I Feel SO Ripped Off!

After sitting in a courtroom for nearly 2 full days, the judge announced that the case had "come to a resolution" (court language for "the defendants accepted a plea bargain") and dismissed all the prospective jurors! I'm so disappointed. After sitting through all of that, I wanted to hear the evidence and put in my two cents (or more!) and help decide the fate of the 3 men on trial. At the very least, after hearing the life stories of umpteen fellow jurors, I had at least wanted the chance to make them listen to my life story. What an extremely frustrating and unsatisfying experience!

A few random notes: the case was about a traffic stop that apparently then turned into a drug bust and DUI for one of the men. There were 10 charges, among the 3 of them, with not every charge being the same for every man. Two of the three did not speak English and were wearing headsets through which they received translations from an interpreter who was there in the courtroom. That was quite annoying because even though you couldn't necessarily hear what the interpreter was saying, the noise made it hard to hear what the potential jurors were saying.

Yesterday, all 3 defendants showed up wearing button down shirts. This morning, 2 wore that again, and the third made the extremely bad choice of wearing a black t-shirt with the logo "speed and violence" on the front. Why are defendants so stupid? I noticed he had changed into a button down shirt after lunch today. Idiot.

I was most struck by how inefficient the jury selection process is. It takes forever to get very little done. If you answer anything in a suspicious way (say you aren't sure because of something in your experience that you can be impartial, or that you have a problem with people not speaking English, or know a policeman, etc.), you can expect to be grilled on that topic by the attorneys, while they at the same time let you know "how much they appreciate your honesty". Then of course, once they finish that round, they call a sidebar with the judge and kick your ass off of the jury panel as fast as they can.

It seemed silly in a way because they wanted people to be honest, and then when they were and explained any bias they had, they were told what the law was (innocent until proven guilty, blah, blah, blah) and told it was their duty to be fair and impartial and asked again if they could set aside their feelings and experiences. Most people said they could. Some were honest and said they couldn't. But they kicked them all off anyway, so it seems like it wastes so much time doing all that questioning. Why not just kick them off right away and be done with them? I know the judge is trying to determine if people really think that way, or if they are just trying to say something to get out of jury duty. But it is SO annoying to someone like me who hates wasting time. I had no idea picking a jury was so tedious.

A tip if you want to get out of jury duty for a case involving a DUI- cry when the judge asks you the first question. A juror who did that was dismissed for cause very quickly. Or you can show up 40 minutes late and tell the judge you had class, even though you neglected to tell him about it the day before. The judge was NOT happy with that juror, and frankly, neither was I, because she kept us all waiting.

I have to say, I swear I have seen 2 of the defendants before on some kind of crime show. Maybe they just had that criminal look to them, but one of them was seriously creeping me out- he kept turning around and staring at us sitting in the courtroom, quite menacingly. I'm surprised his attorney didn't poke him and tell him to knock it off. Of course, his attorney probably didn't speak Spanish.

Overall, I was very surprised with the number of people that were dismissed as jurors. Some were obviously going to get the boot, but others seemed like good choices, at least to me. After awhile, it became clear that even if I had gotten to the point where I had been questioned, someone would have kicked me off, most likely because of where I'm doing my internship. Not that I think I would have been anything but the perfect juror though. Seriously, they missed out!

Well, enough of that.......the school posted some of the first assignments online today. I think I have 300 or so pages to get started on, but I'm going to finish my book first. I only have 100 pages left now.