Not Fit for Duty

Despite
being registered to vote since the day we turned 18 and fifty years
of felony-free citizenship in this great country, the Dowbrigade has
never been called to Jury Duty.  Not once. Our dissolute teenage
son has been called.  Dogs get called to Jury Duty. As the recent
acquittal of Joseph Cousin for the murder of 10-year old Trina Persad
because five of the jurors lied about their criminal backgrounds shows,
many people with real criminal records get called.  But  not
us.

Personally, we believe that the FBI or the Department
of Justice maintain a secret list of people judged, through incidental
contacts
with authority in one of its many manifestations, as just too buck
wild loco to be entrusted with this sacred civic responsibility. A
threat to the continued functioning of the criminal justice system,
and therefore best kept as far from courtrooms as possible.  Actually,
we wouldn’t have it any other way.  Like comments on our postings,
Jury Duty is something only someone denied
it would
seriously desire.
Or someone
with
a
passing
interest
in the law,
like a Supreme Court Justice…

BOSTON (Reuters) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen
Breyer reported for jury duty this week in Massachusetts, where he is
a part-time resident, but was not picked for a trial.

Breyer, one of nine justices on the U.S. high court in Washington, walked
into the Marlborough, Massachusetts district court house on Tuesday unnoticed,
officials said.

Even the Marlborough court’s presiding justice, Thomas Sullivan, didn’t
recognize the tall and balding Breyer before discovering his name on
a list of potential jurors, one court official said.

Despite, or perhaps because of, his credentials, Breyer was not chosen
for a case. He was called to sit on one jury, but a defense attorney
had Breyer excused from the panel.

Breyer, who owns a home in Massachusetts and studied and taught law
at Harvard University, said through a Supreme Court spokeswoman he
did not
view the day of jury duty as a burden. "Jury duty is an important
civic duty because juries decide guilt or innocence," spokeswoman
Kathy Arberg quoted him as saying.

from Reuters