26 January 2007

Vindication

I shoulda never posted an entry - now I keep getting drawn back in. I swear blogging is as addictive as crack.

Anyway, Monday I had a jury trial. During jury selection my first three peremptory strikes were pretty easy. Two had been previously represented by the defense attorney and one was just an absolute disaster who looked like she might actually appear on the docket as a defendant herself any day now. But I really didn't have any solid reason to pick anyone for the fourth strike. So I sit there and look over the jury pool. There's something about juror number 18 which bugs me. I can't figure it out and I dang sure couldn't verbalize why but I don't feel like he'll be a good juror. Still, I like to have solid reasons for striking someone so I look around at the other jurors and try to find someone, anyone whom I believe I have some reason to strike. I can't find anyone so I semi-reluctantly strike juror 18.

On Wednesday I'm in court again and the judge and I are discussing the case. Suddenly the deputy pipes up: "Judge, I think we're going to have to excuse a member of the jury pool from future service. I saw him getting arrested yesterday by the State Police." Which juror was it? Number 18.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great read! Thanks for stopping by my blog as well!!!

I may have to post a couple of "jury trial" stories on my blog. They can at minimum be entertaining to those of us that participate.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Ken- I prefer knowing the opposition's views, so I welcome your return to blogging.

I've re-added you to my Underdog blogroll now that you're back. As to your recent mention of the software indicating the number of daily visits to your blog, I wonder whether site stats software undercounts visits sometimes. Moroever, each blog entry gets stored in google to be picked up later by potential new readers and by future people to be influenced by(or opposed to, as the case may be) to your comments. Welcome back. Jon
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Jon Katz
Criminal Defense Lawyer for MD, DC & VA
MARKS & KATZ, LLC
Silver Spring, MD 20910, (301) 495-4300
Underdog Blog: http://www.markskatz.com/JusticeBlog

Anonymous said...

I guess after years of working with criminals you can spot one in the making

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you are headed back in the right "Direction."