justice?

part I of a true story about being on a jury late last winter

i got to the courthouse a little after 7 am on thursday morning and the sheriff's deputy at the security desk questioned my being there for jury duty. "that's on monday morning." well...no...they split the jury pool and told us to report on thursday. so she went and asked her supervisor who told her to let me go in so she ran me through the metal detector and gave me directions. of course no-one else was there yet so i plopped down on one of those damned hard wooden benches that institutions provide so you'll know your are in the presence of power and don't get too fucking comfortable or it'll be too bad for you... i slouched down and glared at passers-by to pass the time...other moaning prospective jurors began to trickle in and by about ten to eight there were quite a few...something over thirty...i never got an accurate count...at eight they took us into the courtroom to begin filling out paperwork in triplicate one for the judge one for the defense and one for the prosecution...a bit of overheard conversation between the harshly blond bailiff and a civillian trying not to be a juror established that the jury pool had been split because a jury trial in this court was a rarity...in fact this was the first one this year..."after all you don't usualy have a jury trial in a misdemenaor court"...that got my attention...a jury trial in a misdemeanor dcourt? why?...after the paperwork was done we saw a piece of propaganda about the inalienable right to a jury trial...high school civics in action...that killed another twenty minutes...then we waited..a bit after nine the prosecutors the defendant and the defense lawyer strolled in...once they were seated the judge came in and began the process of empanelment...it was to be a six person jury with an alternate so they called the first seven victims up and started asking questions like "do you own a pet or any handguns?" and "are you a member of an animal rights organization?" and "are you a vegetarian?"...there must have been a purpose for that juxtaposition of questions...people did their damndest to get out of that jury...radical peta members were crawling out of the cheap woodwork along with die-hard hunters and voracious meat eaters...the prosecution dismissed a doctor with two goldfish and the defense got rid of four animal rights extremists...two of the first seven remained in the box and five more went in...all sorts of questions..."have you or a member of your family or a close personal friend ever been the victim of a crime?" "have you or a family member or a close personal friend ever been charged with and convicted of a crime including driving under the influence?" four of those five were dismissed...i was in the next four to go up and try as i might to rant about the bias towards wealth of the system i somehow remained in the box when only one of my group were dismissed...stupidly i had given one of the prosecutors an acceptably cogent definition of reasonable doubt...my theatrics ripped jeans and abbie hoffman tee shirt were useless after that...the next woman up was chosen as an alternante and at ten forty-five the judge announced "we have a panel" and we adjourned for lunch until one thirty...this set the pattern for the entire trial which experienced more down time than court time...lunch was free but the catch ( aside form the jury business) was we had to eat at the courthouse cafeteria...i always feel threatened by institutional food and for good reason...the antibiotics i was taking for my mangled hand ( industrial accident removed a portion of my left index finger) were already causing some gastric discomfiture...the courthouse food rendered it into full blown distress...we were pinned with huge orange buttons that said JUROR in large black block letters and they turned us into instant pariahs...people fell over themselves avoiding us as we walked down the hallways...quickly cutting corners...hugging the walls...ducking into restrooms...no-one wanted to be accused of jury tampering...which in itself is odd...it's lake county indiana after all and jury rigging is a hallowed tradition amongst the legal fratenity dating back to the time when the governor of indiana offered the county to illinois at a fire sale price (which was refused at which the governor simply wished the damned palce would slide off into the lake)...after we filled our trays the bailiff led us down to an empty table near the back of the cafeteria...as we were about to sit down he pointed to the enclosed smoking area and asked "do any of you smoke?" before we could answer he looked directly at me and said "i mean cigarettes...you guys with your marijuana charges...if they ever legalize it or if i retire i'm gonna try it just to see what it's all about." i was stunned into silence...it was turning weird...and it was only a foretaste