more jury duty notes

Shilps was on jury duty last week; I'm up after Labor day; and my sister-in law Steff was called up and served while I was home in Nashville.

And via e-mail from her this morning, their business has concluded and she can share that she served on the jury with former Nashville Mayor and former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen.  Kinda cool.

justice with just us

I've received my summons for jury duty, starting the day after Labor Day.

Another friend has been in the box this week, and shared some quality observations:

"Whenever I'm at the Hall of Justice on Bryant St, I can't help but to think, 'Ain't nobody here getting a jury of their peers.'"

And while waiting for voir dire, a man in a crazy costume and giant, rainbow, afro wig was physically escorted from the jury pool waiting room. The man sitting next to my friend leaned over in his chair and said in a low voice, "Now he knows what he's doing."

Previously I had told her to remember to pick up her Princess Leia costume from the cleaners.

jury duty potential service ends in mistrial

Holy crap: I was almost picked months ago to serve on this jury. I was called back for two weeks before being ultimately dismissed. In the news today: the case has resulted in a mistrial and they'll have to do the whole thing over.

They pulled hundreds of citizens for jury selection on this one the first time. I can't imagine what trouble jury selection will be this time around with even more publicity. (Although I suppose by reposting I am not helping things.)

jury dooty

I'm already disposed against my civil service as the voters/courts of California have ruled me to be less than a full citizen. And as such I am inclined to pay less taxes and provide less than full cooperation with jury duty.

Last night a cop pulled me over, lied to my face, gave me a citation for a moving violation I could not have committed, then even back-dated the citation by several hours. If the SFPD is happy to lie about something as trivial as the time of day, I am certainly not going to take their testimony as fact in a court of law.

At least there is WiFi. And I got here early enough to get a space at the table with a power outlet.

Although now I really need to go potty and don't want to leave my laptop lying about.

Y'all have a good Friday.

no civil rights for gays, but civil justice service mandated

And I have jury duty this week. It will be difficult to sum up any respect for the court.



The jury summons as winning the anti-lottery. Perfect.

Even on the scales of justice I am overweight

It was a long afternoon of voir dire. As the session closed, the attorneys got to invoke their preemptory whatevers and reject certain jurors. By this time, I was kinda invested in the case and was looking forward to the arguments (I didn't come in here for abuse; I'm looking for an argument!). Before the session closed, I was hoping the ADA would ask me another question. Her questions were so poorly crafted I wanted to take a crack at calling her out on it. I suppose her intention was to make sure there were no indecisive jurors who might prompt a hung jury. She asked of those with children, "Have you ever had to make a decision regarding your children?"

okay, DUH! Are you kidding me? And when she made a mistake and asked someone without kids, or someone with only one child, she would repeatedly ask, "Have you ever had to make a decision?" Sometimes she would clarify, "In your life, have you ever had to make a decision about something?"

Oh my God. This young woman was not the brightest in her class. I was waiting for another question to me so I could say something along the lines of, "Juror Number Ten asks if counsel might wish to reconsider the question." "With all due respect to this court, and considerably less to the counselor, 'have you ever made a decision'? Everyone makes decisions all day long. We made the decision to open our mail. We made the decision to read the jury summons. We made the decision to heed the summons, appear here today, and to pay attention during the proceedings. Clearly, everyone makes decisions on a daily basis. I don't see the aisles of Safeway clogged with bodies because we all go catatonic when faced with the dilemma of paper or plastic. And I am making the decision to risk offending his Honor with my candor in expressing that this potential juror hopes that counsel makes the decision to do her homework before wasting any more of this court's time."

As it was, she rejected me as a juror and I have been excused.

Perhaps she could see it on my face. Or could tell by the 'pfff's or open laughs during her questioning.

My favorite response to her questioning was from a new alternate, who was Chinese with good English skills although severly accented:

"Do you have any children?"
"Three daughters. 44, 42, and 40."
"Have you ever had to make a decision regarding your daughters?"
"No."
"No?"
"No."
"You've never had to make decisions regarding your daughters?"
"No. Their Daddy."

[Laughter and even some applause from the gallery and juror pool.]

"What about your job? Did you ever have to make any decisions in your job?" (Again, are you kidding me with these questions?)
"No."
"No?"
"No."
"You never had to make a decision in your job?"
"I was a dealer in Vegas. We don't make the decisions."

Love her.

courtside seat

I'm still on jury duty, but on lunch break. But with only three lunch places nearby, including the McDonald's, and no nearby wi-fi, lunch time is really frustrating. For all the lip service they pay to the importance of the jury process and respect for jurors, you think they would have coffee for less than $2 in the building and a wi-fi hotspot in the juror waiting room. There is a wi-fi service for the courthouse (which is some serious scary skanky by the way), but it is a monthly service for people who work here, and the day pass for those on jury duty is around $10. For fuck's sake, this is San Francisco, arguably the most wired city in the world. The City has a network in the building, is it too much to ask that they spring the $50 for an access point and open a secured port, or offer daily keys, for those doing their civil service. Honestly.

The commute down here is significantly more than my three blocks to work. I take the N to Civic Center then change to the 19 Polk (which oddly does not run down Polk Street), then walk the two blocks to the courthouse. This morning the line to get in was out the door and almost all the way down the block. Think airport security lines, but without x-ray machines, you don't have to take off your shoes, your bags get hand-checked, and with such thoroughness that I could stuff an attack dog and the Iraqi guard in my backpack and be passed through. And the attitude is lovely I hope the illusion of security is enough to prevent any of these whack jobs from bringing anything dangerous and acting out in there.

We're still in voir dire, but as Juror #10, it looks like I am here for a couple of weeks. I need to start brown-bagging something healthy, and start packing/freezing some coffee in the morning. SoMa this week is way hot, and not only is it warm and dry in the depressingly adorned courtroom, but the idea of sitting and paying rapt attention for two weeks without a cup of joe at hand (or the option of going to the bathroom as my bladder deems necessary) is equally uncomfortable. My apnea already makes me a little narcoleptic; I hope the litigants can keep this interesting enough to ensure consciousness without caffeine.

My break's over. I'll have to upload this later when I get a connection somewhere and backdate it to 1:14.

Hung jury

Sorry for the absence people. I have been stuck on jury duty all day. I have been assigned to a case and go back for more questions tomorrow. Unfortunately, this comes at a significantly inconvenient time for work. On the upside, I was originally assigned to a murder case which is expected to last until August. This one should just last two weeks. I have already been cramming for work to deal with this week and next, and this just doubles my daily workload.

Back to raining and pouring: I need a new job. I need a new apartment. My car has been stolen. And I am on jury duty. I am not buying any lottery tickets this week.

I wonder what the moon is up to now.

Major points to those who get this reference. It sort of sums up my attitude now:

My boat's gone. My candy's gone. Dead pirates are coming to get me...I wanna go home.

(If it rings a bell, say so in the comments section.)

The Justice Squadron!

I am trapped in a courtroom waiting to hear if I will be required to serve on the jury for murder trail. It is expected to run through June 22. I think. I may have misheard. At first I heard July 22, because that is my Dad's 70th birthday and I will be back in Nashville for that. I don't mind serving on a jury as much, it's just that I will be home with the family Thursday-Monday the second weekend in June, the third weekend in July, and in August or September I plan to have the follow up surgery to alleviate my apnea. There is rarely a good time for jury duty, but this summer particularly sucks if I am required to be at the south of Market courthouse for any extended engagement. The last time I was called for jury service was the week of my last surgery, and I was excused. I don't know what they will do with me today. I am particularly annoyed by the tone of the judge, who started out thanking all of us for showing up and stressing the importance, honor, and duty of jury service. Those platitudes were quickly supplanted by impatience and condescension with her instructions as to what and what she will not consider a hardship.

I've filled out my hardship form and am waiting with the 200 other folks to see if I will be excused. (My hardship is that I will be in Nashville in June and July.)

All morning I have been thinking about that Simpson's episode when the Mensa people took over running the town. Comic Book Guy created new juror summons to get people excited about serving. Instead of a jury summons, citizens of Springfield received a comic-styled sheet announcing that they had been invited/inducted into The Justice Squadron!

Moe seemed impressed.

Gotta stop now. Back later. (post backdated)