[Chat] jury duty; Mayor's Spring Cleaning

[Emil Volcheck]

Hello, folks,

I have two things to chat about.

Yesterday, I had jury duty.  I didn't get picked to serve on a jury,
but the selection process lasted so long, that I didn't get out until
nearly 8 PM!  Boy, Judge Prevas was determined to get his jury seated
before trial Monday.

So it was an attempted murder charge, with three defendants.  Three
defendants means three lawyers, each with their own set of peremptory
challenges.  I was sitting in the quiet room when my number came up at
about a quarter to 4.  They called about 150 from the pool over to the
East building.  I think they knew this was going to be tricky.  There
were all kinds of questions that they asked the jurors, including
knowing any of the defendants or officers involved, being in the
vicinity of the incident at that time, knowledge of firearms, and
connection to any agencies with connections to law enforcement.  My
employer, the NSA, was on that list.  Going through all these
questions took an hour or two.  Then they began voir dire.  The three
defense attorneys had to consult amongst themselves for every juror,
and they were rationing their challenges among themselves.
Frequently, one of them said, "We beg the Court's indulgence" or just
"Court's indulgence" while they conferred.  The defendants were young
black males, and the Assistant State's Attorney seemed to challenge
young black male jury candidates.  This happened a few times, and when
the ASA did it again, the defense attorneys almost at once called for
a sidebar with the judge.  He knew exactly what it was about and
immediately responded "The pattern is not yet evident."

Well, the 12 jurors were finally seated at 7 PM.  Then Judge Prevas
said "Counsellors, previously you had requested a sidebar.  If you
would like to raise that issue, you may do so now."  The sidebar
lasted over half an hour, with the judge repeatedly calling for law
books.  "Mr. Clerk, please bring me 285 Maryland."  "Mr. Clerk, please
bring me 384 Maryland."  When that was over, the proceeded to select
alternates.  We wrapped up about 7:45 PM.  I was about one of 10
jurors left waiting.

By then, all the doors had been locked.  The sheriffs let us out the
basement.  For all the strict security during the day, I was really
surprised when he told me to head out through the loading dock.  Boy,
they have about as much paper down there as a Staples.  Then I went
back to claim a pocket knife that I had checked at the door that
morning.  Well, it turns out that they had moved all the personal
belongings of jurors to another room on the 4th floor of the Mitchell
building.  The sheriff returned my knife and nail file and let me find
my way out.  So there I was, with the knife in my pocket, walking
through the courthouse.  Oh, well, they figured I was honest, and I
wouldn't leave the knife somewhere.

That was a long day of jury duty, for not having been picked.

So I helped out at the Mayor's clean-up today, the Super Spring Sweep
Thing.  I spent about 2 hours helping clear a lot that had piles of
trash dumped on it.  The biggest organizational problem I saw was that
dumpsters were scarce.  Nobody thought to order a dumpster for this
location, so we had to transport the junk.  That was a pain, because
dumpsters were scarce and filled up fast.  The Abell dumpster was the
closest, and that filled by 2:20 PM.  The CVCBD dumpster filled by
around 3 PM.  Sisson Street had added dumpsters, so that worked out.
At one point when we were planning a trip to Sisson St., somebody said
that we need a city resident to get the free dumping.  I was
astonished -- most of the people helping to clean up were not city
residents.  Liz, the Americorps/VISTA volunteer from the CVCBD, lives
in the County.  So did another woman.  She works nearby but lives in
the County.  There were a bunch of students helping, but they were
here for a religious retreat, not local.  Three of the helpers were
from Delaware!  Peter Duvall and I were about the only city residents
helping there.  Amazing.

--Emil

-- 
Emil Volcheck
volcheck at acm.org
http://acm.org/~volcheck