« UPDATE: Vegas, baby, Vegas | Main | You put the balm on? Who told you to put the balm on? I didn’t tell you to put the balm on. Why’d you put the balm on? »
A court-ordered time-out…
A Detroit man was called for jury duty in January and ended up sitting on a grand jury. After three days on the grand jury, he asked to be excused, listing a variety of reasons in support of his request: (i) that he believed violence and crimes are more likely caused by minorities than whites; (ii) that he had no respect for law enforcement or the judicial process; and (iii) that he believed the expected six month jury assignment would leave him bankrupt. The court was not pleased by this and, instead of finding the man in contempt, fining him or imprisoning him, it came it up with a rather more creative sanction. So on February 14, the court ordered the man to appear at the courthouse three times every other week, and to spend the entirety of those days sitting on a first-floor court bench, without being entitled to any juror pay or mileage reimbursement that he would have gotten in his role as an active juror. After almost three months, the court has now ended the punishment, believing its purpose has been served.
This reminds me of a story I heard about from the L.A. courts a few years back. During a criminal case voire dire (the period when potential jurors are questioned to determine whether they are going to be dismissed or made part of the jury), one potential juror insisted that he could not be unbiased because he essentially believed the LAPD were unreliable crooks. The judge pushed the man on this issue, and the man insisted that he could not be unbiased in any criminal action because of this belief. Smelling that the man was simply trying to get out of jury duty, the court informed him that he was being relieved from the criminal courthouse but not being relieved from jury duty. The judge went on to explain that the civil courthouse was right across the street and that the man was being ordered to leave the courtroom and immediately report to the civil courts to fulfill his jury duty obligation, since his “bias” against the police would not come into play in just about any civil case. The man was also admonished that the judge knew everyone in that courthouse and would be checking up on him.
The moral of these stories? If you get called for jury duty, be a good citizen and just do the damn time.
