Back in February, I received my summons for jury duty service for the criminal division of the San Francisco Superior Court. Two years ago, also in February, my summons was for the civil division of the Court. Each time, I asked to reschedule my service to the week of my Spring Break.
Two years ago, I was nearly selected to be the second alternate in a seven-week asbestos trial. Avoided that one by the skin of my teeth because I was the third to last person in the jury pool and who knows what might have happened had they needed more people. The selection process lasted all of two days.
This time, I wasn’t called in on Monday or Tuesday, but my scheduled appearance time was 1PM on Wednesday. This first court appearance was logistical. Who qualified for hardship dismissals and filling out a small questionnaire. I was there for an hour.
Thursday’s adjournment was at 1030AM. The judge is a very nice grandfatherly looking man. He spent some time explaining the process and then stated what the charges were against the defendants. I am not at liberty to say what the case is yet, but let’s just say that everyone will be doing their best to NOT get on this jury. It’s planned for five weeks.
Usually, the district attorney questions the 26 jurors in the hot seats and then the defendant’s lawyer does the same thing. This is a tedious and time-consuming process. In this case, there are two defendants and each has their own attorney, so we must listen to questions three times instead of two. We had a full day of questioning jurors on Thursday. We adjourned on Friday again at 1030AM but were let out for the afternoon at 1230PM. We were told to return on Monday at 10AM. At this point, I went to the court clerk and asked whether or not I would be able to reschedule my service until June, when school was out. She said that it wasn’t possible. I asked what would happen if I simply didn’t show. The clerk said that the judge could issue a warrant. So, I told her that I would be there on Monday, but I wouldn’t be happy about it.
What are some of my observations? Well, the theme of personal responsibility kept coming up in questioning. I’m glad that they are visiting a topic that I harp on constantly in my job. I also notice that there is a preponderance of single people. Yes, a great many single people may inhabit SF but the proportions can’t be this out of whack. Where are all the married Caucasians?
Lastly, I learned that there is a different burden of proof between civil and criminal. In civil, the burden is a preponderance of evidence, but in criminal the burden is beyond a reasonable doubt. Interesting.
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