A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-One-Hundred-And-Forty

As mentioned yesterday, I had jury duty today, and had to be up at the court around eight this morning. I spent most of the day on a panel for a case, but was ultimately dismissed after several hours of questioning, along with most of those who were paneled. A large part of the time was actually just sitting about in the hall waiting for the case to start, or just giving the lawyers and Judge the chance to negotiate things. I think we were standing in the hallway for two or three hours at one point, when we were first called in. This was followed by the main round of questioning from the judge, who went through a bunch of personal history with each juror, to find out about their relationships to law enforcement officers, lawyers, crime itself, and other related topics that might color the ability of an individual to serve as an unbiased juror. I found some of his commentary a bit absurd, in his desire to have a profession seemed to suggest, to me, a need to be certain of whatever biases one might have, and that seems rather impossible for anyone, but it was clear this was his court and his process, and in the end, it didn't really matter that much, as I was not selected, which is fine, as the jury office released me directly after.  To be honest, it was already close to five, so their wasn't really a lot of point in putting us back into the pool, and I believe the way the system works in this area, they tend to get a new pool each day.  Anyhow, it was rather long and tiring, and the walking about and standing is giving me some aching in my legs, if I am honest, but I made it through and am done for at least a year.  At least many of the people I met were quite pleasant, though I doubt I will ever encounter most of them again.

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