On jury duty today
By adamg - 8/25/09 - 6:33 am
In Dorchester District Court, no less (this is the first time in my life I've ever been called for Suffolk County jury duty anywhere other than Suffolk Superior, go figure), so if all hell breaks loose today and you don't see anything about it here, that's why.
Comments
Our friend the old mole
Ooo, a spy in the system. We expect analysis, insight and maybe details.
Old? Who you calling old?
I see Adam in WR often, and he does not look OLD. I think apologies are in order.
In other news, I believe Adam should defer to a deputy in cases like this. And by bringing that up, I think I deftly excluded myself from any responsibility on that front. I am no journalist / editor.
Easy to Fix
That's kind of cute you don't know the allusion. In the local Cambridge of the late 1960s-early 1970s, the red rag student paper was The Old Mole. That was a nod to a Karl Marx quote -- "In the signs that bewilder the middle class, the aristocracy and the poor prophets of regression, we do recognise our brave friend Robin Goodfellow, the old mole that can work in the earth so fast, that worthy pioneer — the Revolution."
The Old Mole
Heh! That young'un might not have had a clue, but you gave *me* a laugh for sure. I had forgotten all about the Old Mole till you made that reference.
Class? Class?!?! SHUT UP!!!
Thank you.
I once again maintained my perfect streak of never having to serve on a jury in my life. At least this time, I managed to sit briefly in the juror row in the courtroom before the prosecutor or the defense attorney recognized my grim, steely determination and decided they didn't want such an obviously discerning intellect deciding their fate. Or they didn't like that half my family consists of lawyers or something. Or both sides agreed they wanted all the jurors to be cute women (really). It's kind of frustrating you never find out why you were dismissed.
Outrage: State budget cuts mean they removed the bubbler in the juror room. On the plus side: An entire table full of zillions of old magazines (including CommonWealth for the policy wonks). The jury room at Suffolk Superior Court has bupkes. Also: Unlike everybody else, jurors can bring cell phones into the courthouse. You can also bring your laptop, but there's no WiFi.
The courtroom was interesting, in a weird way. It had a really high ceiling, like 20 feet high, with windows along two sides (to let in the cleansing rays of Justice?) - all with Venetian blinds, which could only be opened or closed by somebody on a ladder. Who came up with that idea?
Sister Mary Elephant
I'm guessing your "steely" intellect wasn't taxed too far. Your last paragraph suggests you were staring up at the ceiling?
And how far did the "Our Lady of 115th Street" analogy go? Did anyone throw a switchblade into the chalkboard?
There's only so much a mind like a steel trap can take
You're ushered into the courtroom. The judge welcomes you and introduces all the lawyers and witnesses. She asks anybody who doesn't think they could serve fairly or without hardship to raise their hands.
And then you sit and wait and wait and wait while the judge and the lawyers do the sidebar thing and murmur and call up prospective jurors one by one to murmur and then periodically everybody just sort of sits there and seems about to sigh and then there's more waiting and finally, you're sent back to the jury room.
So of course I'm going to look around :-).
Its possible that at some
Its possible that at some point in time that was someones job, to go around opening and closing the blinds. I would not be surprised considering how many more hacks we used to have running around state government then we do now , still alot but quite a few less.
I did jury duty there
Unlike you, Adam, I seem to have never done my Suffolk County jury duty in the same courthouse any two times in a row. I've been to several different courthouses downtown, the one right by the Fields Corner T station, and most recently the Dorchester courthouse, where I finally actually served on a jury. It was quite an interesting experience and I was happy to finally get my chance.
The first two times I got called, I was selected for juries but then booted on the peremptory dismissals. The next few times I never got out of the big waiting room. At Fields Corner we got to watch a movie while we waited (kind of whether we wanted to or not - we had a choice between BEETHOVEN II and FORREST GUMP, and folks chose FORREST GUMP. Urgh.)
Now that I think about it, I last did jury duty in late 2004, so I'm well overdue to be called again!
Advanced Degree?
If you have a Masters/Doctorate of any sort, it's usually a death-knell to both sides. They must teach them in law school that if you have that extra diploma you must be too smart to be persuaded by their horseshit arguments.
-----------------------------------------
who and the what now?
Nope, just a plain ol' BA
My wife's the MA in the family :-).
go figure.
I served earlier this year. I have two masters' degrees, am generally a reporter/editor when not out collecting diplomas, and had a six-month-old breastfeeding baby at home with no daycare. I got put on a two-day jury trial in Dorchester court anyway. I guess they were desperate.
On the plus side, at least they let me pump in the office. I was envisioning having to hide behind the snack machine.
Also, Adam, when I first read your post, I thought they'd eliminated "blubber" from the jury room. Not bloody likely.
Class? Class?!?! SHUT UP!!!
The first day of summer vacation I woke up. I went downtown to look for a job. Then I hung out in front of the drugstore.
The second day of summer vacation I woke up. I went downtown to look for a job. Then I hung out in front of the drugstore.
The third day of summer vacation I woke up. I went downtown to look for a job. I got a job: keeping people from hanging out in front of the drugstore...
When they ask about possible
When they ask about possible bias and you raise your hand and say that while you consider yourself non-biased you do operate a widely read blog that features stories about the police and criminals I am sure at least one of the lawyers would take issue with that and kick you off.
I will treat the alleged defendant with respect... innocent etc
Jury Duty
Well, if the state legislature has its way, very few people will end up being called, in the future. There are several bills that propose exempting many.
http://is.gd/2y1xT
Teacher's Out Of The Room!
[*throws wad of paper at Spatch, and sticks Swirly's pigtails in the inkwell*]
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Inkwell?
What's that??
;)
Oh, Okay...
[*sends cyber-bullying Tweet to Ron Newman and posts naked photos of Eeka to Facebook*]
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Oh man, we're all in trouble
Man, when someone here misbehaves, someone misbehaves.
If this keeps up we're all gonna have to put our heads on our desk and stay quiet instead of going out for recess. Sheesh! Some people do not know how to constructively use their free time.
Now if anybody needs me, I'll be over in the corner playing Table Football and drawing metal band logos on the desk.
Hey, Spatch!
We're all gonna go smoke a joint in the boy's lav, and...
[*sees Spatch giving him the "Shut up, you idiot!" look*]
Oh! Hi, Mr. Gaffin! My! That's a nice tie you're wearing!
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Damn, now you have me wondering
Molly and I both seem to recall a young adult fiction book (Beverly Cleary maybe?) where someone dips someone's pigtail in the inkwell. Anyone know what book this happened in?
You should hit up Lorenz
You should hit up Lorenz Island Kuisine while on your lunch break. It's the best part about having jury duty in the Dot :-)
Ah! For my next trip, in three years
I saw that place and was tempted to stop just for the name, but, no, despite the presence of all sorts of interesting places we don't have in Roslindale (roti!), I went with boring and just came home.
My experience with jury duty
I had to be at the court at 8:30 in the morning, which is like asking me to give birth: It's just not something that my body does. So I drank coffee before showing up. While sitting in the box waiting for the judge and lawyers to pick jurors, I had to piss, so I informed the baliff of my need to use the john. They stopped the whole thing while I went to pee.
I was not selected for a jury.