My dad, after his retirement from the post office, would bring up jury duty occasionally as I came to visit. He was always hopeful he'd end up on the list and be pulling a couple times a year of jury duty. As far as I know......his name never came up. That's the deal with most retired guys......all their life, they've been too busy or wound-up on real work, and now....they got time for such curious episodes.
My brother pointed out to me once....when you get called up for such duty.....they ask you some questions. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys hate smart guys.....especially engineer-types....on the jury. These are the guys who ask stupid questions why fact #12 conflicts entirely with fact #22, so logically, neither can be true.
From what I've read.....housewives are always the better pick, because they don't think too much over facts.
Today, I was glancing through the seventy-odd news sources I go to each day, and came to this one odd story about this nutcase shooter guy from Aurora (the theater shooter, Holmes). Case is ready for a jury to sit and hear it.
So, here's one candidate for the jury....who kinda went nuts as they asked some general questions....falling to the floor and pulling a heaping amount of her hair out. The judge kinda waved for some deputy to escort her out. I'm guessing the mental health unit in town got called and she might be sitting there for a long while.
Meanwhile.....jury selection continued. One of the guys pulled for questions....showed some indications of being doped up (it is legal to smoke weed in Colorado)....so there's not much that the judge can say....except to dismiss the guy.
In years to come, it might be hard to find twelve jury members who stay pure for eight hours a day....without any weed.
The judge went through some other guys.....noting two of them were fairly intoxicated and dismissed them. One reporter noted a sick person in the group who either fainted or felt ill....causing an ambulance to come....to tote them off.
I'm guessing the judge is sitting there tonight.....thinking of the mess of getting a semi-cohesive jury in place and hope they can do the job. But, just getting a dozen folks and a few sprares....who appear sane and able to handle day-to-day stress....might be near impossible to achieve.
