Jury Duty

Well, I'm done with my jury duty service and of the 2 weeks I had on-call days, I didn't once get put on a jury. I did however decide to stick around on my last day to actually see a trial take place from start to finish. I needed an outlet for that cry of "guilty" I had been storing up for several days. The trial was a drunk driving (OWI) case and was quite fascinating to watch. Not so much because the details were extraordinary, but rather because of the non-sense the defense came up with to try to get the defendant out of the charges. Sadly, they did not have a leg to stand on in their defense, and it was a gross waste of everyone's time and (dare I speak the cliche) taxpayer dollars. Lest you think I am being harsh, judgemental or prejudiced, I present to you my evidence of legal chicanery.....

After closing arguments and during jury deliberations, I sat alone in the courtroom waiting for everyone to return. The facts were so black and white that I figured it wouldn't take long for them to reach a verdict. After a few minutes of solitude, the defense lawyer came back into the courtroom and struck up a brief conversation with me about why I decided to stay for the trial on such a nice day, most people are glad they got out of jury duty, etc. etc. I explained my curiosity about the process and how interesting I found it to be. He then said to me, with regard to the case and his client, and I am quoting exactly here,

" To tell you the truth, they (the proscecution) had a good blood test, they had my client weaving all over the road, but they didn't offer us a plea bargain so-what the heck-you just take it to court and roll the dice..."

I am not even going to go into my rant about how wrong, wrong, wrong, this is. And I'm sure it is not an isolated incident. The jury came back after 20 minutes with a guilty verdict. After the jury was dismissed, the defense lawer asked for 30 days in which to enter an appeal. They really, seriously want to try this again. The man's blood alcohol level was .177. Come on, people. Send in the Common Sense lawyers, please!

On a more entertaining note, the judge (who was completely disgusted by the behavior of the defense) looked just like Wilfred Brimley.

The proscecuting lawyer looked just like Matlock, only with a mustache.

And the defense lawyer looked like a cheesy realator Steve and I had come look at our old house years ago when we were first thinking of selling.

So, jury duty. Pretty fun experience all in all. I think the trial was more interesting to me as a public observer though, instead of actually being on the jury. I was privy to all the conversations that took place between lawyers and judge when the jury was sent out of the courtroom, and it added another dimension of understanding to the whole trial process. I'm making a mental note to take Ben sometime to see our justice system in action. I think he'd really like it, and I wouldn't mind sitting through another trial myself. An interesting way to spend the afternoon.