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And then the judge says

Finally my day in court, for jury selection in the sentencing hearing I posted about to two weeks ago, was upon me.

I arrived at the courthouse yesterday around 2 PM, had my parking validated, and then proceeded to the courtroom.

I thought I was going to have to wait at least an hour while everyone before me was called in and questioned. Then, when it was my turn, I would be reprimanded for wasting the court's time, by not speaking up earlier about my views on the death penalty.

Instead, too my surprise, within about 10 minutes of arriving at the courtroom, I was called in, along with 3 others, and we were all summarily dismissed. The judge thanked us for our service, even commenting about the onerousness of the questionnaire, and explaining how it is used to weed out jurors such as us.

He ended by cautioning us against talking to anyone about the case, before we left the courthouse, and then added not to blog, Twitter or Facebook about it either. He claims he surfs the net.

I smiled, thinking it's too late for that, and if he was really concerned he would have mentioned it at the time I was selected as a potential juror. Besides I don't think I've said anything here that would be compromising to the case.

So in the end it wasn't as bad as I expected. I was home within an hour of leaving, and still earned $15 + mileage for my one day of public service.
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