Free At Last

Today marked the end of my civil service as Jury Duty came to a close after 4 very long weeks. On paper, it sucks, but actually, in the end, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. I was on Grand Jury, which is about indicting people, not about determining guilt or innoncence. Therefore, I heard many cases, over 60 actually, throughout the term, some of which were extremely interesting (and you may have read about in the papers), others not so. We only had one true nasty case, which was towards the end and scared the living fuck out of me, but it could have been a lot worse. Our jury, consisting of 23 people from all walks of life here in this wonderful city that I live in, were very nice people and we all got along very well. During the strike, a lot of juries were combined to make up for the lack of jurors and I was disappointed by the folks on the other juries. After that, our jury was a much tighter and appreciative unit. Slower moments or midday breaks were often entertaining (at least not boring) and while I don't think I will ever see any of these people again, the experience was interesting.

I learned a lot of cool things about the law and I again find myself increasingly fascinated by the legal process (in various areas) which has been a minor hobby for the last 10 years. While I doubt I could have survived law school in any way shape or form, I continually find myself engaged by the law and how it works. Early in the term, when we were dealing with what are considered to be lighter cases, I daydreamed about life as a DA or a cop of some kind, but once the serious shit kicked in and I saw the other side of that world, I quickly said fuck no. I was shocked by the amount of crime that goes on around us (that we don't even know about), but equally impressed by our city's law enforcers and their skill at protecting us. We have an excellent police department here that works hard and responds fast to help their citizens. Top Notch.

While I am in no rush to do it again, and am exempt from serving till the year 2013 (or 2014, I'm not sure), I would hope that if I have to do it again, it would be on the Grand Jury.

F