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Pain and Criminal Procedures
Sep. 20th, 2005 09:56 amLaying in bed last night I was acutely aware of my muscles aching from spending part of sunday moving small boulders. Pretty much everything from my chest to my knees on the front of my body was sore. Only thing aching this morning is my lower back, but not too bad, the bad is that my mobility is limited while my extended groin recovers. Trying to squat down to fill the doggy food bowls just was not going to happen. It's satisfying in some sense, because those are exactly the muscles I really need to strengthen, but frustrating because while they are refactoring they aren't much use. Getting out of a chair I hobble for a few feet until they warm up and start functioning more normally.
I did not get selected for the jury yesterday. I'm not too disturbed by that (though it would be nice to have some time out of the office), it looked like a difficult case from what I could determine during voi dire. It was a murder trial, the defendant was a young hispanic, the victim was a child in her care who died from being scalded by hot water and then not getting prompt medical care.
I missed the first hour of selection because I forgot about it and did my standard monday morning routine. They presented the some of the definitions of the case and asked the group of 60 of us if we felt we could be able to render judgement on those grounds. Asked if any of us had had negative experience with cops or violent crime. If someone did they raised their hand and were asked them to describe the details of the event. They gave a list of names of principals & witnesses in the case and asked if anyone knew them. Then they went through and asked us each in turn if we though punishment, deterrance, or rehabilitation was the most important part of criminal justice. Then the defense team asked us some questions including who amoung us had been to central america and who had spent more than 10 hours without being able to pee.
She had two lawyers, one a fat middle aged guy who seemed utterly clueless. If he had been my lawyer I would be very scared. The other, a young woman seemed definately on top of things and intelligent, objecting when the wording of the counts the prosecution presented were subtly off what they had agreed on earlier. But she didn't seem to be the primary counsel.
One thing that was potentially wrenching is that through the process of jury selection we all sat in the audience area and the lawers sat on the opposite side of the table they usually do, so we got to spend most of the day watching this woman cry and look miserable. Regardless of her guilt or innocence it's draining to just sit and watch someone cry.
Found a news story about it:
http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/news/stories/09/20mejia.html
And yeah I am just as happy not to have had to look at pictures of dead burned baby.
I did not get selected for the jury yesterday. I'm not too disturbed by that (though it would be nice to have some time out of the office), it looked like a difficult case from what I could determine during voi dire. It was a murder trial, the defendant was a young hispanic, the victim was a child in her care who died from being scalded by hot water and then not getting prompt medical care.
I missed the first hour of selection because I forgot about it and did my standard monday morning routine. They presented the some of the definitions of the case and asked the group of 60 of us if we felt we could be able to render judgement on those grounds. Asked if any of us had had negative experience with cops or violent crime. If someone did they raised their hand and were asked them to describe the details of the event. They gave a list of names of principals & witnesses in the case and asked if anyone knew them. Then they went through and asked us each in turn if we though punishment, deterrance, or rehabilitation was the most important part of criminal justice. Then the defense team asked us some questions including who amoung us had been to central america and who had spent more than 10 hours without being able to pee.
She had two lawyers, one a fat middle aged guy who seemed utterly clueless. If he had been my lawyer I would be very scared. The other, a young woman seemed definately on top of things and intelligent, objecting when the wording of the counts the prosecution presented were subtly off what they had agreed on earlier. But she didn't seem to be the primary counsel.
One thing that was potentially wrenching is that through the process of jury selection we all sat in the audience area and the lawers sat on the opposite side of the table they usually do, so we got to spend most of the day watching this woman cry and look miserable. Regardless of her guilt or innocence it's draining to just sit and watch someone cry.
Found a news story about it:
http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/news/stories/09/20mejia.html
And yeah I am just as happy not to have had to look at pictures of dead burned baby.
