I have been rejected for jury duty over the years

 because I am pretty much a fully informed juror. Not only as a juror will I look at the guilt or innocence of the defender, I will also determining if the law applies in the situation.

An example of this is the case where 3 college kids give the 4th one some money to buy pot with. The kid gets caught and cries that he was doing a group buy and some over zealous  DA tries to charge all 4 of them with organized crime.

Those kids are going to walk. That's not what the organized crime statues are there for. The kid is guilty of a petty little misdemeanor, not a serious felony.

There are a lot of other things that I would let someone walk for.

I don't use racial slurs on people and I don't like seeing other people do it, either. Yet I believe it shouldn't be against the law.

On the other hand if some person of, say Italian extraction got called a greasy Wop and took exception and gave the name caller a fat lip then don't come running to the law for justice. You already GOT justice when you were given a fat lip.

I don't have time for stupidity. I look at things through the eyes of a fairly reasonable man.

While I most likely would not give the Italian gentleman a break if he carved the name caller up with a straight razor, I'd overlook a punch in the mouth. 

While I am disappointed that the system doesn't seem to want me for jury duty, I will say that if I were impaneled it had better not be for something stupid.

If you are suing the GPS company because the GPS told you to take a right and you followed it blindly and wound up in the ditch somewhere then you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting a dime from the GPS company if I'm a juror. I don't believe supporting stupidity.

Then again I am one of those people that think we ought to remove all of those dopey safety stickers from things and let the problems sort themselves out.

One of the things I see happen is someone picks a fight or does something wrong and gets their ass beat and then runs to the law. If the fight picker had left things alone he wouldn't be bothering me by making me have to listen to his sad tale of woe in the first place. 

The guy that thumped him is not only going to walk but I very well may buy him a beer afterwards. He'd get the beer if he did it with style.

While most police officers have integrity, if I get any inkling that the police are being dishonest the defendant walks immediately. While we can't afford putting criminals back on the street, police dishonesty is generally a far worse thing for society to have to deal with. A dishonest cop is a criminal in uniform.

Surprisingly enough, I tend to believe police officers over a lot of my fellow citizens. However I do check the officer's story because every now and then a halo slips and some less than saintly cop puts $hit stains on the golden letters of the oath.

For what it's worth I trust a working cop a lot more than I trust a DA. Generally if a cop is being dishonest in court he's likely convinced that the defendant is guilty and is trying (in a misguided way) to get someone bad off the streets.

If a DA is being dishonest it generally has nothing whatsoever to do with trying to make the streets safer and EVERYTHING to do with furthering a career in politics. DAs are either elected or are political appointees.

I will be the first one to admit that I look at prosecuting attorneys with a somewhat jaundiced eye because they are politicians. This is the reason I will not sit on a jury where the defendant is on trial for his life. I simply don't trust the system.

This little essay is not to be misconstrued that I am on the side of the criminal element. I'm not. I want to see justice done. If the defendant is guilty and the law applies, I'll find him guilty.

I am a believer in justice, honesty and integrity and will follow my conscience and call a case the way I see it. Judge's orders be damned. 

After all, in a jury trial the judge is only there to be a mediator, explain a few points of law and keep the trial orderly and moving along. He's the number two dog in the courtroom.

As a juror I am a member of the highest authority in the courtroom. I represent the people.

Because I know this I am considered ineligible for jury duty.


To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY