Jury Duty

Glad to report that I didn’t forget about jury duty this week. I’d hate to have an outstanding bench warrant against me.<br />n<br />nTurns out, I had to report to the Hall of Justice (they really call court houses that in real life?!?) at 1PM today. After waiting in the Jury Assembly Room for about 90 minutes, my panel got called into Department 42, with the honorable (they say) <a href=”http://www.sccsuperiorcourt.org/contact/contacts_hoj.htm#Hall%20of%20Justice%20-%20West%20Departments,%20Clerks%20and%20Reporters%20phone%20numbers” title=”chatman”>judge Chatman</a> presiding. She turned out to be ok, other than her effort to scare us with jail time if we were to disobey any of her admonitions (court orders), such as being late the next morning or talking to a lawyer in the case.<br />n<br />nI can’t talk about the case at all right now (unless I wanted to go to jail), but what I learned on the superior court web site was that at the <a href=”http://www.sccsuperiorcourt.org/contact/contacts_hoj.htm” title=”hall of justice”>hall of justice, they hear criminal cases</a>, not civil cases.<br />n<br />nOnce in the court room, we sat through some jury selection. I wasn’t selected as any of the original 18, and I hope not to be again tomorrow, where I need to show up at 9AM. If I do, I’ll just have to let these people know how I really feel about the power of the state, and especially of its more visible manifestations.