My Day In Court

Surprise! Surprise! The Oracle is back already. I had jury duty yesterday which was reminiscent of the military policy of  - Hurry up, and wait!

I sat through two voir dire sessions. One was to pick jurors for a misdemeanor trial (driving without a license) and the other a felony trial (battery on a police officer). I really wanted to get on the jury for the battery trial. I didn't get picked for either one - dammit!

The defense attorneys in both cases homed in on my paralegal training and experience, and I think that and the fact that I did not quiver and quake while being questioned kept me off both juries. The people who were picked, for the most part, were the ones who were the least informed and the most incoherent in the jury pools.

This should not necessarily be taken as an indictment of the accused, but it appears the attorneys were very much interested in seating a jury of peers. If I were the accused I would prefer to have me in the jury as opposed to those who could barely form a complete sentence. Of course, if I were on the jury at my own trial, I think I would be voting for acquittal whether or not I was innocent or guilty.

Speaking of which, the defense attorney at the misdemeanor voir dire seemed to get her shorts in a wad over my response to her demand that we each answer her question on the term "innocent until proven guilty". My argument was that in our judicial system there is a "presumption of innocence" until the facts of the case prove otherwise which hadn't been done yet. If a person has committed the crime, then they are guilty from the git-go. We are just giving them the benefit of the doubt.

The defense attorney hammered us right up front to say we believed her client was innocent. Without hearing the facts of the case, I was not prepared to render a verdict one way or another, and I told her so. I was sent back to the jury auditorium.

One of the attorneys I saw during the day asked, "Who is happy to be here today?" Out of a room of thirty, I was the only one who raised my hand. The prosecution, defense, judge, and court reporter all seemed surprised, but to me this was like a post-graduate class on our judicial system - almost as good as watching My Cousin Vinny for the umpteenth time. And let's not forget the money. I pulled in a tad over $1.87 per hour for a grand total of fifteen bucks. Woo-hoo! That's enough for a 12 pack of suds.

Life is good!