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Tuesday, August 5, 2003 |
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Jury Duty, part 5 My time in the jury pool is already over! But here's the complete story, for those following along at home... After lunch, we all re-assembled in the courtroom. The judge returned and explained that in the next step, voir dire, the attorneys would ask more questions of the jurors. The prosecution began with an attorney in the pool, asking her a series of leading questions about her potential actions and responses in the deliberation room. "If your fellow jurors had a question of law, and they turned to you because you're an attorney, what you you do?" She replied, "I'd send a note to the judge." There were a few more questions like this for her, then he turned his attention to me. "you said 'by day' you're a software contractor... what do you do by night?" I'm not sure he was trying to make a joke, but the galley laughed anyway. I hadn't intended to use that phrase earlier, but I did, and now I played if off by draping my eyes with a mock cape. After the chuckles settled down, I told him about my schoolwork and business planning. "Do you think you'd be a good juror in this case?" to which I replied, "I can't think of a reason why not." Next, the prosecutor turned his attention to a juror with very broken english and what appeared to be a short attention span. He began, "Hypothetically, if someone was supposed to register as a sex offender within five days of his birthday, and registered on the six day..." to which the defense council immediately stood up and objected. After some on-record haggling with the defense attorney, and a sidebar with the judge, the prosecution continued his question, "would you find that person guilty?" Now that I'm off the jury, I can talk more about the case. Apparently, the suspect is accused of "willful non-enrollment as a sex offender". The questions to the jury were sensitive to whether jurors had previous experiences involving sex offenses, either directly or through relatives or friends. One woman was excused because she had been molested as a child and now works at a non-profit organization to strengthen sex offender laws. Another woman was dismissed because her husband had been found guilty of sexual offense years ago, and had run into trouble for not registering properly. When the charge was first explained by the judge, I wondered about the inclusion of the word "willful". In most cases, guilt isn't predicated on knowledge or willful intent, expect perhaps in murder cases as opposed to manslaughter cases. I would have liked to hear the people's case to prove "willful". Anyway, after some back and forth, the juror said that he wasn't sure what he'd do, since the hypothetical example seemed extreme (by design). The defense continued to object to the line of questioning until the prosecutor finished. Then the defense attorney began his questions. Not directed at anyone in particular, he first began with a speech that seemed to go on and on, almost like an opening argument, to which the prosecutor objected. He finally got to his question, "Would the triggering crime of a sexual offense make anyone here feel like they couldn't perform impartially in this trial?" No one answered, and with that, the defense ended his voir dire. In general, I found this part of the experience distasteful, with both sides almost trying the case itself before the actual trial had even begun. Maybe that's just how its done. Next, the judge held a sidebar with the attorneys, and then he introduced the process of peremptory challenges. After four challenges, I was moved to seat 8, and then after another couple of turns, the prosecution asked the court to thank and dismiss me.
That's it. I'm a bit disappointed, since it seems like I could have served in a relatively short trial and had the experience of civic duty. In a way, I did perform my duty, even if I wasn't kept on. Maybe next time. |
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Jury Duty, part 4 We're thru the first part of jury selection, having dismissed several people, and now we're on lunch break. The story so far... About 90 of us were called into Department 21, a courtroom divided in two by a thick glass and wire-mesh wall. Roll call was performed by a clerk (?), and then the Judge entered the room and took over. He introduced himself and then let the prosecutor and defense introduce themselves. Next he gave a speech about civic duty. Then the first pool of 23 jurors were called forward from a randomly ordered list. My name was called for seat 16. The judge then asked a series of questions to qualify us for jury duty. Are we citizens of the city and county of San Francisco? Do we have a working knowledge of the english language? The trial is expected to be short, a few days, and perhaps at most into the first part of next week. Given that most people already have many responsibilities in their daily lives, are there any extreme hardships within the pool. Next, the judge asked the prosecutor and defense to reintroduce themselves. Do any of you know these people, or any of the potential witnesses in the case? Then, the judge explained the nature of the case (which I won't discuss just yet), and then asked us a series of questions about that. Some jurors answered questions across the room, others asked to approach the bench and confer with the judge and the attorneys in private. At one point, the judge was asking a juror about her previous experience as a juror on a civil trial, "Do you remember what the nature of the trial was about?" After a pause, the juror answered, "Money" which got a good laugh throughout the room. The judge agreed, "Civil cases tend to be that way." Some jurors were dismissed along this process (e.g. language issues, difficulties with the subject matter), and their seats filled by continuing down the randomly ordered list. Finally, each juror was asked for information, such as name, spouse, children's ages, occupations, and previous jury experience. With the first part of jury selection completed, the judge conferred with the attorneys (who mumbled something about jury challenges) then announced our lunch break. I must admit that I've been interested in jury duty for some time. There is never a good time for it (at least not until I bank my first $1M), but now is as good a time as any. I can certainly afford the week off, if needed, and I think the experience so far has been extremely interesting.
In terms of order, my chances of being on the jury seem good. At seat 16, only two jurors need be excused before I'm an alternate, and only 2 more to be in the jury itself. Given the case, I'm not sure where I fit on each sides' ideal jury profile. |
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Jury Duty, part 3 There's a woman at the front of the room explaining the procedures. One Day/One Trial, but there's a bunch of "loop holes". They send out over 4000 summons every week. It's completely random, and there's a good chance that my name will be pulled again within the next 12 months. There's pay, $17? They also offer certificate of attendance, for workers who compensate. Today there are 2 courts, and one of them is ready. She's about to return with "the list"! ...
... and I'm being called in! |
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Holosonics audio projector Yummy!
10:33:02 AM  trackback []
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NBC Embraces Advertainment Breaks This could be cool. Paulette will hate it! ;-) NBC will experiment with mini movies this fall -- one to eight minute short films -- spliced among their ad breaks to keep viewers tuned in during the commercials. NYT reports. Rick Bruner comments. [this is a summary - go to our web site for the complete entry, links, comments and categories] [Up2Speed] 10:21:15 AM trackback []
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Jury Duty, part 2 Let me describe the building a bit. It looks like a relic from an early Dirty Harry movie. For instance, there are classic, inset phone booths in the hallway, but the phones have all been ripped out. There's a large clock along one wall, with gold numbers and dial. It reads 4 minutes to 5. There are makeshift signs taped all over the place... at least the inkjet printer has saved us from illegible hand-scrawled messages. The outside doesn't feel so dated, but the tack-on security is so obvious, and so are its flaws. As I was walking in, I was following 3 young men in street clothes. As we entered a choke point, i think the boys hid or exchanged something, using the tall paneling around us as cover. The guard at the metal detector grunted at me, and I didn't even bother to ask what it meant. I see a sign at the front of the room... Maximum Capacity 350. On the other side of that wall is a row of windows looking, supposedly into the bureaucrats desks. Thankfully, for both them and us, the windows are draped with blinds.
Interesting design flaws are everywhere. Are they flaws because of our changing society, or where they wrong even when they built this place? |
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Jury Duty, part 1 Well, I've postponed this for as long as I reasonably could. Today I'm at the criminal courthouse at 6th & Bryant, room 307, the Jury Room. It's a rather large room with rows upon rows of seats, almost like a bus depot. Along one section of wall, there are sections of desk with electricity, which is where I'm sitting. It's about 10am, and the potential jurors are just trickling in. There are about 20 of us here, waiting. Interesting... almost 3 out of 4 people are of asian heritage, is that representative of the population? Having the wall-mounted electrical plug is nice, now we just need some WiFi in here to make civic duty a breeze!
Update: many more people showed up closer to the 10:30 deadline. |
Last update: 9/4/03; 10:43:19 .
