Oh bugger.I've been called to be a juror at the local High Court. As you might imagine, I'm delighted by this. Joy unabounden. The prospect of having to spend days 0n end jammed in a courtroom listening to the grim details of some sordid crime fills me with the same sort of glee as paying a large bill or queueing - it's an irritation and yet I know it's something I have to do as a " good citizen".
It's not my first bout of jury duty either - I was called to the courts in Norwich during a long vacation at Uni. Then, I was terrified of the ordeal, imagining untold bloody horrors or worse - a re-enactment of scenes from Rumpole of the Bailey. In the end it was grim, but nowhere near as grim as I'd feared (in fact the worst bit was being holed up all day with my fellow jurors - I remember getting incensed at some random bloke's discussion of Star Trek:Voyager as being "that series with the 'ranga* woman and the sooty Vulcan" - the casual racism was the bit that did for me. And the dismissive sexism I was met with - being told I was being a silly little girl and to let the men speak - when I attempted to challenge him on it pretty much confirmed my worst fears of the jury system: the people who make decisions in juries just aren't equipped for the job of being dispassionate, disinterested and just. It's a miracle of the legal system that justice is ever done...)
Anyhow, it's not for a couple of weeks, but I thought I'd get my grump in early. I'm just hoping that even if I get called as a juror, I don't actually get picked to serve on a jury. (Of course, I will get picked - it's sod's law and one to which I am often susceptible. Grr...)
* 'ranga= orangutan- late 80's/ early 90's slang for person with red hair.
3 comments:
I've done that! Or, I was called; I wasn't picked for a jury. One case (at the High Court), the defendants agreed to change their plea at the last minute, in return for a word being deleted from the accusation. In another (at the Sheriff Court opposite the museum) I just didn't get picked. In the third - which was a High Court case but not in the normal High Court building, it was down a long corridor in the old parliament now Supreme Court building next to St Giles - the prosecution kept asking for the trial to be delayed, one day at a time, as they were having trouble persuading their witnesses to turn up. In the end the judge got so bored of it that he said we could all go home.
Er....
I have never served on a jury but fancy the experience!
Though I hear it can involve a lot of hanging around too.
Maybe you could get a good book read in-between?
Forgot to say! I escaped jury duty! I wrote a letter and have been relieved of duties. Hurrah!
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