Me & Harrison Ford, Doin' Our Civic Duty

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

I'm not big on jury duty but since I'm even less fond of scullery duty at the county lockup I showed up for the cattle call this morning.

The ABA has been hot on jury appreciation for several years, even enlisting Harrison Ford in the campaign. Before you get all weepy eyed and salute the flag, keep in mind that these are the same guys who get five big ones just for walking through the courthouse door on Monday morning. Jurors? Fifteen bucks. Not even enough to cover the cost of gas to get there and home.

Then there is that little matter of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting involuntary servitude. There is nothing voluntary about serving on a jury. Where's the ACLU on this? Wait. They're all lawyers too.

The system depends upon the citizen juror. And they play on your civic pride, your patriotism, hell, they even invoke Thomas Jefferson, TWC's Patron Saint. That's all well and good, but how about putting the lowly juror on a par with the presiding judge or the lead attorney? Ain't gonna happen. 

But, to be fair & balanced, Californicate has adopted a system that is infinitely more organized and much more juror-friendly than in years past.  I do commend them for that although I suspect that it was forced on them by mass civil disobedience. After all, when your done jailing potheads, how much more room is there for people ignoring a jury summons?

I might feel better about it if the judicial system was about getting at the truth of the matter. More often than not, it's about tricks and technicalities.

Course, I am contrary by nature so I tend to blow things like jury duty way out of proportion. This time around it cost me a day I'm not getting back but I also read most of a trashy paperback novel. Not so bad, really. Still, I couldn't get out of town fast enough.

Get home to a bottle of wine and this.....

As Ever,

The WC

Comments

[PintofStout]

That poster is more right than it knows: FIJA.

[TWC]

Pint, thanks for bringing that up, wish I'da thought of it. :-)

I'm a big FIJA fan and if I ever end up on a jury I hope it's for something like a pot charge where I can drag my feet, kick and scream, refuse to budge, and hang the jury.

Also hoping to be on the jury for someone who threw an empty bag of Mickie Dees crap out the window on the offramp so I can vote for the death penalty.

[Jeff Mackenzie]

Wow. Quite a sunset.

BTW, nobody likes jury duty. Nobody.

[Lone Chatelaine]

Ohhh, that's a wonderful thing to come home to. Beautiful!

I've never done jury duty before. I think I moved around too much in the past. It'll catch up with me soon, though, I bet.

[TWC]

Thank you Chatty (you too Jeff), I always like to come home to a glass of wine.

I see the Freudian slip in the post now. Bottle S/B glass, guess y'all can figure out where my brain was after a mind numbing tedious day sitting around doing nothing in the jury waiting room. Lucked out though cuz the rule is one day or one trial per year.

Oh, you mean the sunset? :-)

Sometimes it's just there. I looked up, got the camera, & pushed the button. Camera did the rest.

Except for resizing and a little cropping, that photo hasn't been to visit Photoshop. Actually, I rarely tweak photos. I guess that's like finding a ball player who doesn't do steroids. Or so my good friend KC says. He's a connoisseur of photography, red wine, and Photoshop, so I take him at his word. Actually, he's kind of Photoshop guru.

Truth is, sometimes I feel like a laggard and a throw back, my friend Kent, my nephew, and my brother in law are all three really good with a camera and with PhotoShop.

All three links are up there in Merlot with yours, Ms C.

I like taking pictures and I guess I should plunk down some hard cash for a nicer camera.

[NoStar]

In my county they send a questionaire with your initial jury summons. Step 1 is sending in the questionaire.

One of the questions is something like this: Can you follow the judge's instructions as what the law is and how it pertains to the case?

I always answer thusly: Certainly, as long as the judge's instructions don't violate my rights of jury nullification.

I've never gotten to step 2.

[TWC]

Lucky you!

[Ann T]

On the other side of the coin, a jury in Florida gave me a complete defense verdict in the sexual harassment trial I’ve been trying all week, so I’m kind of fond of the jury system today for a change. :)