phiz and fizzle
A time to slack, and a time to post.
Evidently I have not been posting in my blog lately. There has certainly been plenty on mind to warrant posting, but I've lacked the discipline to put my thoughts to screen.
Yesterday I was discharged from jury duty, a month long murder trial. I was a superfluous alternate, which means I was not obliged to cast a verdict. I didn't miss much, though, because deliberations were very brief.
The unanimous verdict was first degree murder, with special circumstances. In our county, that will doubtless mean a life sentence without possibility of parole. They don't go for the death penalty around here. My verdict would have been the same. The evidence was, as they say, overwhelming.
After it was over, I was relieved of a burden I had become inured to, so the relief was kind of a surprise. I and several other jurors had a chance to talk about the case with the judge afterwards, something I also didn't expect. It was an interesting and enlightening experience. The case was very sad.
I decided to write about my experience. The first thing I did was think back on all the other jurors. I identified them by impressions they had made on me. I could account for all but one of them. The local newspaper gave the gender breakdown of the jury. By the process of elimination it indicated that the elusive juror was female.
I spent most of the afternoon yesterday trying to remember who was missing. As I walked around downtown, I looked at a variety of women's faces, hoping that one might trigger the face of the person. It drove me crazy, because every other juror's face was vivid in my mind. I thought about it all night, and still came up with nothing.
When I woke up this morning, the face of the missing juror just popped into my head. It was a man whom I had never spoken to or heard speak during the past few weeks. The Sentinel had gotten the gender make-up of the jury wrong. (Aside from this and other little details, I thought the coverage was pretty accurate, much to my surprise.)
Unfortunately, this side trip fixation derailed me from writing about more substantive aspects of my experience.
Maybe later.
Evidently I have not been posting in my blog lately. There has certainly been plenty on mind to warrant posting, but I've lacked the discipline to put my thoughts to screen.
Yesterday I was discharged from jury duty, a month long murder trial. I was a superfluous alternate, which means I was not obliged to cast a verdict. I didn't miss much, though, because deliberations were very brief.
The unanimous verdict was first degree murder, with special circumstances. In our county, that will doubtless mean a life sentence without possibility of parole. They don't go for the death penalty around here. My verdict would have been the same. The evidence was, as they say, overwhelming.
After it was over, I was relieved of a burden I had become inured to, so the relief was kind of a surprise. I and several other jurors had a chance to talk about the case with the judge afterwards, something I also didn't expect. It was an interesting and enlightening experience. The case was very sad.
I decided to write about my experience. The first thing I did was think back on all the other jurors. I identified them by impressions they had made on me. I could account for all but one of them. The local newspaper gave the gender breakdown of the jury. By the process of elimination it indicated that the elusive juror was female.
I spent most of the afternoon yesterday trying to remember who was missing. As I walked around downtown, I looked at a variety of women's faces, hoping that one might trigger the face of the person. It drove me crazy, because every other juror's face was vivid in my mind. I thought about it all night, and still came up with nothing.
When I woke up this morning, the face of the missing juror just popped into my head. It was a man whom I had never spoken to or heard speak during the past few weeks. The Sentinel had gotten the gender make-up of the jury wrong. (Aside from this and other little details, I thought the coverage was pretty accurate, much to my surprise.)
Unfortunately, this side trip fixation derailed me from writing about more substantive aspects of my experience.
Maybe later.
- Specimens from a bygone playlist...
- Les Collines D'Anacapri─Martin Jones, piano─Debussy Complete Piano Works
- White Rabbit─George Benson─The George Benson Collection
- Stay (Live, long version)─Jackson Browne
- Piece of My Heart─Janus Joplin
- Palestrina: Motets: Super flumina Babylonis; Exsultate Deo; Sicut cervus; O Bone Jesu, exaudi me─
Christ Church Cathedral Choir; Stephen Darlington, conductor─Palestrina: Mass for Pentecost and Motets - Man of Constant Sorrow─Soggy Bottom Boys
- Borderline─Camper Van Beethoven─Key Lime Pie
- Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes─Paul Simon
- Let's Get Away from It─Fred Sokolow, voice and guitar─Jazz Guitar
- Ten movies I just saw...
- Firecreek (1968)
- The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
- Hook (1991)
- Jumanji (1995)
- Take the Money and Run (1969)
- Love Actually (2003)
- Finding Neverland (2004)
- Harvey (1950)
- One Fine Day (1996)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
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