So this week I was summoned for jury duty. Like most Americans I was not super duper excited about spending a week in limbo wondering if I had to go to the courthouse or not...
Today I got called in! So I took the Presidigo downtown, then took a cab over to the Hall of Justice on Bryant beteween 6th and 7th Street... I had initially intented to walk from 1 Market to Bryant, but Sam said "no, that's a sketchy part of town" so I just took a cab.
Once past the airport like security scan, I mozied up to the jury waiting room...where I waited - ha! Until they called my name and I had to mozie over to room 29...there I actually became juror #1 for the initial interview pool! The case was a criminal assault case where the defendant is a homeless man who doesn't speak and the plaintiff is a recent elderly immigrant who speaks no English and runs a newspaper stand in chinatown.
They asked a bunch of questions like "how do you feel about homeless people?" and "how do you feel about people who don't speak english?" and "Have you or someone you know been involved in (in any way) with a violent crime)
I didn't respond to any really except the non english speaker one because they asked if anyone had ever played the role of translator and what that was like... I said I have always done that for my parents and it was overall fine...but in the past adults didn't really like conversing with a child about "adult" or "business" matters. I totally forgot to mention that my mom had been mugged about 7 years ago and that I felt the police department was all too lax in her plight but hey...there's a lotta crime out there and some lady's stolen purse isn't that high on the radar.
Anyhoos...the defense used one of their "challenges" to excuse me (truth be told, I can't help but feel offended at the rejection) and I was able to leave, having served my civic duty.
Not nearly as riveting as watching Law & Order on TV....but still pretty interesting.
1 comment:
OMG, I loved jury duty.
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