Jury Duty

As a farewell to 2008, I received a summons for Jury Duty for the second time in 2008, and third time in six years.

That seems a bit excessive, to be perfectly honest, but I am pleased to perform my civic duties.

My first summons resulted in my being placed on a case at the Forest Hills courthouse in Jamaica Plain. It lasted two days. What I thought was a cut-and-dry drug-dealer-caught-red-handed resulted in an acquittal. To my surprise, while in chambers, the rest of the jury determined that the DA had not proven without reasonable doubt that the drugs were in the possession of the individual charged.

While the evidence was pretty obvious that this guy was guilty, they were right. Being the lone holdout to that point, I begrudgingly changed my vote to "not guilty," now matching the rest of the jury and acquitting this thug of his accusal.

The judge met us in chambers afterward, courteously thanking us for our participation and finally being able to comment about the case. She told us that our decision, while quite difficult, was most likely the right one, and that we might be comforted to know that the heretofore defendant was to be tried for similar charges twice more. In other words, perhaps he'd be put away after one of those trials.

My second jury duty summons resulted in a follow-up note relieving me of my duty a few weeks before the scheduled date. I guess there weren't many criminals awaiting trial in Boston earlier in the year.

Now, here we are again. Jury Duty once more. They picked an inopportune date - one where I'll be in Iceland. But, they allow jurors to postpone the service date once with no questions asked, so I replied with an alternate date.

I suppose it's odd that I'm looking forward to serving on a jury once again. But I'm a pretty atypical guy. I can't wait!

Pleasure in the Misery of Others

Why was I so smugly satisfied when I saw some dude sprinting down the street at 8:30am in business attire, clearly about to head to work?

He was running toward his car.

His car, resplendent with orange warning sticker-of-seizure as issued by the City of Boston, was attached to a tow truck, and being removed from a residential parking spot where it sat between two other parked vehicles.

I shouldn't take pleasure in other people's misery. But sometimes it's warranted.

I don't know what he did to cause a parking official to seize his car, but am assuming it has something to do with what he hasn't done (i.e. pay his parking tickets, perhaps?) Yes, this could be an unfortunate misunderstanding for this guy.

But, while assumptions with incomplete information are dangerous, I'm going to ignore caution and assume that it's not.

Gotcha.

While my car has never been towed (knock on wood), I have received a few tickets. Not many in my time in Boston, but a few - maybe 4 or 5 in seven years. When I get a ticket, either I pay it or contest it as accordance with the rules established by City Hall.

I don't ignore parking tickets.

My Civic Duty - Cancelled

The Jury Commissioner for the Commonwealth respectfully notified me over the weekend that I will not be needed for Jury Duty on Tuesday 12/4.

While this cancellation would cause excitement for many, I'm bummed out.

I served on a case once before, about five years ago in the same court that was calling for me again - Boston Municipal Court - West Roxbury Division in Jamaica Plain. I thought everybody there was courteous and respectful toward us jurors, and I found the process interesting.

Unfortunately, the dude on trial for a drug dealing charge got off on an evidence-gathering technicality. The judge even told us in the jury room after the case that we probably made the right verdict based on the evidence presented (as obvious as his criminal behavior was), and thought we would be happy to know that he was on trial for another separate drug offense soon thereafter.

I was hoping to put somebody away this time.