to "work" at 9 and get off no later than 5, which may not seem so significant to anyone else, but coming from someone who has either worked full time while simultaneously being a student, or only held a job with a 60-80 hour work week on average, this is an amazing experience. One week in, and I *love* it.
Plus, I get to live and "work" in the city, which means no traffic and no heavy commutes across the Bay Bridge, and that equals less stress. I also get to have lunch with friends who live and work in the city, as well as join in on happy hour, which is a complete novelty to me. I even got a month long membership to the gym, and have found that getting home at five grants me enough time to get errands and chores done, eat dinner, hang out with friends, and get to sleep on time, helping me wake up early to workout. Under my normal schedule, I'd hardly have had time to step in the door, scarf down my dinner and browse around before having to turn in and do it all over, exhausted.
A boy can get used to this ...
2 comments:
Always keep in mind that the defendant is probably guilty or else there wouldn't be a trial. That way, the defendant can get what's coming to him, and you and your fellow jurors can get out of there at reasonable hours.
For inspiration on how this works, look to the BP thing. Everyone hates BP and we want them to pay big time. We want to punish them and, perhaps force them into bankruptcy. The advantage of this position, of course, is that we'll save all the expense of actually finding out what happened and whether or not BP was to blame at all. And let's face it: Investigations done properly can be expensive and time consuming! We'd all certainly lose interest by the time the facts were known, so what would be the point?
So, apply a similar notion to your trial and you'll get all the experience of justice-in-action without any of the inconvenience of considering evidence!
Oh Butters. You simply enjoy being contrarian, ... it doesn't matter what the circumstances are ...
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