Your civic duty

26Sep06

I had jury duty today. It was both exciting and strange at the same time. I didn’t know what to expect but I dreaded being there because I didn’t want to be called. A good part of the morning was spent watching bad daytime tv and having to listen to people talk loudly on their cellphones because they don’t know how to use their quiet voices. And then I was allowed to go home. But not without having learned some important things about our judicial system, and how it is one way that Americans differ from “the commies”. At least that’s what this one judge was telling us, he mentioned the Cold War and hammers and I didn’t see the relevance, but I guess it makes people feel better that they’re doing something to help keep America a more civilized nation where we don’t have to use violence to control people, we can use money and the threat of jailtime.

I realized as I sat there waiting that I could never be an impartial member of a jury. And I wondered if anyone really can. I’ve seen those tv shows where they interview jurors after the trial is over, and there are always people who say immediately, “I knew he did it, I could just see it in his face.” But according to the video we watched, we aren’t supposed to base our decisions on that. But as human beings, we can’t help but do that. Does this mean that our judicial system would be better in the hands of computerized robot juries? I wonder. (Here’s where if you were watching “The Family Guy”, they would segue to a clip of a computerized robot jury and maybe some sort of musical dance number. )

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