Teleidoscope

Mon, Dec 18, 2006

Jury Duty

Posted at 10:47 pm MST to Current Events

I was called for jury duty today. I was in the final group of 22 prospective jurors, but one of the lawyers used one of his peremptory challenges to dismiss me. I was not terribly surprised: I was fairly sure they had me on the dismissal list because neither of the lawyers ever asked me any direct questions. Apparently they didn't want a spinster librarian, software engineering consultant, with two masters degrees, who used to sell Tarot cards at science fiction conventions and is addicted to the Groklaw website.

The case I was called for was a domestic violence case.

If it was the defense attorney who blackballed me, he was being smart. He spent most of his 30 minutes of questioning time lecturing the jury pool about how hard it is to be a juror in a criminal case and how high the burden of proof should be. What this suggested to me (especially when combined with the facial expressions and body language of the defendent) was that the defendent was most likely guilty but his lawyer hoped to find enough wiggle room in the evidence to get him off.

I imagine my own body language and facial expression made it clear that I was not favorably impressed by the lawyer's comments.

I should check later in the week to see how the trial turned out.

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