Thoughts on Greater Responsibilities

[etakyma]

pegkerr has been regaling us with her two weeks of Jury Duty. She lives in Minnesota where you are apparently called for Jury Duty for two weeks, and you have to show up, at the courthouse, for every day of the first week and sit there waiting to be impanelled. She mentioned that she'll have to call in every day next week to see if they need for her to come in and wait.

This prompted a bit of a flurry of comments regarding the different states and what they do. California folk call the day before to see if they are really needed. As I live in Massachusetts I mentioned the "One Day or One Trial" system that a number of states have (others also comment on "One Day, One Trial"). I mentioned in my comment that I was called about ten years ago, actually sat on a jury, and deliberated over a civil case. It took two days, and it was fascinating, but also really boring just waiting around. The courthouse is about twenty-five stories tall, and houses not only the courthouse, but up above the seventeenth (or nineteenth, I can never remember) floor is the jail. Kind of a cool design, because the entry floor to the jail is maze-like and there is bullet-proof glass everywhere. It's a rather unhappy place, but I can't imagine prisons are *happy.* The only reason I know this is I went to bail out a co-worker once. Never again. It took much effort (and two courthouses) to get my three hundred dollars back - because the soon-to-be-ex-coworker was scum. But I digress.

I also mentioned in the comment to Peg I hadn't been called since.

The ironic twist:

I just got my Jury Duty summons in the mail. They want me in August, but I returned the card requesting a postponement until September - simply because I will still be in Toronto at the time they called me for.

My Mom just did her Jury Duty - they dismissed her around 11am along with most of the rest of the jury pool - I guess there wasn't too much happening that needed a jury that day. She mentioned that the Officer that dismissed half the pool mentioned one of the cases that was scheduled to be impanelled that day was settled that morning and no longer needed a courtroom, judge, or jury.

But come Septemeber, I will be fighting my way into Cambridge to go to the courthouse and take part in our legal system of trial-by-peers.