I use the passive voice to show how gentle I'll be...
Greetings and Salutations,
So it has been a bit. Sadly this is true of pretty much everything in my life right now. I have been very busy and unable to expand my horizons as I would like. It has been a good busy, a very good busy, but it has precluded some activities that I think are probably past due.
But that isn't what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about this week and my exciting time with the legal system.
Don't worry, it wasn't about me. The bodies are still hidden. No, the Arbiter was called for jury duty for the first time. I know, I have been in the system for 30 years and this is the first time I have ever been called. I was pretty excited.
I know, it was supposed to be dull and a waste of time. I went expecting that, but I was also anxious to see how it worked. I showed up very early (as is my want) and it was lucky I did so as there are in fact two county court buildings in Dallas. So I was able to get to the right building on time. It only cost me 3 dollars for the excellent parking I had to give up in order to go to the correct building. On the plus side, the new parking was covered and still only 3-4 dollars.
It was much more orderly than I expected. Descriptions I had been given from people over the years led me to expect chaos and tedium. I had brought a book (collected short stories of O Henry which turned out to be an excellent choice) and found a seat right away. At 9 they came out and gave the speech, collected the registration slips (or whatever you wish to call it). By 9:30 they were assigning courts. By 9:45 I was in a group to be reviewed for court 7 and after waiting for a long time in an uncomfortable hallway we were allowed into a court room to be sorted.
The sorting process was interesting. It was fascinating to see what questions and responses the lawyers generated in trying to sort out who they wanted for the jury. In the end the statement "It is the quiet ones that get picked" was the most prophetic. I was in fact selected for the trial.
I won't go into the details because, well for one I am still processing it, but mainly because it isn't an exciting case that would make for a good read. But I did want to talk about what I noticed and what I liked about it. And I did like it. I would really like to do it again. The situation in the trial was horrible and I am not happy about the outcome, but in the sense that the only happy outcome would be to turn back time and stop it entirely. But I am satisfied that as a jury we did our due dilligence and came to the best conclusion that we could. I think we provided justice for the situation but it wasn't cathartic.
I know that isn't what we were there for. And it wasn't a case that leant itself to catharsis, but I think the jury left with each of us wishing we could have some :) But I found the whole process interesting. At one point while we were deliberating we were remarking about how difficult the decision was and how different the role was than on Law and Order. One of the jurors said, "It is much more difficult to tell who the bad guy is without the theme music" and I was glad I wasn't the only one with a sense of humor.
Over all, I felt that I was in a room with people who took the job seriously and who showed judgment and reasoning for the views they brought to the table. It was not as diverse a group as it could have been, but that was intentional I think. But I didn't get the sense that I was the smartest guy in the room. I know "hubris" and all that, but a lot of times when dealing with the general public I am talking down to my audience. In this case I may or may not have been the smartest, but the group was able to think and reason beyond the end of their nose. It kind of surprised me as I expected the jury to just be made up of slackers who couldn't figure out a way to get out of it (yes I was sitting there).
While I never want to have to be on trial, it did make me feel better about the jury trial system at least. The lawyers were both annoying. While they were not 'bad', the defense attorney felt slimy. He talked down to the witnesses that he wanted to cast in a bad light and took the conversations in random directions to distract witnesses from their testimony. But he also did a lot to make us distrust his client. The defendant had some strikes against him without the lawyer's help but there were times when he was working that I just wanted to tell the lawyer to stop helping. The prosecutor was much the same way. She was not slimy but seemed over her head. She wasn't, she was smart and had the right information but she presented as if she didn't know where she was going. She meandered around a point on several occasions when I thought she was best suited to get a single statement and let it sink in. Of course, this is just my opinion, I suppose they are both professionals.
The prosecutor was the assistant DA I believe, the DA was sitting beside her and was somewhat distracting. She looked like Summer Glau with Farrah hair. Seriously she looked a lot like her, not quite as pronounced a facial structure but enough she could work as a look-alike (if those made any money). But she was the most competent of the lawyers in the trial I think.
To make a long and informationless story longer, I found the whole thing fascinating and would love to do it again. It wouldn't make me happy in the "Yay bad things have happened" way, but it wasn't a beatdown.
Go in peace; come back with gifts -- Arbiter
So it has been a bit. Sadly this is true of pretty much everything in my life right now. I have been very busy and unable to expand my horizons as I would like. It has been a good busy, a very good busy, but it has precluded some activities that I think are probably past due.
But that isn't what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about this week and my exciting time with the legal system.
Don't worry, it wasn't about me. The bodies are still hidden. No, the Arbiter was called for jury duty for the first time. I know, I have been in the system for 30 years and this is the first time I have ever been called. I was pretty excited.
I know, it was supposed to be dull and a waste of time. I went expecting that, but I was also anxious to see how it worked. I showed up very early (as is my want) and it was lucky I did so as there are in fact two county court buildings in Dallas. So I was able to get to the right building on time. It only cost me 3 dollars for the excellent parking I had to give up in order to go to the correct building. On the plus side, the new parking was covered and still only 3-4 dollars.
It was much more orderly than I expected. Descriptions I had been given from people over the years led me to expect chaos and tedium. I had brought a book (collected short stories of O Henry which turned out to be an excellent choice) and found a seat right away. At 9 they came out and gave the speech, collected the registration slips (or whatever you wish to call it). By 9:30 they were assigning courts. By 9:45 I was in a group to be reviewed for court 7 and after waiting for a long time in an uncomfortable hallway we were allowed into a court room to be sorted.
The sorting process was interesting. It was fascinating to see what questions and responses the lawyers generated in trying to sort out who they wanted for the jury. In the end the statement "It is the quiet ones that get picked" was the most prophetic. I was in fact selected for the trial.
I won't go into the details because, well for one I am still processing it, but mainly because it isn't an exciting case that would make for a good read. But I did want to talk about what I noticed and what I liked about it. And I did like it. I would really like to do it again. The situation in the trial was horrible and I am not happy about the outcome, but in the sense that the only happy outcome would be to turn back time and stop it entirely. But I am satisfied that as a jury we did our due dilligence and came to the best conclusion that we could. I think we provided justice for the situation but it wasn't cathartic.
I know that isn't what we were there for. And it wasn't a case that leant itself to catharsis, but I think the jury left with each of us wishing we could have some :) But I found the whole process interesting. At one point while we were deliberating we were remarking about how difficult the decision was and how different the role was than on Law and Order. One of the jurors said, "It is much more difficult to tell who the bad guy is without the theme music" and I was glad I wasn't the only one with a sense of humor.
Over all, I felt that I was in a room with people who took the job seriously and who showed judgment and reasoning for the views they brought to the table. It was not as diverse a group as it could have been, but that was intentional I think. But I didn't get the sense that I was the smartest guy in the room. I know "hubris" and all that, but a lot of times when dealing with the general public I am talking down to my audience. In this case I may or may not have been the smartest, but the group was able to think and reason beyond the end of their nose. It kind of surprised me as I expected the jury to just be made up of slackers who couldn't figure out a way to get out of it (yes I was sitting there).
While I never want to have to be on trial, it did make me feel better about the jury trial system at least. The lawyers were both annoying. While they were not 'bad', the defense attorney felt slimy. He talked down to the witnesses that he wanted to cast in a bad light and took the conversations in random directions to distract witnesses from their testimony. But he also did a lot to make us distrust his client. The defendant had some strikes against him without the lawyer's help but there were times when he was working that I just wanted to tell the lawyer to stop helping. The prosecutor was much the same way. She was not slimy but seemed over her head. She wasn't, she was smart and had the right information but she presented as if she didn't know where she was going. She meandered around a point on several occasions when I thought she was best suited to get a single statement and let it sink in. Of course, this is just my opinion, I suppose they are both professionals.
The prosecutor was the assistant DA I believe, the DA was sitting beside her and was somewhat distracting. She looked like Summer Glau with Farrah hair. Seriously she looked a lot like her, not quite as pronounced a facial structure but enough she could work as a look-alike (if those made any money). But she was the most competent of the lawyers in the trial I think.
To make a long and informationless story longer, I found the whole thing fascinating and would love to do it again. It wouldn't make me happy in the "Yay bad things have happened" way, but it wasn't a beatdown.
Go in peace; come back with gifts -- Arbiter