Finally…after all these years, I’m going to truly be an American. I’ve been called to jury duty.:o Well, maybe not. It’s just a summons to show up, who knows if I’ll actually sit a jury.
Of course there’s the time issue. Who really has time to sit in a courtroom for more than a day or so? None of us. But we are all assured of a trial before our peers and I would hope that would include people who had some other place to be and something else to do. So, that’s not really my concern. Maybe I’ve watched too many t.v. shows (not really) or read too many post-trial interviews with jurors (more likely) or it could be the time my friend sat a jury in a child molestation case and the defendant walked with only ten years of probation (despite testimony from his 14-year old mistress) because two female jury members “just weren’t sure.” My concern is the other eleven jurors:s.
The closest a long-standing friend and I ever came to ending our friendship was in a discussion over O.J. Simpson’s innocence or guilt — as if that was worth ending a friendship over. We’re both fairly intelligent, well-read, and opinionated. We finally had to agree to disagree, leave the issue and never revisit it. I can’t see that tactic working out well in jury deliberations.
