Jury Duty, Day 1

[elfs]

It's amazing how many people here just sit and stare, eyes forward, vacant, looking for all the world as if they'd turned themselves off until the next instruction from the jury administration came through. Poor fellow next to me complained, "They always call me right during calving season." He has that weatherbeaten look to him, too.

8:00: Cattle call begins for a trial that has already looked through 140 jurors looking for 12 who don't know anything about the trial, and they're going through another 60 this morning! The names are all painfully, ordinarily middle-class white Americans. There are only a few black and asian people in here.

8:45: I've been called up to jury duty. I hate to admit I'm watching the clock, but I've had no breakfast and no coffee, and it's starting to manifest in a headache and light-headedness. Which is really annoying.

11:00: Damn, I've been selected. Obviously, I can't talk about it until it's over. I'm taking a lot of notes, though, and I ought to have a button that reads, "I'm blogging this."

Comments

[fallenpegasus]

You do know that your own opinion of both the law and the facts of the case override anything and everything that the judge may see fit to tell you.

Despite and especially despite any claims to the contrary made by the judge...

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Sssh. I'm not allowed to talk about anything that happened in the Jury Room until the case is over!