2 posts tagged “jury duty”

Be honest, over the last three days you've been wondering if I had been sequestered and, thus, could not post a followup about my jury service.  Sadly, you were mistaken; I was not chosen for a jury and I was promptly discharged after only a single day of service.

I was chosen to be a member of the jury pool for a gun possession case just after our break for lunch.  About sixty of us went into the courtroom and listened to the judge say his piece.  While he did seem like a genuinely nice guy, I did enjoy his fear-mongering comments about our need to respect the judicial process lest we be compared to terrorists.

He invited people up to try and talk their way out of service if they felt they be impartial or couldn't handle sitting politely for five days. I read the about Snack Culture in Wired as half of the people tried to weasel their way out. With everyone in their seats, the clerk called up sixteen people, myself included, into the jury box to be addressed by the litigators. We were handed a list of questions we were expected to answer in front of those present in the courtroom. Hearing where people were from and how long they'd been in Brooklyn was interesting, but I most enjoyed learning what paper everyone read on a daily basis.  The first time someone proudly proclaimed the bible, you could see several others smiling and nodding, reminding those of us who preferred the NY Times that we should be thankful if we make it to purgatory.

Each of the lawyers tried to turn their questions into opening statements and the judge lost his patience quickly,  quashing their attempts every time. After they'd be sustained several times in a row, their question usually boiled down to, "Do you promise to throw out all of your biases and judge the evidence as it's presented (and keep this guy in/out of jail)?"

When they had finished and we were asked to leave the room while they make their choices, I was pondering my fate. Were my responses ambiguous enough for both sides to let me through? While the process would be interesting, could I tolerate five days of two guys hoping to gain my favor while they trotted out police officers and character witnesses?  Sure, missing five days of work would be difficult but it would be an interesting change of pace. As I said in the beginning of this post, I never found as only three of the sixteen were chosen. The rest of the jury pool had to come back on Tuesday to be asked about their favorite hobbies and their highest level of education.

Jury duty may be a pain in the ass, but I wouldn't have minded performing this civic duty.  With a trial scheduled to last five days, I would have learned plenty about my fellow jurors, people who I would never encounter in my day-to-day life, and seen beyond what I learned in the handful of law classes I took in college. Instead, I shall continue with my attempt to rid the world of all Movable Type template inefficiencies. If only carpenters from Crown Heights needed blogs, then I could kill two birds with one stone.

Well, here I am at jury duty in the New York Supreme Court.  How am I writing this then?  They've recently installed a computer room in jury pergatory in the New York Supreme Court building.  Definitely better than sitting in airport chairs, waiting to be called to wait in another room.

I may be a little annoyed about the whole process, but I can't knock it. Unlike politics, jury duty actually calls on regular citizens to make decisions.  While it's far from perfect, the jurors selected are a much better subsection of the U.S. populus than those in Congress. 

When first learning about the early days of American government, I remember reading that the founding fathers intended people from all walks of life to be involved in the government. That meant that a blacksmith may leave his trade for six years to serve in the Senate, then return when his term is up. Obviously, it's not practical to remove yourself from your daily worklife in today's culture, but it would provide a much broader spectrum of views and ideas.  At the very least, I'd like to see term limits for Congress.

Anyway, I am hungry.  Waiting around and doing nothing for three and a half hours will do that to you.  I'm debating if I should try to find something delicious in downtown Brooklyn or just live like the working man and hit up some fast food.  To find out, stay tuned for the second installment of Matty does jury duty.